Carlo Zinelli

1916 – 1974

Image: Carlo Zinelli, courtesy of Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne.

The Italian painter Carlo Zinelli suffered severe trauma and paranoia following his experiences during the Second World War, and in 1947 he was committed by his family to a psychiatric hospital in Verona. The overcrowded and unpleasant conditions possibly made his condition worse, and were certainly reflected in his first drawings – graffiti scratched in the stone of the hospital walls. When an art studio opened at the hospital in 1957, Zinelli began to paint on a daily basis, as he would for the next 14 years, working rapidly and producing about 3,000 drawings during this period. 

Above: Carlo Zinelli, Untitled, 1964, Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne, photo by Claude Bornand.

His early paintings feature rows of almost identical human figures silhouetted against a plain background, perhaps evoking his experience of the hospital exercise yard. He also added other forms to his paintings, including boats, birds and beasts, cramming the picture space with motifs of diminishing size according to the gaps remaining. In the 1960s he began using a new technique, laying down areas of wash and adding images of figures, often in sets of four. In his later works he also added words and letters to his increasingly complex compositions. The closure of the hospital, and Zinelli’s transfer to another institution, led to the virtual cessation of his painting.

Below: Carlo Zinelli, Untitled, 1964, Collection de L'Art Brut, Lausanne.

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