UMBERTO MARIANI & LE MONOCHROME ITALIEN Agostino Bonalumi Lucio Fontana Enrico Castellani Turi Simeti Pino Manos Alessandro Algardi Marcello Lo Giudice
« Ses créations sont à la fois des « tableaux » dans le sens classique, mais avec un sujet qui est réduit à une manifestation objectale et purement référentielle qui est une vue de l’esprit. Une fois accompli ce renversement de perspective, le « tableau » ressurgit sous une apparence nouvelle et peut être vécu par le spectateur autant comme objet de contemplation que comme objet de méditation. C’est là que résident la force et la beauté de son cheminement esthétique. » Gérard-Georges Lemaire
LA VIE DANS LES PLIS
En 1990, alors qu’il travaille à un nouvel hommage à Chirico figurant un bord de plage, Umberto Mariani utilise une feuille de plomb qu’il façonne de manière à suggérer les ondulations du drapeau dans le vent. Ces petits morceaux de drapé vont jouer un rôle de détonateur. Le drapé ne se contente pas de hanter discrètement toute l’histoire de l’art depuis la Grèce antique et Rome jusqu’à la Renaissance et au XVIIIe siècle. Peint ou sculpté, le drapé est partout et occupe une place prééminente dans la représentation de l’Homme : de par ce qu’il cache et révèle tout à la fois, de par la symbolique de ses couleurs. Et depuis ses débuts de peintre, Mariani lui-même s’est plongé avec délice d’abord dans des drapés de satin, dans les coussins profonds et moelleux du design des Sixties, puis dans ceux des voiles qui recouvraient son alphabet et enfin dans les grands rideaux de théâtre qui se déployaient dans ses compositions baroques. Au fond il y a toujours eu chez Mariani cette « question pratique » — picturale et/ou sculpturale —, qui consiste à se demander comment animer la surface de la toile, quelle présence, quel relief lui donner. Cette interrogation renvoie à tout un pan de l’histoire de l’art italien d’après-guerre, à un espace de recherche artistique qui a été ouvert et exploré tout d’abord par Fontana avec le spatialisme et ses fameux « buchi » (trous) et ses « attese » (fentes), et plus avant avec les recherches d’artistes tels que Scheggi, Castellani, Bonalumi ou encore Dadamaino et ses Volumi. Ce qui fait la force de Mariani, c’est d’avoir trouvé sa voie parmi ses pairs, d’avoir su les comprendre et les apprécier tout en sachant s’en distinguer pour proposer au final quelque chose d’unique et de singulier qui lui appartient en propre. Ainsi, au-delà des qualités plastiques indéniables de ses œuvres, de la somptuosité de sa palette, de la précision et de la majesté de ses compositions, il y a un langage plastique qui n’appartient qu’à lui. C’est cela qui le rend à la fois unique et irremplaçable et contribue au rayonnement de l’art italien aujourd’hui. Mariani a toujours été à l’écoute des choses, du monde qui l’entoure comme des matériaux qu’il utilise. Il pressent les feuilles de plomb comme un tissu dense et lourd, un matériau « muet » avec lequel il pourrait passer de l’illusion de relief au relief lui-même. C’est là que les pièces du puzzle se sont assemblées et qu’il a pu fusionner ses recherches autour du drapé et « donner corps à son désir d’aller au-delà de la représentation, de réussir à animer la surface du tableau, à lui donner une vie et une présence non seulement physique mais aussi spirituelle ». Chez les artistes cités précédemment, l’élasticité de la toile était utilisée pour créer un effet de relief et de tension en direction du spectateur, phénomène désigné par le mot italien « extroflessa ». Chez Mariani, le procédé est inverse, le pli s’enfonce dans la toile et renvoie non plus à l’idée de relief ou de sailli mais de profondeur « introflessa». Ainsi, son travail se rapproche à bien des égards de celui de Fortuni et de Capucci, deux immenses créateurs de mode italiens qui, à leur manière, ont travaillé avec et dans les plis.
