Carcupino was born in Naples to a Milanese family who were temporarily working there. He grew up in Milan and studied art under
Achille Funi at the city's
Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. During World War II, he worked in the animation department for the film
La Rosa di Bagdad before serving as a sub-lieutenant in the
Granatieri Brigade of the
Italian Liberation Corps. In 1946, after producing the episode "Scacco matto a Coe" for the comics series
Il Solitario, he joined his friend
Mario Faustinelli on the staff of
Asso di Picche and became part of the so-called
Gruppo di Venezia (Venice Group) which also included the comic artists and writers
Hugo Pratt,
Dino Battaglia and
Damiano Damiani. Another 1940s comics series illustrated by Carcupino was
Il figlio della notte written by
Andrea Lavezzolo. It was republished in 1975 as a single book by Grandi Avventure. Carcupino travelled widely in Northern Europe during the 1950s while also beginning a career as an illustrator. He worked primarily for the
Mondadori publications,
Epoca,
Grazia, and
Confidenze, but also for the Milanese satirical magazine
La Settimana Umoristica. In the early 1970s he produced female nudes for the covers of the weekly erotic magazine,
La Giraffa, as well as creating the covers for several
Edifumetto publications including
I Notturni,
Sexy Favole,
Lo Scheletro,
Il Vampiro, From the mid-1970s until his death, Carcupino primarily dedicated himself to painting, producing landscapes, still lifes, mother and child portraits, and female nudes—the subject for which he was most widely known. He died in Milan on 22 March 2003 at the age of 80. Retrospective exhibitions of his work were held the following year at the
Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci in Prato and at the Palazzo Cusano in
Cusano Milanino where Carcupino had lived from 1946 until the mid-1950s. His work is held in many private collections and in the permanent collection of the Galleria d'arte Gelmi in Milan. ==References==