Tino Zago
American, born Italy, 1937Primavera #12, 1993
Not on view
Oil on canvas
Dimensions42 × 72 in. (106.7 × 182.9 cm)
Gift of Jesse Karp, 2010.237
Tino Zago was born in Italy but moved to the Detroit area in 1948, obtaining his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1965. In the 1970s he began spending time at the small fishing village Mushaboom in Nova Scotia. It was during this time that he began combining elements that he saw in the landscapes of Nova Scotia and Venice, Italy, into Abstract Expressionist compositions. Much like the Action Painters, his energetic scribbles add to the sense of spontaneity in his work. He creates his compositions on large canvases spread out on the floor and applies layer after layer of paint—often while the paint on the lower layers is still wet.
