Antonio Diego Voci

Antonio Diego Voci
Antonio Diego Voci 1974
Born	(1920-08-10)10 August 1920 Gasperina, Calabria, Italy
Died	(1985-12-10)10 December 1985 Taunusstein, Germany
Nationality	Italian
Education	Florence Academy of Arts
Known for	Painting, Drawing, Sculpture
Notable work	Poor People, Death in Battle, La Violenza, Miraculous Catch, Bathers, Valiant Stallion (See Gallery)
Movement	Figurative art

Antonio Diego Voci (VOH-chee 1920–1985) was an internationally collected Italian figurative artist with the largest group of owners of his works residing in Switzerland, England, Germany, Italy, Canada and the US; as well as various works scattered the world over. Although constantly drawing or painting from childhood to the day he succumbed to lung cancer, Diego's most productive period was the last quarter century of his life which began when he met Helga Drössler in January 1960 in Paris. A significant turning point in Diego’s career, Diego said, "My life took on new meaning. I became more." Helga who became Diego’s wife, lover, best friend and confident, published seven chapters of her life with Diego on Artifact Collectors. Within those 25 abundant years Diego created 4000 oils, mostly on canvas, and many thousands of drawings.

"Each movement had its great masters, but there are very few who could create art unconfined by a single style like Diego." – Christopher Voci

Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, and Fauvism all experienced the hand of Diego Voci who was fascinated by the beauty and mystery of the face and figure, whether the female body nude or in ballet, or the etched lines of life’s hardships in an old man’s face, or the grace and power of the horse. Diego’s versatility was his strength. Diego not only saw and realized human frailty, the desire and longing of the human to be something more, seeking but not to find; but also he understood man’s animal instinct to overpower, offset by the object’s instinct to resist.

Antonio Diego Voci (VOH-chee), the youngest of 3 brothers was born Antonio Innocenzo Voci on 10 August 1920 in the mountainous region near Catanzaro, Italy, in the small village of Gasperina, to Giuseppantonio Voci and Arcangela Messina Voci, a Catholic family of modest means. From childhood Diego felt compelled to draw as constantly and effortlessly as he drew a breath, endowed by nature to do both. At an early age Diego took charge of his own life direction. Diego proudly boasted his independent, I’ll-do-it-myself spirit when at age eight, he carved his own religious statue when his father would not buy the one he wanted in a Rome store window. Diego was called on in school for art, design and decoration projects. By age 12 he was awarded a year scholarship to a design school. Diego proudly recalled that in his youth religious artist (1876–1935) let him help paint a church fresco. Diego studied sculpture and painting for three years at Lyce d’Art, followed by studies of Greek and Latin, as well as tailoring.