Enzo Cucchi was born in 1949 in Morro d‘Alba, a farming village in the province of Ancona in central Italy. As an autodidactic painter Cucchi won different prices already in his early years even though he was more interested in poetry at the time. He frequently visited poet Mino De Angelis, who was in charge of the magazine „Tau“. Through „La Nuova Foglio di Macerata“, a small publishing house, he met with art critic Achille Bonito Oliva, an important figure in the artist‘s prospective career. In its catalogues „La Nuova Foglio di Macerata“ published writings of artists such as Cucchi’s „Il veleno è stato sollevato e trasportato!“ in 1976. Frequent trips to Rome in the mid-seventies revived Cucchi’s interest in visual arts. He moved to Rome, temporarily abandoned poetry and dedicated himself exclusively to the visual arts. Here Cucchi met with different artists such as Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Mimmo Paladino and Nicola de Maria with whom he began to work in close contact and to establish dialectical and intellectual dialogues.Achille Bonito Oliva was the first to see this young generation of Italian artists of the seventies as a group. Since this group of artists has frequently have ehibitions as a group or as an individual artists in the Netherlands. The Groninger Museum and the Stedelijk Museum had shows during the eighties and nineties and bought several works for their collections. Together with the exhibitions some excellent catalogues were published of which some are available at www.ftn-books.com
