Andrea Benetti

Andrea Benetti, born in Bologna in 1964, is a multifaceted visual artist whose work spans a wide range of expressive languages, including painting, photography, drawing, installations, and video art. His artistic production is distinguished by its original reinterpretation of the deep connection between contemporary art and its ancestral origins, particularly those rooted in prehistory. In 2006, he conceived the Manifesto of Neo-Cave Art, which was officially presented in 2009 at the 53rd Venice Biennale, at Ca' Foscari University. In this manifesto, Benetti proposes a theoretical and visual reflection that advocates for an artistic "rebirth," ideally starting anew from the earliest forms of human expression in Prehistory, reimagined through a contemporary lens using an innovative and original symbolic language.

His works, characterized by the evocative use of natural pigments, spices, oxides, and stylized anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures, along with abstract geometries, form a conceptual bridge between the origins of art and its present-day manifestations. This approach has enabled him to develop a distinctive visual poetics, capable of engaging with the collective memory of humanity while simultaneously responding to the aesthetic and conceptual demands of third-millennium art.

Andrea Benetti has exhibited in prestigious international venues, and his works have become part of major institutional and museum collections, including those of the United Nations (New York), the Vatican, the Quirinal Palace, and the Italian Chamber of Deputies. His work has been the subject of academic research and study by various Italian universities, such as those of Bologna, Ferrara, Bergamo, and Salento (Lecce), as well as through collaborations with other notable academic institutions, including the universities of Bari, Roma Tre, Messina, Venice, and the renowned Johns Hopkins University.

The recognition of his artistic stature is further affirmed by the inclusion of his biography in authoritative encyclopedias such as Treccani, De Agostini, and WikiArt, and by its presence in forty-five languages on Wikipedia—testament to his established international resonance. In 2020, he was awarded the “Nettuno d’Oro” Prize by the City of Bologna, in tribute to the significance and originality of his contribution to contemporary culture and to his standing as a leading figure in today’s artistic landscape.

My name is Andrea Benetti and I have been a professional artist for about twenty years. My painting is inspired by cave painting. An inspiration that has generated several collections of works, which deal with various themes, but all with a reference to cave painting. On your site, I would like to sell works made with pigments used 40,000 years ago by a prehistoric man to paint rocks in a cave. I'll explain. With the universities of Bologna and Ferrara, I invented this project (I believe it is unique in the world). Archeology of Prehistory of the University of Ferrara provided me with certified pigments, which were found in the Fumane cave in Veneto (VR) together with rocks painted by prehistoric man. Earth, ocher and charcoal, which the University provided me, had been used to create these cave paintings 40,000 years ago and today the colors have seen new life in the collection of works I have created, with subjects inspired by cave painting. A bridge that unites the contemporaneity of art with its genesis.

Bologna State Art High School
Bologna Academy of Fine Arts