Nino Caffè was born in Alfedena in Abruzzo in 1909. After completing his elementary studies in L’Aquila, in 1920 his family moved to Ancona, where he received his first painting lessons from Ludovico Spagnolini.
In 1930 he moved to Pesaro and became part of the lively cultural and artistic life of the city, and met various local artists (Bruno Baratti, Werter Bettini, Ciro Cancelli, Alessandro Gallucci, Aldo Pagliacci, Achille Wildi).
In 1931 he began to exhibit and in 1938 he participated in the Venice Biennale, in which he obtained a purchase prize from King Vittorio Emanuele III; in 1935 he graduated from the Istituto Statale d’Arte of Urbino where he then, in 1943 and 1944, taught “figura”.
He spent the Second World War period in Urbino, a guest of the Benedetti family – it was from their house, located in front of the Cathedral, that he saw the first priests transit, a motif that will characterize his future paintings.
He also participated a lot in the cultural life of Urbino and was a member of the Raffaello Academy from 4 February 1948.
The Gianferrari gallery in Milan, in 1944, dedicated a large exhibition to him. In 1946, in Pesaro, he held a one-man show in the gallery of Rossini’s birthplace. This was the moment of his truck success as an artist and he then took a studio in Rome where he supported the Obelisk gallery, directed by Gaspero del Corso and Irene Brin, who also opened a branch in New York with a personal exhibition of work by Caffe. The Metropolitan Museum acquired a painting by him a t this exhibition.
In 1963 he closed his Roman studio and returned to Pesaro, while continuing to collaborate with the Obelisco gallery. Other galleries, in addition to Gianferrari in Milan, the San Luca in Verona, the Vicolo in Genoa, the Probibia in Palermo, the Zoot in La Spezia.
He alternated the production of painting with equal success with that of engraving. His work is appreciated by major European and American collectors, consecrating the painter “dei pretini” to international fame.
Nino Caffè died in Pesaro in 1975 at the age of 66 following a cardio-circulatory collapse
