MATTEO PUGLIESE BREATH OF FREEDOM
535 west 25th street, nyc | 212.627.4444 | bdgny.com
© 2015 Matteo Pugliese
Dedicated to Bertrand Delacroix
Catalogue for the exhibition “ BREATH OF FREEDOM” at Bertrand Delacroix Gallery November 5 – December 4, 2015 Special thanks to: Natalia Quintavalle, Italian General Consul in New York Ruggero Corrias Gianluca Cocco Carmen Sabbatini Fusioni d’Arte 3 V Ugo Maria Reato Mana Photography of the artworks: Claudio Cipriani Photography of the artist in the foundry and studio: Fabio Mantegna Design: Richard Norris, Project13.com 2
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THE CONSUL GENERAL OF ITALY NEW YORK
Matteo Pugliese Growing up in Italy, among churches, monuments, paintings and sculptures, makes you understand what the classical ideals of beauty and harmony are. It also means to have the chance to admire some of the most sublime artistic representations of the human body and creativity. Matteo Pugliese’s works reflect this thousand years old tradition, being at the same time extremely modern, progressive and forward oriented. Human sculptures emerge from the matter and become real individuals, who escape homologation and reaffirm their unicity. They do not accept life as apathy, and they struggle to exist, refusing to be particle of an overwhelming universe. “Extra Moenia” works artistically descend from the thousand years old Italian cultural heritage. Classical art, body myth, Michelangelo’s struggle between matter and form are embedded in the Italian artist sculptures. These works merge together plastic tradition and contemporary sculpture, classicism and innovation, respect for the past and building of the future. Thanks to Bertrand Delacroix Gallery, it is with great pleasure that we see this very Italian exhibition taking place in New York, the most important and receptive artistic and cultural crossroads of the Western world.
Natalia Quintavalle Consul General
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690 PARK AVE, NEW YORK, NY 10065 | (212) 737-9100
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Alternativa Silver 39” x 18” x 10¼” Bronze 2013
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Tempesta 23½” x 17¾” x 10½” Bronze 2014
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The Line 67¾” x 30¾” x 11½” Bronze 2014
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Boxer 37½” x 17¾” x 10¼” Bronze 2014
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Kriya 26¾” x 25½” x 7¾” Bronze 2014
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M AT T E O P U G L I E S E Born in Milan in 1969. In 1978 his family moved to Sardinia where Matteo lived for the next 12 years. During this time he developed a strong love for drawing and sculpture and continued his art work without any formal education. In 1995 he received his degree in Modern literature at the University of Milan with a graduation thesis on Art criticism. In 2001 he organized and financed his first solo exhibition renting private space in the centre of Milan. Only 18 months later he held his first “official” exhibition in a gallery in Milan, and after a few months he held a solo show in Brussels. Today his works are on permanent display in galleries in Italy and major cities throughout the world, Rome, Hong Kong, London, Brussels, Lugano, Capri and Antwerp and have been shown at some of the most international art fairs such as: Hong Kong Art Fair, Miami Art Basel, Arco (Madrid), ArtFirst (Bologna), Miart (Milan), Fiac (Paris), Eurantica (Brussels), CI Contemporary Istanbul and many others. In recent years his pieces have been sold with considerable success at some of the world’s most prestigious fine art auction houses (Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Bonham’s, Dorotheum etc). He is married with one daughter. He lives and works between Barcelona and Milan.
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On Pugliese’s innovative bronze sculptures, Luca Beatrice, Italian art critic and curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 53° Venice Biennial, stated: “His sculpture [is] absolutely figurative and at the same time absolutely contemporary. These are adjectives that at first sight are hard to force into coexistence. Pugliese has adopted the path of a renewed Pop Art, original and hyper-contemporary, that dismantles the old dictates on statuary into strongly characterized and newly gestated expressive fragments…One can discern in the tense nerves and imposing limbs of his sculptures the dense musculature of the giants on the Sistine Ceiling or the sixteenth-century anatomical studies of Leonardo daVinci, and find in the poses some hint of bacchanals, saints (Sebastian in particular), Last Judgments - but Pugliese avoids the risk of a sculpture so purely classical as to seem anachronistic…. In a display of titanic potency, his modern Telamons do not support the weight of the architecture holding them, but are an integral part of a whole from which they try to break free. The bodily violence imposed by the material is emancipated in the sculptural details, rendered dramatically expressive by Pugliese’s hands.”
