Biographical notes
Caputo da Roma
Antonio Caputo was born in Carosino, Puglia on August 3rd 1943.He
lived a quiet childhood in his numerous family where he was the
eighth of ten children. When he was still young he moved to Rome to
finish his studies, here in 1965 he specialized in the field of
costumes for theatre, cinema and television. He worked as costume
designer for twenty five years at the fashion house “Annamode68” and
thanks to this kind of job he met a lot of film stars: Fellini,
Visconti, Bolognini, Pasolini Richard Burton, Mel Ferrer , Alain
Delon, Marcello Mastroianni, Vittorio Gassmann, the brothers Eduardo
and Peppino De Filippo and many others.
In 1967 he worked at the Deutsch Theater in Munich to stage the
Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” directed and played by Maximilian Schell.
Moreover, in 1976 he worked to stage also “Don Gil in his green
socks” .In Germany he worked at the Opera House in Augsburg, too .
In 1974, he was the costumes manager for the company “ Il gruppo
della Rocca”. He started to organize personal and collective
exhibitions of paintings and sculptures of national and
international level, among them: ”Gran caffè Schenardi” in Viterbo,
“Fenice Arts Gallery “ and “Galleria S. Vidal” in Venice; “Atelier
Bildfang” in Berlin; ”Chiostro di S. Giovanni del Bramante” in
Orvieto; “Centro Culturale Cardillac” in Florence; “Knapp – Gold und
Zeit” in Munich.
From 1984, he has been
giving courses on the techniques of costumes at the Experimental
Cinematography Centre in Cinecitttà. At the Scala Theatre in Milan
he signed a contract as costume-designer for the inaugural plays
“Idomeneo” directed by Riccardo Muti and “Parsifal” performed by
Placido Domingo. In 1990, at the same Scala Theatre in Milan, he
gave a course for technical modernization of costumes. Later, in
1991 in the same theatre he was given the task as teacher at the
professional training Centre. At the same time he collaborated in
the production of several publications as an image consultant :
“Fashion and Music in Sylvano Bussotti costumes”, edited by
“Idealibri” and “The Italian Masks” edited by “Newton Compton Editor”.
At Medici Riccardi Palace in Florence he organized the costumes for
the exhibition “The work by Sylvano Bussotti”.
He received several recognitions , among them : “ A life for the
sake of Art” granted in October 1988 by the Academy “Maestri del
castello di Pralboino” and by the same Academy he was appointed
“Academic Maestro ”. In Venice, he has been pointed out by the
Association “Ruga Ciuffa”.
Some of his works have
been published in the Dictionary of Italian Modern Art by Giorgio
Mondadori editor and Associates in the E.N.A.P. volume.
His creations are acquired abroad and in Italy by private and public
collectors. At the present time he is the president of the cultural
association “Duellmemorial”
Translated by Erminia Paola Maria Merolla