Guttuso was born in Bagheria, (Palermo) on the 26th of December 1911. He completed his classical studies in Palermo and in 1931, on having abandoned the faculty of jurisprudence which he had attended in order to satisfy his father's wishes, he moved to Rome where he exhibited at the I Quadrennial.
Between 1935 and 1937 he stayed in Milan where he came into contact with the artistic research works being developed by artists such as Renato Birolli (1905-1959) and Giacomo Manzù (1908-1991), by a critic like Edoardo Persico (1900-1936) or by a philosopher like Antonio Banfi (1886-1957). Besides embracing the anti-Fascist cause within this environment he also came into contact with anti-Novecento [Twentieth Century or Modern] reaction, in this way approaching realist art. Although of strong ideological convictions Guttuso never embraced Socialist Realism of Soviet stamp: his ability lay in being able to mediate and filter his own ideology by means of his own Mediterranean sensitivity and proud intellectual freedom.
In 1940 he became a member of the Italian Communist Party. In the years which followed he took part in the Corrente Movement founded by Ernesto Treccani in 1939 whose initial participants were the pupils of Antonio Banfi: Remo Cantoni, Enzo Paci, Antonia Pozzi, Luciano Anceschi, Raffaele De Grada, Daria Menicanti and Vittorio Sereni.
During this period Guttuso painted the Crocifissione [Crucifixion] of 1941, considered one of his most significant works.
After taking part in the Resistance he joined the Fronte Nuovo delle Arti. From 1948 onwards he was among the promoters of the Realist Movement. By reacting to the strong ideological pressure which emphasized a painting of political illustration, within realism from this point on he was able to look for the elements that led to an original expressive form.
He stayed at length in Varese where in 1983 he painted the fresco entitled Fuga in Egitto [Flight into Egypt] in the third chapel on the path to the Sacro Monte.
Renato Guttuso died in Rome in 1987.