Tullio DeSantis
Encyclopedia
Tullio Francesco DeSantis (also known as Tullio DeSantis) is an American contemporary artist, writer, and teacher. His work is informed by ancient and contemporary philosophy, science, and the relationship between art and life.
in 1948. DeSantis began his career as a conceptual artist/writer by creating his regular column titled MINDSTREAM
, which appeared in the underground press periodical, The Rip Off Review of Western Culture
. The Publisher of this magazine was the Rip Off Press
located in San Francisco in the early 1970s. In 1975 he entered the San Francisco Art Institute
, where he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts
in 1977.
. A work on paper by Tullio from this period was exhibited in Paper as Medium a series of national tours by the Smithsonian Institution
Traveling Exhibition Service. His work from that time is represented in both public and private collections.
, where he maintained a studio in Chelsea. In New York his work was exhibited at the Katherine Markel and Getler Pall galleries. Also in 1980, his work was exhibited by the New York Museum of Modern Art’s Lending Service in a traveling exhibition titled Maps.
In 1981 DeSantis began exhibiting his work in the Reading and Berks County Area. Among the local and regional exhibitions of note are the shows titled Local Color and Paper Pieces at the Freedman Gallery of Albright College
. During the 1980s his work was represented by Marion Locks Gallery in Philadelphia.
In 1982, DeSantis was co-producer of the large-scale multimedia exhibit at the Reading Public Museum titled Mushroom Magic. DeSantis's work from that exhibit included a series of color photographs and artifacts documenting the process of growing mushrooms for the commercial market, artworks on paper and a large acrylic-and-sand painting.
DeSantis mounted his first one-person show in New York City, titled New Worlds
at the TRADITION 3000 gallery in 1988.
installation and performance piece hosted by the Freedman Gallery of Albright College. This was followed another gallery-size multimedia installation, DeSantis’ one-person show at the New Arts Program gallery in Kutztown, PA
, titled The Missing Link
.
DeSantis’ gallery-size installation work was continuously on view at the artist’s studio from 1995 to 2004. This magical-realist environment contained, among many interactive components, miniature reconstructed and painted electric trains, papier-mâché
landscapes, and a multicolor and infrared light
show recreating scenes seen during morning, afternoon, sunset, and night. The long-running work-in-progress was titled The Project
and was a tribute to both DeSantis’ friend and collaborator, Keith Haring
and DeSantis’ paternal grandfather, Francesco DeSantis.
From 1982 through 1990 Tullio Francesco DeSantis wrote on art exhibition
s and aesthetics for the New Art Examiner
, Chicago, IL
and at the same time served
as art critic
for the Reading Eagle/Reading Times newspapers
in Pennsylvania.
Fellowship for his ongoing collaborative conceptual work with Keith Haring. In 1998-99 DeSantis published the first four chapters of this work in the Terminal Journal under the title, Reading Lies Dreaming, published by Eschaton, Chicago.
, 1989,
and has since been reprinted several times.
yielded a number of works including a Ginsberg poem dedicated to Tullio DeSantis. and a Ginsberg drawing published at www.poetspath.com.
of Art at Alvernia College, Reading, PA. He has continued his teaching as an Adjunct Professor of Art at Albright College, University of Saint Francis
, Joliet, IL, the MFA Program of Vermont College, Norwich University
, and currently at Reading Area Community College
.
In 1990 the American Association of University Professors
found and reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education
that Tullio DeSantis’ ( Assistant Professor of Art) had been improperly dismissed by Alvernia College (now Alvernia University) because of his criticism of the administration and that his rights of academic freedom
had been violated. This incident provoked the resignation of the College President
, Board Chair, and the Academic Dean. DeSantis’ suit with the college was eventually settled out of court. The settlement resulted in his being rehired.
Tullio Francesco DeSantis continued exhibiting his art in the early 1990s
in a selected group of galleries including The Freedman Gallery of Albright College and the Reading Public Museum, Reading, PA.
group. This endeavor was analyzed and interpreted by Nick Mamatas
in the NYC newspaper, the Village Voice
in October, 2000, in an article titled All Hands Off The Keyboard.
