“Stefano Caglioni was born on April 13, 1950 and is still alive and residing in the hospital of Santa Maria Ausiliatrice ONLUS in Bergamo.
Maestro Caglioni has always painted since he was a child, also because the art of painting had been part of his family for several generations: his maternal grandmother painted and so did his father, Mr. Gianfranco Caglioni, son of the owner of the “Mulini Caglioni” company.
He began to paint “seriously” following his first seizure, which occurred around the age of 17 (1967). In 1970 he was passionate about the modern art of those times: from Picasso to Modigliani to De Chirico showing a very detailed, singular study of color and materials.
In that period Stefano produced very original works, more thought out and technically elaborated in the message and in the content than the more instinctive later ones. He worked on cementite backgrounds by pulling and diluting the color with rags, using and varying the technique he said he learned from master Emilio Scanavino in Genoa. Subsequently his wild creation proposes a wild imaginary. In some way this dimension is found in his pictorial creations which sometimes show themselves as charged with a cultured symbolism and just as many times they transcend this cultural dimension by experiencing the relationship between creativity and psychic disorder.
Thanks to some friends of Stefano it was possible to admire many of his pieces during the various exhibitions that have been made to him: the first was done in June 1996 inside the church of Sant’Agostino where you could admire some of his works that he produced from 1983 to 1996. In 2000 at the Quadriportico in Bergamo, along the Sentierone other works by this artist were exhibited and the promoters were friends, journalists, politicians, accountants and lawyers.
In these years many of his paintings were then exhibited in various locations in Bergamo: from bars to art galleries, until in 2008 a further exhibition was proposed along the Quadriportico, but unlike the first, in this occasion those who set up the exhibition are able to reproduce in real size the walls of the bedroom of the studio / accommodation of this artist entirely painted by him with a mystical-apocalyptic background.
At the end of his bizarre life journey, in 2010 Stefano dedicates his last painting to his sister Carla. He stopped painting permanently due to health problems that led him to be hospitalized in neurosurgery for about five months, one of which was spent in a coma. From the hospital in Bergamo he was then transferred to the hospital where he still lives “.

Eleonora Canali, “L’Art Brut di Stefano Caglioni: quando follia e creazione convivono”.
Tesi di Laurea, Università degli Studi di Bergamo, Facoltà di Psicologia Clinica (Sett. 2015)

+++ IMPORTANT UPDATE! +++

Stefano started painting again.

After repeatedly asking both the family, us and the staff of the nursing home to go back to painting, he was granted, but with an agreement that protects him, his family, us and the structure in which he is assisted.

With his family and the staff of the nursing home we therefore agreed on the following agreement:

All of Stefano’s new paintings will be given exclusively to us!

His new works will be checked for authenticity and protected by the retirement home during creation.

With this agreement we will help Stefano much more incisively in his assistance than in the past.

And, above all, we will avoid that Stefano can be exploited to the detriment of him and his family.

Thanks to Stefano’s family for the trust placed in us; trust that we think we have earned in all these years in which we have promptly reserved and delivered part of the proceeds from the sale of his works.

Thanks also to the medical and nursing staff of CARISMA for managing the initiative and protecting Stefano’s work.

As for the old works, we will always reserve 10% of the sale proceeds for Stefano.