Biography

Walter Morselli was born in Modena on September 2, 1912, the third of six brothers. His father Ugo owns a started textile shop that allows a comfortable life for the family.

With a natural predisposition for drawing and attracted to painting, he enrolled in the Adolfo Venturi Institute of Art, but did not finish his studies also because in 1929 his father’s activity suffered an economic collapse.

His artistic training continued as a pupil of Ubaldo Magnavacca, an important Modena painter and sculptor.

Later he took a job for a few years in Lucca with the well-known photographer Cortopassi, from whom he learned the secrets of photographic technique.

In 1931 he participated in the first exhibitions at the national level.

In 1949 he married and moved to Pavullo in the Frignano where he remained for about 10 years. Here he creates numerous paintings, in particular some portraits on commission, an altarpiece for the Church of the Capuchins and two versions (half-bust and full figure) of “Nicola”, one of his most appreciated works.

In 1954 he drastically reduced his artistic commitment and, together with his wife, began to collaborate as a group with the coach of his brother Ermanno until 1969.

In 1955, attracted by Walt Disney’s cartoon films, he made an experimental short film in which a bird flies around a tree flapping its wings. This studio is done together with his friend Paolo (Paul) Campani, who will later merge Paul Film.

Towards the end of the 1960s, driven and encouraged by family and some friends, he resumed painting continuously. In 1969 he agreed with an art dealer who committed himself to buy exclusively and at set prices all the production of paintings (largely still lifes).

In the early 1970s, the public’s approval and growing demands prompted him to stop collaborating with the merchant and sell his works directly.

In the most intense and satisfying moment of the painting activity he died in Modena on June 15, 1976 after two short hospitalizations.