Fred Carasso (Turin 1899-1969 Amsterdam) came from Carigno in Italy, where he was trained in his father's furniture workshop. He fled Mussolini's Italy to Paris, where he worked as a carpenter. Here he developed into a virtuoso woodcarver, but he also committed himself to the Italian branches of the French and Belgian communist parties, as a result of which he was deported from France in 1928 and fled to Brussels. Another five years later he ended up in the Netherlands where he found peace.

Just before that, in 1933, he had his first exhibition in Brussels, under the pseudonym Fred Deltor. In addition to drawings and photo collages, he also showed four small sculptures. In Amsterdam he developed himself as a sculptor and was included in the circle of Amsterdam sculptors. In 1938 Carasso exhibited for the first time in the Netherlands.

He was self-taught as a sculptor. He lived and worked in a well-known studio housing complex on Zomerdijkstraat. There he became friends with artists such as Charlotte van Pallandt, Piet Essser and Han Wezelaar. In addition to the art he made, he published on Italian sculpture, such as Marino Marini and Giacomo Manzu.

Initially, his own visual language was classically figurative; characteristic of his Italian origins. But over time he abstracted his figures more and more until there was nothing left but a vague suggestion of a human body. He looked for simplification and power. Images of ordinary people, or rather women. Sublime in technique, very detailed and harmonious in composition in every view. In 1956 he was appointed professor of sculpture at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht, succeeding Oscar Jespers.