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Mais contrairement à ce qui peut advenir avec un tissu, il n’y a pas ici de place pour le hasard ou l’accident. Chez Mariani, le drapé fait l’objet d’une mise en scène, d’une construction rigoureuse. Si le travail de dessin préparatoire est intuitif, chaque composition est en fait soigneusement élaborée avant d’être méticuleusement exécutée. L’amplitude des mouvements ondulatoires, la dimension des creux et des crêtes, la disposition des plis, tout cela fait l’objet d’une réflexion sur l’espace qui s’inscrit dans cette tradition issue de la Renaissance où la perspective permettait d’ordonner le regard et le monde selon un ordre géométrique intangible. « C’est la grande tradition italienne dans laquelle j’aspire à m’inscrire », dit Mariani. Et d’ajouter : « quand je travaille, je pense toujours aux grands maîtres du passé ». Parfois la composition du drapé, la couleur monochrome et la présence de l’œuvre se suffisent à ellesmêmes ; parfois Mariani réintroduit une « forme cachée » (forma celata) renouant avec l’idée d’un rideau recouvrant un objet physique dont nous pressentons la présence sans pouvoir le voir. De l’un de ses voyages au Mali puis au Niger découle une série d’œuvres intitulée Tagelmoust: il velo, du nom de la coiffe traditionnelle des Touaregs. L’artiste va réaliser une série de sculptures et de tableaux de couleur indigo, « l’avant dernière couleur du spectre, un mélange de bleu et de violet qui m’hypnotise », dixit Mariani. Comme le fait chacune des teintes et des nuances utilisées de manière monochromatique : rouge vif, or, argent, jaune solaire, mauve, vert profond, gris sombre ou rose strident… D’un point de vue formel, on songe aux Date Paintings de Kawara et aux empaquetages de Christo, mais aussi aux plis des achromes de Manzoni. Sur des fonds monochromes, l’artiste peint de simples dates ou des noms de lieu : Titicaca, Zakagikar, Oulan Bator, Xinjiang, Rajasthan, Tenere… On découvre alors cet autre aspect de la vie de l’artiste, celui d’un voyageur passionné parti aux quatre coins du monde avec une prédilection pour les contrées inaccessibles ou lointaines, les hauts plateaux montagneux ou encore les mers polaires. À l’âge de cinquante ans, il s’est mis à sillonner la planète, arpentant plaines et montagnes, plis et replis des paysages qu’il appelle « les rides du monde », comme il arpente de la main et du regard les plis et replis du drapé dans son atelier, afin d’en exhumer ou d’en retirer chaque jour toute la profonde belleza.
David Rosenberg
‘His creations are “pictures” in the classical sense, but with a subject that has been reduced to a purely referential expression of an object which offers us a view of the mind. Once it has accomplished this reversal of perspective, the “picture” resurfaces in a new guise and can be experienced by the viewer both as an object of contemplation and as an object of meditation. This is where the strength and beauty of his aesthetic journey reside.’ Gérard-Georges Lemaire
LIFE IN THE FOLDS
In 1990, while working on a new tribute to de Chirico depicting a beach, Mariani used a sheet of lead shaped in such a way as to suggest the fluttering of a flag in the wind. And without him being truly aware of it at the time, these small pieces of drapery were going to act as a trigger. In fact, it had all been there right in front of his eyes for a long time. The drape was not to be content with discreetly haunting the whole history of art since the time of ancient Greece and Rome and right up until the Renaissance and the 18th century. Whether painted or sculpted, drapery is everywhere and holds a pre-eminent place in the representation of the human being: by what it at once conceals and reveals, by the symbolism of its colours. And ever since his debut as a painter, Mariani had first delighted in satin drapes, in the deep, soft cushions of the design of the 1960s, and then in those veils that had covered his alphabet and finally in the great theatre curtains deployed in his baroque compositions. After all, this ‘practical question’ – whether the ‘practice’ be painting or sculpture – has always been there for Mariani: how to bring the surface of the canvas to life, what presence, what relief to give to it? It is an interrogation that relates to an entire segment of the history of post-war Italian art, to an area of artistic research that had first been opened up and explored by Lucio Fontana with Spatialism and his famous buchi (‘holes’) and tagli (‘slashes’) and then further investigated by artists like Paolo Scheggi, Enrico Castellani and Agostino Bonalumi, or by Dadamaino and his Volumes. Mariani’s strength lies in having found his own way among his peers, in having been able to understand and appreciate them while knowing how to distinguish himself, in order to offer something unique and singular, in the end something that is his. Indeed, quite apart from the undeniable plastic qualities of his works, the sumptuousness of his palette and the precision and majesty of his compositions, he has a visual language that belongs to him alone. This is what makes him both unique and irreplaceable and has contributed to the influence Italian art exercises today. Mariani has always been attentive to things, to the world around him, as well as to the materials he uses. He senses sheets of lead as a dense and heavy fabric, a ‘mute’ material with which he could pass from the illusion of relief to relief itself. This is where the pieces of the puzzle came together and he was able to get his research into drapery to gel and ‘give substance to his desire to go beyond representation, to succeed in animating the surface of the picture, in giving it a life and a presence that is not only physical but also spiritual’. Among the artists previously mentioned, the elasticity of the fabric was used to create an effect of relief and reaching out towards the viewer, a phenomenon expressed by the Italian word estroflessione or eversion. For Mariani, the process is reversed: the fold sinks into the fabric and no longer alludes to the idea of relief or projection but to depth (introflessione or introflexion). Hence in many ways, his work come close to the creations of Mariano Fortuny and Roberto Capucci, two great Italian fashion designers who worked in their own way with and in folds.
