Giuseppe Novello was born in Codogno on 7 July 1897 to Eugenio Novello, Venetian, and Antonietta Belloni, from Codogno and sister of the painter Giorgio Belloni. He studied at the Berchet High School in Milan, frequenting his painter uncle’s studio with a certain regularity.

Despite his propensity for art, Giuseppe is induced by his father, a bank manager, to enrol in the Faculty of Law. In 1915 he graduated in Pavia with a thesis on copyright in the figurative arts, after having fought the great war as an Alpine soldier, with the 46th Company of the Tirano Battalion.

Having entered the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in 1919, he studied painting under the guidance of Ambrogio Alciati. His first participation in a collective exhibition took place in 1924, when he won the Fumagalli Competition with “Interno borghese”, from that moment he began a very long and fruitful series of works and collaborations with exponents of his contemporary creative scene.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Novello participated in the Russian campaign with the V Alpine Regiment. Having returned to Italy in March 1943, he was taken prisoner in Fortezza on 9 September and transferred to the internment camp for Italian officers in Czestochowa, Poland. From here he is taken to Benjaminovo and then to the German concentration camps of San Bostel and Wietzendorf.

He could return to Italy, as an “artist”, joining the fascist party, but he refuses and shares imprisonment with Giovannino Guareschi, Roberto Rebora and the philosopher Enzo Paci. He returned to Italy in the autumn of 1945 and resumed his artistic activity at full speed.

In 1984 the Municipality of Milan awarded him the gold medal of merit. On the occasion of Novello’s 90th birthday, a collection of lametta postcards sent by the artist to relatives and friends over the years is released.

Giuseppe Novello died in his home in Codogno on 2 February 1988.

• Since 1925 Novello has collaborated with “L’ Alpino”, the fortnightly of the National Alpini Association, where his humorous drawings appear with the acronym “46”.
• In 1929 he published the volume of cartoons and mocking stories “La guerra è bella ma scomoda” for the Treves publisher.
• Since 1929 he has collaborated with the Milanese satirical-humorous periodical “Guerin Meschino”.
• In 1930 his illustrations appeared in “Fuori Sacco”, a humorous section of the “Gazzetta del Popolo”.
• La Stampa publishes on the third page his illustrations for three summer reports: a journey in search of the “ugliest monuments in Italy” in ’32; a gastronomic tour in ’34, published the following year by Treves in “Il ghiottone errante”; a tourist itinerary in the main holiday resorts of Northern Italy in 1936.
• In the 1930s Mondadori published Novello’s cartoons, which appeared in “Fuori Sacco” – as well as some unpublished ones – in two volumes.
• His humorous tables appear in various European newspapers: “Libertad” in 1933, “Je suis partout” and “Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung” in 1934.
• Since 1936 “La Lettura”, a cultural supplement of the “Corriere della Sera”, has published his drawings.
• In 1939, again for Treves, he published “Basso profound”.
• Between the two wars he participated in almost all the exhibitions of the Permanente in Milan and in some Venetian Biennials, where he won, in the 1940 edition, the portrait competition with “Ritratto Estivo”.
• In 1946, having returned from the war, he resumed drawing for “La Lettura”.
• Since 1948 his cartoons have appeared every week on the third page of “La Stampa.
• In 1957 he published “Steppe e gabbia”.
• “Mondadori” returned to publish his cartoons in successful collections: “Dunque dicevamo” (1950), “Sempre più difficile” (1957), “Resti tra noi” (1967).
• In 1963 the illustrated volume “Vero bevitore” was published by Longanesi.
• In 1950 the artist held his first solo exhibition at the Gian Ferrari Gallery in Milan and later at the Gussoni Gallery, also in Milan.
• Since 1965 he has designed for the Ticinese University Graduates Association the honour rolls for the degrees awarded by the University of Pavia to Enzo Ferrari, Federico Fellini, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Norberto Bobbio.
• At the beginning of the 1970s he contributed to the reorganization of the Lamberti legacy, the first nucleus of the Codogno museum, to which the artist donated some of his most appreciated paintings, as well as numerous family paintings.
• Since 1973 the artist has exhibited regularly at his friend Renzo Cortina’s Milanese gallery in Piazza Cavour.
• In 1978, Ponte Rosso published, on the occasion of the celebrations for the 200th anniversary of La Scala, a collection of drawings and paintings on the theatre.

PREMIO NOVELLO – INTERNATIONAL HUMOR & SATIRE AWARDS