Renato Zanette was born on the 16th of august 1951 in Longobucco, in Calabria, from a family of Osigo, a small hamlet in the town of Fregona, in the province of Treviso.
At age nine he was sent with his brothers in a boarding school in Pescia, in Tuscany, where he remained for several years.
The first testimony as a painter comes to us in 1964, when just thirteen years old he is reported to a competition and invited to exhibit at the International Artistic Center of Varese. Unfortunately these earliest works were never received.
At the end of high school he decides to enroll in the course of Agricultural Science at the University of Padua. In this period his interest in art becomes deeper and he begins to actively approach art by attending the various galleries of the city.
Renato began attending other artists, in particular binds with a group at the Forte Col Vaccher in Tai di Cadore, which became a meeting place for art lovers from many parts of Italy. Here he begins to find contacts for his first solo exhibition to be held in Mendoza Art in Belluno in 1973. In the same year he exhibits his works at the Caffè Nuova Unione in Vittorio Veneto and won the third prize at the "Festival of Color in Contrada Granda " in Conegliano.
In these years his research moves from a first figurative period (where glimpses of Venice appear, studies of human figures and a series of women’s faces) in what will be a turning point in his artistic development process: metaphysical painting. In fact, it will be these works to leave a marked impression in his next production, despite several changes in style.
In the same period he begins a relationship with whom was to become his future wife, Patrizia, which he devotes three portraits.
His appreciation within the circle of friends begins to grow, and Renato often donates his paintings or sometimes exchange them with other local artists.
These are very prolific years and the artist seems to allow more time to his passion. He also starts to paint on canvas, as his first works were executed mainly on plywood or on “whatever was around”, sometimes exploiting both sides of the surfaces he had at disposition.
Within a few years Renato has already experienced different forms of expression and acquired a more secure technique.
1974 is a very interesting year, when only at the age of twenty-three he made one of his most important works, the Orchestra Leader.
In this same year he also made the first artwork inspired by the informalism of Alberto Burri, where he uses pieces of burlap sacks glued to the canvas. This was his first approach to material art.
In the meantime Renato decides to leave university, although only missing a few exams to achieve the degree. After a year of military service, then left to end with the civil service, he began to teach in a high school the subjects he studied in Padua.
In 1975 he had a personal exhibition at the Winkler Hotel in Vittorio Veneto, and the following year he took part at the invitation of the “III National Painting Competition” in Montereale Valcellina, in the province of Pordenone. In addition he took part in Feltre at the painting meeting Veneto-Lazio for two consecutive years.
In 1976 he entered in the encyclopedia “ The Italian Art in the Twentieth Century”, published by Due Torri, Bologna.
A quieter period is following from the end of the late ’70s and early ’80s in which his production decreases, but never ceases completely.
He married in 1980 and creates a fresco of the famous Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo da Vinci, a lost representation reproduced by Renato following the copy of Rubens. Two years later his daughter Ilaria was born.
In the mid-’80s his artistic career has been enhanced with new materials for some of his operas: artworks are made on metal sheets, exploiting the rust as an element for artistic creation.
In 1986 he participates in the “X National Painting Competition” in Bussolengo, in the province of Verona.
In 1987 he had a retrospective exhibition entitled “20 years of painting”, which was held at the middle school of Fregona and organized with the Pro Loco in the context of the festival of the Torchiato wine. Two months later his son Alessandro was born.
In these years he also changes his way of painting, more dynamic and colorful, which points him out to a wider audience. In 1989 he produces what is perhaps his most ambitious opera, the Art-Time series, consisting of six artworks in sequence on plywood.
Afterwards several exhibitions follow in the provinces of Treviso and Pordenone. In addition he was invited to give courses to the Pictorial Search Group in Cappella Maggiore.
In this period he comes into contact with new artists and with some of them he began to exhibit his art outside of Italy: in 1990 in Germany, first in Olpe then in Marburg. The following year in Millstatt in Austria. In 1992 some of his artworks are showed inside the University of Memphis in the USA, in collaboration with the art critic and friend Ted Higgs. In the same year Renato exhibited twelve of his latest productions in London.
In the following years he continues to produce very lively paintings, occasionally taking up the same subjects of the past, like jockeys and butterflies. In this period he prefers the use of acrylics on canvas, as for their ability to dry quickly on the surface. Because of this, sometimes he was able to create artworks with extreme speed, even in just a few minutes.
In 1995 he was commissioned to make the logo of IPSAA, the high school where he was working, and chose a symbol that represents the sun, the earth and the grain.
Even his last painting, a still life, was a commissioned work. Left incomplete, it shows the fruits of the autumn that was his last period.
He suddenly died at the hospital of Treviso due to an aortic aneurysm on the 27th of october 1996.
Renato Zanette was a self-taught painter. Throughout his artistic career he has had many influences, or better saying admirations. Those came mainly from Italy, with the exception of the British Francis Bacon. Beginning from the masters of the Renaissance such as Leonardo, Michelangelo and Caravaggio, going to the artists of the last century like De Chirico, Afro and Burri, Renato also observed the contemporary local realities as Luigi Voltolina and other artists with whom he had the opportunity to have exhibitions and exchange ideas.
Nevertheless, in all his opera is always present a personal way of dealing with art and showing throughout painting his own emotions.