Though self-taught, Saglimbene painted with the confidence and unforgettable avant-garde style like a classically trained artist in the school of Picasso and Modigliani. His paintings have a powerful energy and move far beyond being masterful and beautiful, they are compelling and touch the soul of those privileged to view them.
Domingo Saglimbene was born in Catina, Sicily in 1920 and moved with his family to Detroit in 1932. There he worked in various unfulfilling jobs while dreaming of paints, brushes, and blank canvases on easels and the day when he could walk away and devote his life to his God-given talent that he discovered at age six. He was a proud and patriotic immigrant who served in the U.S. Army during World War 2.
Starting in 1952, now a full time artist, his paintings were exhibited annually at the prestigious Detroit Institute of Arts until 1957. The University of Michigan also exhibited his paintings. He was given a number of one man shows in New York City and Detroit in the early 1960’s until he shunned the commercial art world and immersed himself in his paints and brushes in his basement studio in Detroit.
After his death in 2016, three of Saglimbene’s paintings were exhibited at the Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart, Indiana, in 2017. The exhibit was titled “No Boundaries: Outsider, Folk, and Art of the Self Taught.” One of Saglimbene’s paintings, “Feasting at a White Table ” is now part of the museum’s permanent collection.
One can only imagine the heights and prices this masterful artist could have reached had he sought representation in a recognized gallery. Upon his death, he and his daughter, Diana, agreed the remaining paintings would be sold to benefit the poor and homeless. This unprecedented gift of paintings to the Same Kind of Different as Me Charitable Foundation is now available to benevolent art lovers and collectors by donation. The fame that slipped by Domingo in his lifetime, will hopefully now be even greater to be known by the world and remembered as of the most gifted and benevolent artist of all time.
Ron Hall Gallery in Dallas, Texas is proud to introduce to the world these beautiful and compelling paintings by Domingo Siglembene.
