Born in Patti, Sicily, the son of a liceo classico literature professor, Joppolo studied political and social sciences at the University of Florence, graduating in 1929.[1][2] In spite of having been a member of the National Fascist Party and of the Blackshirts until 1926, Joppolo shortly later became a critic of the regime, being arrested for criticising the regime and deported from Ravenna to Sicily in 1936, and again arrested as an anti-fascist and sentenced to confinement in Forenza in 1937.[1]
Joppolo made his literary debut in 1929, with the poetry collection I canti dei sensi e dell'idea.[1][2] Starting from 1941, he authored numerous plays, which featured "existential crisis usually set in a surreal dimension, in which, however, there was no lack of denunciation of a society that deprived the individual of freedom".[1] His best known work is the drama play I carabinieri, which was staged several times including in an adaptation directed by Roberto Rossellini, and in 1963 was adapted in the Jean-Luc Godard's film The Carabineers.[1] He also wrote novels and was an art and film critic for publications such as Corrente [it], L'Ora, Il Gazzettino, Filmcritica.[1]
In 1942, Joppolo married painter Carla Rossi, and starting from 1947 he began painting he himself, holding his first solo exhibition in 1949.[1] A member of Spatialism, he authored the first official manifesto of the movement in 1948, as well as several other theoretical writings and manifestos.[1] He left spatialism in the 1960s, moving towards abstract expressionism.[1]
Settled with his family in Paris since 1954, he died there in 1963.[1]
