Born in Italy, Leonardo Cremonini (1925-2010) attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna and began exhibiting his figurative works, gaining fame in the US and France. Many prominent cultural figures championed his work such as painter Francis Bacon, writers W. H. Auden, Umberto Eco and Italo Calvino as well as the Director of MoMa who described his canvases as having a “spirit of timeless monumentality.” Retrospectives of Cremonini’s work have been held in museums in Basel, Brussels, Metz, Paris, Prague, Siena, Strasbourg, Tokyo, Monte Carlo, Grenoble, and Milan.