Raoul Schultz (Raoul Brandinelli), born in Leros in 1931, was a painter, illustrator, graphic artist, and set designer associated with the Venetian School. He made his debut in 1953 at the exhibitions of Opera Bevilacqua La Masa. He became involved with glass, collaborating with Egidio Costantini’s Fucina, and with cinema and comics, working alongside Kim Arcalli, Tinto Brass, and Hugo Pratt. In this climate of renewal, his painting evolved from figuration – linked to Venetian themes – towards an abstraction closer to the poetics of Tancredi, Twombly, and Hartung. In 1965, he opened Galleria Rialto, a space dedicated to the avant-garde. From these years date the series Calendars and Anonymous Letters. The artist explored various innovative movements while at the same time becoming a forerunner of an inquiry that would lead him to the visual dematerialization of the Toponomastics, his final farewell to his city. He died suddenly in 1971.