This collaborative Internet project is also represented online in the Irish Museum of Modern Art
Net Open exhibitions from 2002 and 2003.
The artist’s collaborative work is referenced by the New York new art foundation, Franklin Furnace
and the CYBERARTS99: International Festival of Digital Media
. The artist’s collaborations with other Internet artists have included Ana Voog
, of anacam.com, and performance art
ist, Frank Moore
, whose site hosts artelevision.com’s archives.
newspaper web site. (www.readingeagle.com/blog/tullio) In 2006, the artist executed the initial work in a series of identity-based conceptual projects for the new millennium
at The New Arts Program in Kutztown, Pennsylvania,. http://napconnection.com/). His monoprints are travelled and collected as part of the New Arts Program Print Editions, which includes artist prints by John Cage
, Steve Reich
, Keith Haring, and Bill T. Jones
.
ARTologyPOD, the artists’ regular series of conceptual podcasts, appears on www.readingeagle.com, www.weeu.com, and Apple iTunes
. DeSantis’ discusses his conceptual work and his relationship with Keith Haring in a series of YouTube
videos, produced by Ron Schira.
of Keith Haring.
The collaborative project between Keith Haring and Tullio DeSantis is the subject of a documentary project being executed by Canadian filmmaker and collector, Victor Lallouz. Filming for this project began in 2009 with locations in Berks County, PA and New York City.
DeSantis and Haring initiated this collaborative project in 1985. DeSantis describes the project in an introductory video that has been posted on YouTube in raw footage. These videos contain a recent lecture in which DeSantis introduces the purpose of the project. He has continued this work in various media since the day Keith Haring died, February 16, 1990.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1FDknkzGnk Part One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF6xcAsZoTI Part Two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc9kUenLJAo Part Three
Presentations of his multimedia work in 2010 include "The Facebook Show" at The Detroit Museum of New Art, and Volume 1 of the "International Email Audio Art Project" hosted by the Internet Archive.
Biography
Tullio DeSantis was Born in Reading, PAReading, Pennsylvania
Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...
in 1948. DeSantis began his career as a conceptual artist/writer by creating his regular column titled MINDSTREAM
Thought
"Thought" generally refers to any mental or intellectual activity involving an individual's subjective consciousness. It can refer either to the act of thinking or the resulting ideas or arrangements of ideas. Similar concepts include cognition, sentience, consciousness, and imagination...
, which appeared in the underground press periodical, The Rip Off Review of Western Culture
The Rip Off Review of Western Culture
Rip Off Review Of Western Culture was an underground comic magazine based in San Francisco, California. There were three issues in 1972. The publication was historically significant in that it brought together the work of many noteworthy underground artists and writers.-History:The Rip Off Review...
. The Publisher of this magazine was the Rip Off Press
Rip Off Press
Rip Off Press, Inc. is a seminal publishing company that specializes in adult-themed literature and graphic novels, mostly in a specific comic book format known as underground comix.-Overview:...
located in San Francisco in the early 1970s. In 1975 he entered the San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...
, where he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
in 1977.
Career beginnings
Tullio’s career as an exhibiting artist began before his graduation and continued in San Francisco through 1979, after which he moved back to the East Coast. During his years in San Francisco, DeSantis’ artwork was exhibited by ADI Galleries in San Francisco and Tokyo, JapanTokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. A work on paper by Tullio from this period was exhibited in Paper as Medium a series of national tours by the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
Traveling Exhibition Service. His work from that time is represented in both public and private collections.
1980s
DeSantis moved back to the East Coast and took up dual residencies in Reading, PA and New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where he maintained a studio in Chelsea. In New York his work was exhibited at the Katherine Markel and Getler Pall galleries. Also in 1980, his work was exhibited by the New York Museum of Modern Art’s Lending Service in a traveling exhibition titled Maps.
