Antonio Corpora was born in Tunis on 15 August 1909. There he attended an art academy and studied under Armand Vergeaud until he went to Florence in 1930 to copy Old Master paintings. In 1931 Corpora settled in Paris, where he met Alberto Giacometti and Sergio Signori.

Corpora often returned to Italy and Tunisia, where he co-founded the 'Les quatres' group in 1934. Good contacts to well-known Italian artists, including the group associated with the Galleria del Milione in Milan, enabled him to publish some of his writings.

In the 1930s Corpora painted in an abstract style notable for geometric forms and strips of colour. Late in the 1930s he briefly held a chair in stage design in Bologna but left Italy during the second wor...