Biography
Irene Bianucci was born in Lucca, Italy in 1903. Her family emigrated to Illinois in 1909, and she became an American citizen in 1916. She graduated from Clinton, IL High School in 1922 and attended Millikin University in Decatur, IL from 1923-1925, receiving the Anna Bachman Mueller prize for her mural "Music."
Additional prizes came at the Illinois State Fair in 1926 - first place for a still life and a painting of animals. She began studies at the Art Institute of Chicago, where her teachers included Boris Anisfield, an internationally famous painter and theatrical set designer; George Oberteuffer, an impressionist painter; and John W. Norton, a pioneering American muralist. At the Illinois State Fair in 1927, Bianucci garnered more prizes (3 blue ribbons and 5 red ribbons). Her painting "Little Russian Girl" received the Union League of Chicago Art Prize.
Bianucci exhibited at the Annual Exhibition of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1930 and seven more times in later years. The same year she received a fellowship to study in New York at the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. Her work was shown at the Decatur Art Institute in 1931, and she opened a Chicago studio to work as a professional portraitist.
After showing at the Art Institute and the Tower Town Galleries in 1935, Bianucci joined the Federal Art Project from 1936-1940. She worked with Charles Copeland in 1936, assisting Emmanuel Jacobson and Ralf Henricksen, on a mural for the Horace Mann School in Oak Park, IL. Her work received glowing reviews in The Chicago Tribune in 1940, and she received contracts for a mural (later destroyed) in the Clara Barton Elementary School and two murals in the Ryerson School.
In 1940 Bianucci married Roy Soravia, owner of Chicago's Parnassus Gallery and a painter interested in op art. After completing a mural for the Mount Carroll, IL Post Office, Bianucci spent the war years working as an illustrator and designer for the Container Corporation of America.
Bianucci and Soravia moved to Leucadia, CA in 1949. The couple painted and exhibited at Mandel Brother's Art Gallery in Chicago, among other locations. She died in Leucadia in 1988.
Critical Analysis
Bianucci was a very competent portrait artist. Her one Post Office mural, in Mount Carroll, IL, involves four people and a number of animals. While the figures are nicely rendered, the overall composition seems a bit static. Her post-war work, perhaps influenced by Roy Soravia, were more adventurous and abstract.
Murals
- Chicago, Illinois - Ryerson School: Discovery of America
- Mount Carroll, Illinois - Post Office: Rural Scenes - Wakurusa Valley
- Oak Park, Illinois - Horace Mann School: Community Life of Oak Park in the 19th Century
References
- Bianucci, Irene (Italian American Museum of Los Angeles).
- Irene Bianucci (Wikipedia).
- Irene Bianucci (Illinois Women Artists Project).