Valentino Vago was born in Barlassina in 1931 and moved to Milan in 1958. After completing his studies at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, he was invited to exhibit at the VI Quadriennale d’Arte in Rome in 1955. His first solo exhibition took place in 1960 at the Salone Annunciata in Milan, introduced by Guido Ballo. Throughout his long artistic career, he participated in numerous solo and significant group exhibitions. Notable among these are his participations in exhibitions organized by the São Paulo Biennale, the Kunstmuseum in Cologne, the Hayward Gallery in London, the Grand Palais in Paris, as well as in museums in Frankfurt, Berlin, Hannover, and Vienna. Milan has honored him with major retrospectives, including those at the Palazzo Reale, the P.A.C., the Museo del Novecento, and the Museo Diocesano of Milan. His works are part of important private and public collections in Italy and abroad.
Since 1978, Vago consistently dedicated himself to mural painting, creating works in both public and private spaces in Italy and abroad, with many of his inhabitable works located inside churches. The first of these, at San Giulio in Barlassina, was completed in 1982, while the largest (12,000 square meters), dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary, was consecrated in 2008 in Doha, Qatar. His last mural, the twenty-first, was completed in the summer of 2016 at San Giovanni in Laterano, Milan, which Vago described as “My Paradise.”
In 2011, the Catalogo Ragionato of his works was published by Skira, with texts curated by the Scientific Committee chaired by Flavio Caroli. In 2012, for the edition of the Premio Presidente della Repubblica, the members of the Accademia di San Luca nominated Valentino Vago, who was awarded the prestigious lifetime achievement award. He became a member of the Accademia di San Luca in 2014.
In April 2018, after the artist’s passing, his sons Mario and Valerio founded the Archivio Valentino Vago association. The Scientific Committee conducts studies, expertise, and research to ensure the protection of Valentino Vago’s artistic heritage, confirming its sole and exclusive authority for the certification of the authenticity of the artist’s works. Additionally, the archive is conducting a campaign of donations and acquisitions of Valentino Vago’s works to major Italian and international museums, including the Museo del Novecento in Milan (2020) and the Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou in Paris (2022).
