Felice Ludovisi - Lagoon

Ludovisi, Felice – Painter (b. Viterbo, 27 August 1917 – Ibid., 2 April 2012). At fifteen, he moved to Rome, where he attended art high school and the Faculty of Architecture. He taught painting at several Italian academies and at the Finch College Museum of Arts in New York; he directed the academies of Foggia, Frosinone, and Rome. He made his debut in 1945 and held his first solo exhibition the following year at the Galleria San Marco. He subsequently held numerous solo exhibitions, participated in major exhibitions (the Venice Biennale and the Rome Quadriennale), and won numerous awards, beginning with the CONI Prize for the 1948 London Olympics, during which he was chosen to represent Italy at the Victoria and Albert Museum's International Painting Exhibition. He later won the Premio Acquisto at the VII Rome Quadriennale, the Medaille d'Or de l'Academie de Devoument de France, and the Gold Medal of Merit for Culture and Art, awarded to him in 1985 by the President of the Republic upon recommendation of the Minister of Education. He was also a set designer for the Rome Opera House and a sculptor; in this capacity, he created works dedicated to the Imaginary Horses of the City of the Sun. Pope John Paul II appointed him a consultant to the Pontifical Central Commission for Sacred Art; he was a member of the Accademia dei Virtuosi al Pantheon. In 1968, his hometown dedicated a major retrospective to him, which was held in the Palazzo dei Priori and later moved to the Ente Premi di Roma in the Palazzo Barberini. In 1987, his forty years of activity were documented in another retrospective, held in the Balbo apartment of the Palazzo Venezia in Rome. BIBL. – Ludovisi 1968; Ludovisi 1980; Ludovisi 1987; Ludovisi 1988 ; Felice Ludovisi . Apuleo 1990 (with bibl.); Civello 1998.