The sixth child of a carpenter, Carlo Zinelli lost his mother at age 2 and was sent to work as a farmhand. At 18, he became an apprentice butcher and developed a passion for music and drawing. Drafted for the war, he could not bear the trauma and was discharged in 1941. Suffering from delusions and hallucinations, he was institutionalized in 1947 at San Giacomo alla Tomba Psychiatric Hospital in Verona. Ten years later, Scottish sculptor Michael Noble and psychiatrist Mario Marini started an art workshop there, which became one of Europe’s most important.
Zinelli worked daily, producing nearly 2,200 works, often on both sides of the paper. Writing, present from the start, became central between 1966 and 1969. His life and art were structured by the number 4: he turned keys, repeated words, and pierced the bodies of his figures four times. After his transfer to Marzana Hospital in 1969, he painted only occasionally.
His work was recognized during his lifetime. In 1957, Dino Buzzati organized Sono dei veri artisti (They Are True Artists) in Verona. In 1963, Harald Szeemann exhibited his work at Kunsthalle Bern in Bildnerei Der Geisteskranken – Art Brut – Insania pingens (Expressions of Madness – Art Brut – Insania pingens). In 1967, Jean Dubuffet showed about twenty works in the first museum presentation of his art brut collection at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.