Melchiorre Melis Biography
Melchiorre Melis, painter, illustrator, decorator and ceramist was born in Bosa, in the province of Nuoro, in 1889. Brother of the ceramists Federico and Pietro, he studied, thanks to a subsidy from the municipality, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, where he opportunity to collaborate with Duilio Cambellotti. Having returned to Sardinia for military service and war, he held his first solo exhibition in 1919 in Sassari, where he presented works signed "Silem". In 1919 he collaborated with the "Rivista Sarda" as artistic director and designer, in 1920 he held a solo show in Milan and in 1921 he exhibited the painting "L'ucciso" at the First Rome Art Biennale. At the beginning of the twenties his work was influenced by the futurist current. In 1923 he decorated the room dedicated to Sardinia at the Mostra degli Amatori e Cultori d'Arte in Rome and in the same year he exhibited some ceramic tiles and plates, produced for the "Dettori" manufacturers of Cagliari and "Titian" of Rome, at the Mostra d 'Sardinian Art of the First Biennial of Decorative Arts in Monza. Around 1925 he collaborated, producing some folklore-inspired ceramics, with the Cagliari-based factory "SCLC" of which his brother Federico was the artistic director. Also in 1925 he participated in the II Monza Art Biennale and collaborated with the "Metauro" ceramic factory in Urbania. In 1926 he was the Organizing Commissioner of the Sardinian section at the Mostra degli Amatori e Cultori d'Arte in Rome and exhibited some works of applied art including furniture, decorative panels and ceramics. In 1927 he collaborated with his brothers to found the family factory "Bottega d'Arte Ceramica" in Assemini, in the province of Cagliari. In 1928 he set up the Sala delle Sirene at the II Exhibition of Marine Art at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. At the end of the 1920s he founded "MIAR" (Melis Imprese Artistiche Romane) in Rome, with headquarters in via Sabotino 31, where, in addition to dealing with interior decoration, he also produced some ceramic artefacts, artefacts often marked with the acronym " CAMM - Rome" (Artistic Ceramics Melchiorre Melis - Rome) Thanks to the successes obtained in 1934 he was called by Italo Balbo to Libya to direct the School of Arts and Crafts and the Artisan School of Ceramics in Tripoli where he remained until 1942. In Tripoli he created numerous ceramics, later replicated in Vietri, which in 1940 were exhibited at the I Triennale d'Oltremare in Naples. In 1942 he returned to Rome, where he was assigned a studio at Villa Stohl-Fern. After the war, his collaboration with fascism cost him a sort of artistic retreat and only in 1949 did he propose himself again by presenting the painting "Bedouin at the market" in Venice. The following years saw a rekindling of interest in ceramic material and in 1951 he presented an important anthological exhibition with paintings and ceramics in Sassari. In 1965 he left the studio at Villa Strhol-Fern and moved to the Casina Raffaello, in Villa Borghese, where he dedicated himself to painting. He died in Rome in 1982.