In 1981 DeSantis began exhibiting his work in the Reading and Berks County Area. Among the local and regional exhibitions of note are the shows titled Local Color and Paper Pieces at the Freedman Gallery of Albright College
Albright College
Albright College is a private, co-ed, liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1856 and is located in Reading, Pennsylvania, United States.-Overview:...
. During the 1980s his work was represented by Marion Locks Gallery in Philadelphia.
In 1982, DeSantis was co-producer of the large-scale multimedia exhibit at the Reading Public Museum titled Mushroom Magic. DeSantis's work from that exhibit included a series of color photographs and artifacts documenting the process of growing mushrooms for the commercial market, artworks on paper and a large acrylic-and-sand painting.
DeSantis mounted his first one-person show in New York City, titled New Worlds
New Worlds
- In publishing :* New Worlds , a British science fiction magazine* New Worlds , a X-Men storyline written by Grant Morrison.* New Worlds, an imprint of Caliber Comics.- In music, film and television :...
at the TRADITION 3000 gallery in 1988.
1990s
The artist’s exhibits from the 1990s include 1992’s his Reading Lies part IV: ACROSS THE YOU-NIVERSE, a multi-mediaMultimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
installation and performance piece hosted by the Freedman Gallery of Albright College. This was followed another gallery-size multimedia installation, DeSantis’ one-person show at the New Arts Program gallery in Kutztown, PA
Kutztown, Pennsylvania
Kutztown is a borough in Berks County, Pennsylvania, southwest of Allentown and northeast of Reading. As of the 2000 census, the borough has a total population of 5,067. It is the site of Kutztown University.- History :...
, titled The Missing Link
Dewey Robertson
Byron James John "Dewey" Robertson was a professional wrestler, known best for his ring name The Missing Link....
.
DeSantis’ gallery-size installation work was continuously on view at the artist’s studio from 1995 to 2004. This magical-realist environment contained, among many interactive components, miniature reconstructed and painted electric trains, papier-mâché
Papier-mâché
Papier-mâché , alternatively, paper-mache, is a composite material consisting of paper pieces or pulp, sometimes reinforced with textiles, bound with an adhesive, such as glue, starch, or wallpaper paste....
landscapes, and a multicolor and infrared light
Infrared
Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
show recreating scenes seen during morning, afternoon, sunset, and night. The long-running work-in-progress was titled The Project
The Project
The Project can refer to:*The Project , an Australian talk show*The Project , a British drama...
and was a tribute to both DeSantis’ friend and collaborator, Keith Haring
Keith Haring
Keith Haring was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s.-Early life:...
and DeSantis’ paternal grandfather, Francesco DeSantis.
From 1982 through 1990 Tullio Francesco DeSantis wrote on art exhibition
Art exhibition
Art exhibitions are traditionally the space in which art objects meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhibition". In American English, they may be called "exhibit", "exposition" or...
s and aesthetics for the New Art Examiner
New Art Examiner
New Art Examiner was a Chicago-based art magazine. Founded in October 1973 by Derek Guthrie and Jane Addams Allen. Publication ceased in 2002.November 2011 will see the release of Essential New Art Examiner, an Anthology of representative articles and editors...
, Chicago, IL
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and at the same time served
Time served
In criminal law, "time served" describes a sentence where the defendant is credited immediately after the guilty verdict with the time spent in remand awaiting trial. The time is usually subtracted from the sentence, with only the balance being served after the verdict...
as art critic
Art critic
An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
for the Reading Eagle/Reading Times newspapers
News International
News International Ltd is the United Kingdom newspaper publishing division of News Corporation. Until June 2002, it was called News International plc....
in Pennsylvania.
Collaborations with Keith Haring
It was in this period that the artist met and worked with Keith Haring. In 1984 DeSantis received a Pennsylvania Council on the ArtsPennsylvania Council on the Arts
The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts is an agency serving the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.Established in 1966, its mission is "to foster the excellence, diversity and vitality of the arts in Pennsylvania and to broaden the availability and appreciation of those arts throughout the state." Each year...