We should not be misled by this comparison: there is no room for chance or accident, in contrast to what may happen with a piece of fabric. In Mariani, the drapery has been staged, it is the product of a rigorous act of construction. Although the work of preparatory drawing is very intuitive, each composition is actually carefully worked out before being meticulously executed. The amplitude of undulatory movements, the depth of hollows, the height of ridges, and the arrangement of folds, all this is subject to a reflection on the space which fits into the tradition of the Renaissance where perspective made it possible to organize the gaze and the world in accordance with an intangible geometrical order. ‘This is the great Italian tradition which I aspire to be a part of’, says Mariani. And he adds: ‘When I’m working, I always think of the great masters of the past.’ Sometimes the composition of the drapery, the monochrome colour and the presence of the work are self-sufficient, while at others Mariani reintroduces a forma celata (hidden form), returning to the idea of a curtain covering a physical object whose presence we sense without being able to see it directly. Out of one of his trips to Mali and then Niger comes a series of works entitled Taghelmoust: il velo (Taghelmoust: the Veil), named after the traditional Tuareg headdress. The artist created a set of sculptures and paintings of an indigo colour, ‘The penultimate colour in the spectrum, a mixture of blue and purple that mesmerizes me’, declares Mariani. As does each of the hues and shades he uses in a monochromatic way: bright red, gold, silver, sunshine yellow, mauve, dark green, dark grey or shocking pink... From a formal point of view, this calls to mind On Kawara’s Date Paintings and Christo’s wrappings, as well as the folds of Manzoni’s Achromes. The horizontal formats are elongated, as if they were traffic signs. On plain monochrome backgrounds, the artist has painted simple dates or place names in block capitals: Titicaca, Lakagikar, Ulaanbaatar, Xinjiang, Rajasthan, Ténéré... And so we discover another aspect of the artist’s life, that of a passionate traveller who has been all over the world, showing a preference for inaccessible or remote areas, for high mountain plateaus or polar seas. At the age of fifty, he began to roam the planet, tramping across plains and mountains, creases and folds in the landscape that he calls ‘the wrinkles of the world’, just as he measures the pleats and folds of drapery with his hand and eye while working in his studio, in order to dig up or carry away all the deep bellezza each day that passes. David Rosenberg
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Senza titolo, 2017 Vinyl and sand on lead sheet 121.5 x 90 cm 47.8 x 35.4 in.
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Senza titolo, 2017 Vinyl and sand on lead sheet 120.5 x 80.5 cm 47.4 x 31.7 in.
senza titolo, 2016 Vinyl and sand on lead sheet 43 x 33.5 cm 16.9 x 13.2 in.
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la forma celata, 2016 Vinyl and sand on lead sheet 42.5 x 33.5 cm 16.7 x 13.2 in.
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la forma celata, 2016
la forma celata, 2016
Vinyl and sand on lead sheet 80 x 60.5 cm 31.5 x 23.8 in.
Vinyl and sand on lead sheet 80.5 x 60.5 cm 31.7 x 23.8 in.
senza titolo, 2016 Vinyl and sand on lead sheet 90 x 120.5 cm 35.4 x 47.4 in.
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TAGHELMOUST: IL VELO, 2016 Vinyl and sand on lead sheet 80 X 120.5 cm 31.5 x 47.4 in.
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senza titolo, 2016 Vinyl and sand on lead sheet 33 x 44 cm 13 x 17.3 in.
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Senza titolo, 2016 Vinyl and sand on lead sheet 120.5 x 90 cm 47.4 x 35.4 in.
