With encouragement from his father, Angelo Savelli (Italian, 1911–1995) moved to Rome at age 19 where he attended a high school for the arts. He received a diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. In the mid-1950s, Savelli moved to New York where he was friends with and influenced by the major abstractionists of the time.

Savelli first began experimenting with white abstract-figurative patches in the mid-1940s. He would continue to explore the use of white for his entire career. He was a pure abstractionist. Critics define his work as a creation of images free from any figurative reference, aspiring to reach the essential nature of things.

At least four books have been published featuring Savelli's work.

Savelli had a very active exhibition history. He had a solo show at D’Amecourt Gallery in Washington DC in 1957. In New York he exhibited at the Leo Castelli and Parsons?Dreyfuss galleries, among others. A few weeks after his death, Savelli’s work was exhibited in a solo show at the XLVI Biennale di Venezia.  That same year, there was a major retrospective of Savelli’s work at the Luigi Pecci Museum of Contemporary Arts in Prato.