Franco Angeli (1935-1988) is a central figure in post-war Italian art, an artist who, although rooted in figurative tradition, was able to face the challenges of modernity with a critical and profound gaze. His painting is a dialogue between popular iconography and symbolism, where the use of strong images such as the heart and the American flag becomes a medium to reflect on the human and social condition of the time.

Born in Rome, Angeli enters the contemporary art scene with a painting that mixes gestures, color and symbolism, not only as a social denunciation, but also as a reflection on perception and identity. His art does not limit itself to representing reality, but transforms it into a sign, using the pictorial surface as a space for sensorial and critical experience. The icon of the heart, a symbol of passion and suffering, becomes for him an emblem of an emotional and political struggle, while the American flag, recurrent in his works, becomes an ambiguous symbol of power and alienation.

Angeli also approaches the instances of Arte Povera and the conceptual avant-gardes, but always maintaining a strong aesthetic commitment and a sense of participation in the historical and social context. His works, while evolving over time, remain anchored to an all-encompassing vision, which combines aesthetics, politics and symbolism in a powerful language, capable of restoring the intensity and contradiction of the era. Franco Angeli's painting is an act of visual resistance, a refusal to surrender to superficiality, a continuous attempt to tell the restlessness and hope of a world in transformation. His art is a visual and sensorial reflection, where reality and perception intertwine in an incessant search for meaning.