Fellowship for his ongoing collaborative conceptual work with Keith Haring. In 1998-99 DeSantis published the first four chapters of this work in the Terminal Journal under the title, Reading Lies Dreaming, published by Eschaton, Chicago.
Other Writing
Tullio DeSantis’ internationally published writing includes a Magical-Realist story recounting the life of the Francesco DeSantis family and also the art, science, and craft of growing mushrooms for market. Tullio's "Life on a Mushroom Farm", appeared in the book Dreamstreets, Harper and RowHarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
, 1989,
and has since been reprinted several times.
Collaborations with Allen Ginsberg
Tullio’s personal and spiritual creative relationship with poet Allen GinsbergAllen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
yielded a number of works including a Ginsberg poem dedicated to Tullio DeSantis. and a Ginsberg drawing published at www.poetspath.com.
Teaching
DeSantis’ higher-education art-teaching career has spanned the period from 1987 to the present. In 1987 he served as Assistant ProfessorProfessor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of Art at Alvernia College, Reading, PA. He has continued his teaching as an Adjunct Professor of Art at Albright College, University of Saint Francis
University of Saint Francis
University of Saint Francis could refer to:*University of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois*University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne, Indiana...
, Joliet, IL, the MFA Program of Vermont College, Norwich University
Norwich University
Norwich University is a private university located in Northfield, Vermont . The university was founded in 1819 at Norwich, Vermont, as the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy. It is the oldest of six Senior Military Colleges, and is recognized by the United States Department of...
, and currently at Reading Area Community College
Reading Area Community College
Reading Area Community College is a public community college located in Reading, Pennsylvania, USA. The college was founded in 1971 and serves the greater Reading area and Berks County, Pennsylvania.-History:...
.
In 1990 the American Association of University Professors
American Association of University Professors
The American Association of University Professors is an organization of professors and other academics in the United States. AAUP membership is about 47,000, with over 500 local campus chapters and 39 state organizations...
found and reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty, staff members and administrators....
that Tullio DeSantis’ ( Assistant Professor of Art) had been improperly dismissed by Alvernia College (now Alvernia University) because of his criticism of the administration and that his rights of academic freedom
Academic freedom
Academic freedom is the belief that the freedom of inquiry by students and faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy, and that scholars should have freedom to teach or communicate ideas or facts without being targeted for repression, job loss, or imprisonment.Academic freedom is a...
had been violated. This incident provoked the resignation of the College President
Academic administration
An academic administration is a branch of university or college employees responsible for the maintenance and supervision of the institution and separate from the faculty or academics, although some personnel may have joint responsibilities...
, Board Chair, and the Academic Dean. DeSantis’ suit with the college was eventually settled out of court. The settlement resulted in his being rehired.
Tullio Francesco DeSantis continued exhibiting his art in the early 1990s
1990s
File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...
in a selected group of galleries including The Freedman Gallery of Albright College and the Reading Public Museum, Reading, PA.
Internet Art
From the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s, the artist executed the major portion of his work anonymously on the Internet. The anonymous work was often conducted collaboratively and from 1998 through 2005 he created and worked as part of www.artelevision.com, a three-person online Digital PerformanceDigital performance
Digital Performance is a very wide category filled with a range of productions, it is a generic performance but with an extra element of incorporating and integrating computer technologies and techniques into the production. You can incorporate multimedia into any type of performance whether it is...
group. This endeavor was analyzed and interpreted by Nick Mamatas
Nick Mamatas
Nick Mamatas is an American horror, science fiction and fantasy author and editor for the Haikasoru line of translated Japanese science fiction novels for Viz Media...
in the NYC newspaper, the Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
in October, 2000, in an article titled All Hands Off The Keyboard.
This collaborative Internet project is also represented online in the Irish Museum of Modern Art
Irish Museum of Modern Art
The Irish Museum of Modern Art also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution exhibiting and collecting modern and contemporary art. The museum opened in May 1991 and is located in Royal Hospital Kilmainham, a 17th-century building near Heuston Station to the west of Dublin's city...
