Beppe Grillo

Title : [ Beppe Grillo ]

Total size : 69 x 69 x 4 cm

Technique : Water Color on wood canvas (nothing prints)    100 % hand painted – Signed back

Chassis : The canvases are already mounted on the frame in finished and painted wood even on sides and does not require any structure additional.

The work is ready to hang.

All works are made with top quality materials that guarantee the color lasting stability . They are of excellent quality water paints were used . To the canvas a fixative for the color that keeps it intact was applied the properties over time .

Description of the subject

Grillo was born in Genoa, Liguria, on 21 July 1948. He received a degree as an accountant. After graduating, he became a comedian by chance, improvising a monologue in an audition. Two weeks later, he was discovered and launched by Italian TV presenter Pippo Baudo. Grillo subsequently participated in the variety show Secondo Voi for two years (1977–78). In 1979, he participated in Luna Park by Enzo Trapani, and in the variety show Fantastico.

In the 1980s his success increased further, thanks to shows such as Te la do io l’America (1982, four episodes) and Te lo do io il Brasile (1984, six episodes). In these shows, he narrated his experiences of visits to the United States and Brazil, with anecdotes and witticisms about the culture, lifestyle, and beauty of these places. As a result, his popularity steadily increased and he became the protagonist of another show, developed especially for him, called Grillometro (Grillometer). In 1986, he was the star in a series of prize-winning advertisements for a brand of yogurt.
Soon afterwards, his performances began to display an increasing level of political satire, often expressed in such a direct way that he rapidly offended some Italian politicians. In 1987 during the Saturday night TV show Fantastico 7, he attacked the Italian Socialist Party and its leader Bettino Craxi, then Italy’s Prime Minister, on the occasion of his visit to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The joke was:
A member of the Italian Socialist Party asked Craxi: “If the Chinese are all socialists, who do they steal from?”
The joke alluded to the totalitarianism of the PRC, but even more to the widespread corruption for which the Italian Socialist Party was known. As a consequence, Grillo was effectively banished from publicly owned television. He was vindicated a few years later when the Italian Socialist Party had to be disbanded in a welter of corruption scandals known as Tangentopoli, uncovered by the Mani pulite investigation. Craxi himself died in Tunisia, unable to return to Italy where he would have been jailed on several convictions.