For fifty years, Raimondo Sirotti is protagonist of contemporary Italian painting. He lives in Bogliasco, where he was born, he grew up and was mayor for ten years. He was also Professor, Director and President of the Accademia Ligustica of Genoa.
After studying art, in 1958 he moved to Milan where he lived the most intense moments of the informal season. He approached the art scene that revolves around the Brera Academy, at the time directed by Achille Funi.
He attended the ateliers of local artists, he knew Alfredo Chighine, Roberto Crippa, Gianni Dova and especially Piero Manzoni, who became his friend and through him to the avant-garde circles.
The early 60's is a decisive period in terms of its artistic and existential choices: there are the return to Bogliasco and the marriage with Giovanna Casella, followed by the birth of Emanuela, Ilaria and Riccardo.
In 1968, thanks to the scholarship "Duchess of Galliera" assigned him to the City of Genoa by a jury chaired by Catherine Marcenaro, he staied long in England.
This allows him to place his attention and to meditate on the function of light in the landscapes of Gainsburough, Constable and William Turner that are present at the National Gallery in London.
In the 70's he exhibited in Milan at the Milione Gallery, at the Gallery of the Hours and over again at Cocorocchia gallery the first exhibition in 1973 in the collective "The new landscape. Nature ", ordered by Gianfranco Bruno, that also includes paintings by Afro, Aimone, Bacon, Birolli, Piccini, Morandi, Morlotti and Sutherland. In 1974 he was present with Mandelli, Moreni, Romiti, Bendini, Vacchi, Chighine, Morlotti, Carmassi, Bands, Brunori, Ruggeri, Saroni, Soffiantino, Forgioli and Savinio in the exhibition "Last naturalism between history and avant-garde", curated by Marisa Vescovo, the Loggia of San Sebastiano in Ovada.
In the following years he continues his Intense exhibition activity and combines a number of valuable interventions on the artistic heritage in the context of rebuilding Palazzo San Giorgio hosted by Pinin Brambilla, the restorer of the Last Supper Leonardo, operates directly on the pane of St. George and the Dragon on the portal, in 1995 the restoration of the chancel of the Basilica of SS. Annunziata del Vastato reinterprets the apse painting by Giulio Benso "Meeting of Saints Joachim and Anna".
In 1989 he won the national competition for two tapestries for the Great Foyer of the Teatro Carlo Felice.
With reference to the history of Genoa, reworks, with key landscape-light ratio, two classic works of Genoese paintings: "The Paradise" by Bernardo Strozzi and "La Pastorale" by Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, called the Grechetto.
In 2005 the Municipality of Genoa celebrated him at the Palazzo Ducale with an exhibition Retrospective, "Raimondo Sirotti 50 years of painting", with text by Marco Goldin. On this occasion he was awarded by the Mayor of Genoa with the "Grifo d'Argento".
In 2006, the artist proposed an original reading of eight contemporary artists at the Modern Art Gallery of Genoa, by Nicolò Barabino Ernesto Rayper, from Rubaldo Merello to Plinio Nomellini. 
In 2008, Marco Goldin, on behalf of the City of Brescia, organized an important exhibition of Van Gogh, under which presents the solo exhibition of Raymond Sirotti "Gardens from 1958 to 2008".
In 2010 he was a guest at the Royal Palace in Genoa with a major exhibition entitled "Sirotti - Mediterranean color of the light."
His painting "The Capuchin Oak" was exhibited in the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of 2011.
Sirotti was present in the exhibition "Abstraction in Italy" 1930-1980 of 2012 at the Estorick Collection in London.
In April 2013, he held a solo exhibition "Perfume and Light" at the sixteenth-century castle in Santa Margherita Ligure and in June at the Museo Sant'Agostino in Genoa "Genova and Raimondo Sirotti".
In 2014/15 he was in Parma in the Palazzo della Pilotta in the exhibition "Black Fire" dedicated to Burri. At the events promoted by Genoa for his 80th birthday, Sirotti donated to the Museum of 'Ligurian Academy a large painting of three meters by two.
It is a remake of Bernardo Strozzi's masterpiece "St. Augustine washes the feet of Christ as a pilgrim", preserved at the museum of the Academy itself.

CRITICAL TEXTS

Critics and most well-known art historians have written about Raimondo Sirotti in over fifty years of career, like Corrado Maltese Roberto Tassi, Bruno Mantura, Franco Sborgi, Marisa Vescovo, Gianfranco Bruno, Giorgio Mascherpa, Paolo Fossati, Sandra Solimano, Marco Goldin, Maurizio Calvesi, Marco Riccomini and so on, up to Edoardo Sanguineti that, in 2005, has dedicated Sirotti’s Sonnet

SIROTTI'S SONNET

vedo verde (anche adesso: e vedo vero,
ma velato, veloce): trema appena:
poi scende molto, poi si strappa:
è piena palude (che è il pensiero di un pensiero):

vedo le acque confuse: ma è un sentiero
di vetro, vedo ancora: è una catena
di luci (e si cancella): è pietra, è vena
ventosa: e vedo odori: e vedo, nero

ma ormai soffiato, il lampo vegetale:
(colano specchi deformati, in forme
deformanti): ma il fiore è minerale,

se esplode: (lo rimescola un abnorme
riflesso): e già germoglia:e l’animale
non resiste: (io lo vedo in ombre,in orme):

Edoardo Sanguineti 24 marzo 2005