Net Open exhibitions from 2002 and 2003.
The artist’s collaborative work is referenced by the New York new art foundation, Franklin Furnace
Franklin Furnace
Franklin Furnace, also known as the Franklin Mine, is a famous mineral location for rare zinc, iron, manganese minerals in old mines in Franklin, New Jersey, USA. This locale produced more species of minerals and more different fluorescent minerals than any other location...
and the CYBERARTS99: International Festival of Digital Media
Digital media
Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital form. It can refer to the technical aspect of storage and transmission Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form. It can refer to the technical aspect of...
. The artist’s collaborations with other Internet artists have included Ana Voog
Ana Voog
Ana Clara Voog is a musician, visual artist, performance artist and writer from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Voog is the former front woman of The Blue Up?, a pop rock band from the Minneapolis area...
, of anacam.com, and performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
ist, Frank Moore
Frank Moore
Frank C. Moore II was a New York-based painter, winner of the Logan Medal of the arts, and a member of the Visual AIDS Artist Caucus—the organization responsible for the Ribbon Project, A Day Without Art, and A Night Without Light.Born in Manhattan in 1953, Moore moved with his family to Long...
, whose site hosts artelevision.com’s archives.
ARTology and ARTologyPOD
In 2005 DeSantis created ARTology, his online blog for the Reading EagleReading Eagle
The Reading Eagle is the major daily newspaper in Reading, Pennsylvania, in the United States. This family-owned newspaper has a daily circulation of 64,000 and a Sunday circulation of 100,000...
newspaper web site. (www.readingeagle.com/blog/tullio) In 2006, the artist executed the initial work in a series of identity-based conceptual projects for the new millennium
Millennium
A millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....
at The New Arts Program in Kutztown, Pennsylvania,. http://napconnection.com/). His monoprints are travelled and collected as part of the New Arts Program Print Editions, which includes artist prints by John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
, Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
, Keith Haring, and Bill T. Jones
Bill T. Jones
Bill T. Jones is an American artistic director, choreographer and dancer.-Early life:Jones was born in Bunnell, Florida and his family moved North as part of the Great Migration in the first half of the twentieth century. They settled in Wayland, New York, where Jones attended Wayland High School...
.
ARTologyPOD, the artists’ regular series of conceptual podcasts, appears on www.readingeagle.com, www.weeu.com, and Apple iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
. DeSantis’ discusses his conceptual work and his relationship with Keith Haring in a series of YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
videos, produced by Ron Schira.
Recent and Current Work
Tullio DeSantis is referenced in Keith Haring's official biography the Rizzoli illustrated edition titled Keith Haring (2008), and the 2008 film, The UniverseUniverse
The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
of Keith Haring.
The collaborative project between Keith Haring and Tullio DeSantis is the subject of a documentary project being executed by Canadian filmmaker and collector, Victor Lallouz. Filming for this project began in 2009 with locations in Berks County, PA and New York City.
DeSantis and Haring initiated this collaborative project in 1985. DeSantis describes the project in an introductory video that has been posted on YouTube in raw footage. These videos contain a recent lecture in which DeSantis introduces the purpose of the project. He has continued this work in various media since the day Keith Haring died, February 16, 1990.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1FDknkzGnk Part One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF6xcAsZoTI Part Two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc9kUenLJAo Part Three
2010 and Beyond
In the new decade, Tullio has increased his online presence, continuing his aesthethic interest in the evolutionary potential of the Internet.Presentations of his multimedia work in 2010 include "The Facebook Show" at The Detroit Museum of New Art, and Volume 1 of the "International Email Audio Art Project" hosted by the Internet Archive.
External links
More information about Tullio DeSantis can be found at the following links:- http://www.readingeagle.com/blog.aspx?bid=33 Reading Eagle Blog
- http://www.tulliodesantis.com Personal Website
- http://www.tulliofrancescodesantis.com Personal Website