Vertigo II 44¾” x 12½” x 14” Bronze 2014
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S O LO EX HI BI TI ONS 2015 “Infinite Battaglie”, White Room Gallery, Positano (Sa), Italy 2014 “Serenissima Babel”, Caffè Florian, Venice, Italy 2013 “Passaggi”, Imago art Gallery, Lugano, Switzerland
“Corazze”, Fondazione Mudima, Milan, Italy
2012 Presentation of the bronze sculpture “Samurai Guardian V”, MAS Museum, Antwerp, Belgium “Matteo Pugliese: Sculptures” WM Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium “The summer of the Beetle”, Galerie Noordeinde, The Hague, Holland 2011 “Matteo Pugliese - CORAZZE”. Casa d’arte Artribù, Rome, Italy “I Guardiani del Tempo”, Imago Art Gallery, Lugano, Switzerland
“Out of the Wall”, Sculpture Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2010 “From the wall and further tales”, Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery, Hong Kong
“HEROES”, Galerie Noordeinde, The Hague, Holland
2009 “Through Light and Space: G. Morandi & M. Pugliese”, Imago Art Gallery, London, UK 2008 “Matteo Pugliese- Walter Trecchi” Galerie Noordeinde. The Hague, Holland 2007 “Matteo Pugliese, Sculptures”, Filip Kesteloot Sculpture Gallery, Brussels , Belgium 2006 “ Matteo Pugliese” Galleria Pittura Italiana, Milan, Italy 2006 “De Ontsnapping: M.Pugliese, A. Smirnof” Galerie Noordeinde, The Hague, Holland 2005 “Extra Moenia”, Galleria Gagliardi , Taormina (Messina), Italy 2004 “Matteo Pugliese & M.M. Gautier”, Filip Kesteloot “Sculpture Gallery” Brussels, Belgium 2004 “Freedom”, Galleria Gagliardi, San Gimignano (Siena), Italy “Flight from the wall”, Filip Kesteloot Sculpture Gallery”, Brussels, Belgium 2003 “Matteo Pugliese, sculture: 1998-2003”, Galleria “Il Castello”, Milan, Italy 2002 “Matteo Pugliese – Extra Moenia”, Orea Malià, Milan, Italy 2001 “Extra Moenia, Matteo Pugliese ”, McCann-Erickson, Milan, Italy
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Indian Guardian (Vaishravana) 17” x 9¾” x 8½” Bronze 2015 22
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Swiss Guardian 22½” x 13¾” x 11” Bronze, terracotta and Swiss coins 2013 24
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Ethiopian Guardian (Mursi) 15¾” x 9½” x 8½” Bronze 2014 26
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Amazonian Guardian (Yanomami) 17¼” x 8¾” x 8¼” Bronze 2015
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Zeitgeist 55” x 17¾” x 10¼” Bronze 2012
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La Promessa 43¾” x 24½” x 10¼” Bronze 2010
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Pan 37¾” x 12½” x 10½” Bronze 2013
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Dannato 28¼” x 17¾” x 10¼” Bronze 2012
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Closed 47¼” x 59” x 10¼” Bronze 2010
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Attraverso 49¼” x 20¾” x 10¼” Bronze 2010
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Zenith 49¼” x 48” x 5” Bronze 2010
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Acriter 28¾” x 13¾” x 7¾” Bronze 2015
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Raw 29” x 14½” x 9” Bronze 2015
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Inuit Guardian 12¼” x 9” x 8¼” Bronze and terracotta 2014 48
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Maori Guardian III 17” x 11¾” x 10½” Bronze 2014 50
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Samurai Guardian VIII 24” x 15” x 11” Bronze and terracotta 2013 52
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Samurai Guardian V 82¾” x 55” x 49¼” Bronze and terracotta 2010
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Fire 29” x 13¼” x 7½” Bronze 2011 56
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Gravitas 34½” x 35½” x 15” Bronze 2014
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Infinite Battaglie 33” x 11½” x 10½” Bronze 2015
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Crossed 50¼” x 29½” x 14½” Bronze 2013
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Working on Specchio – my soul is reflected into the palm of my hands.
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Specchio 38” x 22¾” x 13¾” Bronze 2013
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Acriter pg. 44 - 45 | edition 7+3 75 x 40 x 20 cm
Alternativa Silver pg. 6 - 7 | edition 3+1 99 x 46 x 26 cm
Attraverso pg. 40 - 41 | edition 7+3 125 x 53 x 26 cm
Boxer pg. 12 - 13 | edition 7+3 95 x 45 x 25 cm
Closed pg. 38 - 39 | edition 7+3 120 x 150 x 25 cm
Crossed pg. 62 - 63 | edition 7+3 128 x 75 x37 cm
Dannato pg. 36 - 37 | edition 7+3 72 x 45 x 27 cm
Fire pg. 56 - 57 | edition 7+3 74 x 32 x 19 cm
Gravitas pg. 58 - 59 | edition 7+3 88 x 90 x 38 cm
Infinite Battaglie pg. 60 - 61 | edition 7+3 84 x 29 x 27 cm
Kriya pg. 14 - 15 | edition 7+3 68 x 65 x 20 cm
La Promessa pg. 32 - 33 | edition 7+3 111 x 62 x 26 cm
Pan pg. 34 - 35 | edition 7+3 96 x 32 x 27 cm
Raw pg. 46 - 47 | edition 7+3 74 x 37 x 23 cm
Specchio pg. 66 - 67 | edition 7+3 97 x 58 x 35 cm
Tempesta pg. 8 -9 | edition 7+3 60 x 45 x 27 cm
GUARDIANS
Amazonian Guardian (Yanomami) pg. 28 - 29 | edition 7+3 44 x 22 x 20 cm
Ethiopian Guardian (Mursi) pg. 26 - 27 | edition 7+3 40 x 24 x 22 cm
Indian Guardian (Vaishravana) pg. 22 - 23 | edition 7+3 43 x 24.5 x 22 cm
Inuit Guardian pg. 48 - 49 | edition 7+3 31 x 23 x 20 cm
Maori Guardian III pg. 50 - 51 | edition 7+3 43.5 x 30 x 27 cm
Samurai Guardian V pg. 54 - 55 | edition 4+1 210 x 140 x 125 cm
Samurai Guardian VIII pg. 52 - 53 | edition 7+3 61 x 38 x 28 cm
Swiss Guardian pg. 24 - 25 | edition 7+3 57 x 35 x 28 cm
OPPOSITE:
The Line pg. 10 - 11 | edition 7+3 172 x 78 x 29 cm 68 |
Vertigo II pg. 19 | edition 7+3 114 x 32 x 36 cm
Zeitgeist pg. 30 - 31 | edition 7+3 140 x 45 x 25 cm
Zenith pg. 42 - 43 | edition 7+3 125 x 122 x 13 cm
EXTRA MOENIA
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