Famous Italian Art Critics

Born to Swiss parents in Italy, Giovanni Morelli later studied medicine in Switzerland and Germany, but never practiced. A connoisseur of arts, he established himself as an art historian and collector. He also dabbled in politics and passed an act forbidding the sale of artwork from public or religious institutions.

An influential art historian, critic, and curator, Germano Celant is known for coining the term, Arte Povera to describe the radically economical art of some post WWII Italian artists. Beginning his career with Geneva based art magazine Marcatrè, he eventually become the curator of New York’s Guggenheim museum and Director of Milan’s Prada Foundation, concurrently authoring many books on art.

While he initially studied mining, medicine, and architecture, Gregor von Rezzori eventually graduated in arts. Fluent in several languages, he had a successful stint as a journalist and became known for both for his light novels and the more poignant ones such as Memoirs of an Anti-Semite.