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TAGHELMOUST: IL VELO, 2016 Vinyl and sand on lead sheet 120 x 90 cm 47.2 x 35.4 in.
senza titolo, 2016 Vinyl and sand on lead sheet 120 x 90 cm 47.2 x 35.4 in.
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la forma celata (plomb), 2015 Vinyl and sand on lead sheet 60 x 80 cm 23.6 x 31.5 in.
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demi blanc-demi bleu, 2016 Vinyl and sand on lead sheet 180 x 270 x 40 cm 70.9 x 106.3 x 15.7 in.
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senza titolo - 5 pezzi, 2015 Vinyl and sand on lead sheet 226 x 240 cm 89 x 94.5 in.
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U m b e r t o M A R I A N I (B. 1936) Born in 1936 in Milan, Italy 1950-1958 Accademia di Brera, Achille Funi studio 1954-1958, Milan, Italy Selected exhibitions | Expositions majeures
senza titolo - 2 pezzi, 2015 Vinyl and sand on lead sheet 200 x 151 cm 78.7 x 59.4 in.
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2016 Umberto Mariani: Sinfonie di pieghe: la superficie introflessa, Fondazione Mudima, Milan, Italy Mariani chez Capucci, Villa Bardini, Florence, Italy 2015 Umberto Mariani – Piombi, Jérôme Zodo Contemporary, Milan, Italy Rigorismo, Unix Gallery, New York, USA MiArt, Lattuada Studio at MiArt, Miami, USA PAD Paris, Opera Gallery, Paris, France 2014 Monochromes Italiens, Opera Gallery, Monaco Artissima, Torino, Italy Andante, Opera Gallery, Hong Kong 2013 La donazione Spagna Bellora, Museo del Novecento, Civici Musei di Milano, Milan, Italy 2011 Tresartes, Progettoarte-ELM, Milan, Italy 2010 Gli anni 70, Progettoarte-ELM, Milan, Italy 2009 Umberto Mariani, GlobArt Gallery, Acqui Terme, Italy Umberto Mariani - Trittici, Progettoarte - ELM, Milan, Italy Art of Live - for 5 000 €, La Triennale di Milano, Design Museum, Milan, Italy G.N.S.P. (Great Names Small Prices), Artiscope, Brussels, Belgium 2005 Collezione 2005, Grossetti Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy XIV Quadriennale di Roma, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna (GNAM), Rome, Italy 2004 Accelerato Torino-Napoli, Artiscope, Brussels, Belgium 2000 Omaggio a Paola, Artiscope, Brussels, Belgium
1996 Avoir 30 ans... c’est Graff, Musée d´Art Contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, Canada 1986 Graff 1966 - 1986, Musée d´Art Contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, Canada 1974 Quatre peintres et une ville: Milan, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France 1973 Quatre peintres et une ville: Milan, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
L u c i o F O N T A N A (1899 - 1968 ) Lucio Fontana is an Italian painter, sculptor and ceramist. As the founder of the Spazialismo (Spatialism) movement, he is best known for his three dimensional monochromatic canvases punctuated with slashes and perforations. Fontana was born in Rosario de Santa Fé, Argentina, to Milanese sculptor Luigi Fontana and an Argentinian mother. From Argentina, the Fontana family moved to Italy in 1905-1922, then again in Rosario de Santa Fé, where Lucio Fontana worked in his father studio before opening his own sculpture studio. He returned to Italy in 1928, settling in Milan where he presented his first exhibition as he pursued his studies in sculpture at the Brera Academy 1928-30. The initial idea of Spazialismo was conceptualised by Fontana in 1947 in collaboration with a group of writers and philosophers as the first manifesto of Spatialism. It was in 1949 that Fontana defined his career and his art when he created and presented his first series of paintings with punctured canvas, transforming a two-dimensional platform into a three dimensional work of art. Through the 1950s, Fontana continued to develop and refine his signature style by the application of slashes, gouges and perforations in both his paintings and sculptures. Throughout his illustrious career, Fontana’s iconic works have been showcased in many prestigious exhibitions such as the 1966 Venice Biennale, Italy and the 1968 Documenta Kassel, Germany. Fontana’s paintings are presented around the world notably in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and in the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome.
CONCETTO SPAZIALE (TEATRINO), 1965 Waterpaint on canvas and lacquered wood frame 110.5 x 110.5 cm 43.5 x 43.5 in.
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CONCETTO SPAZIALE, ATTESA, 1963-1964 Waterpaint on canvas 42.5 x 42.5 cm 16.7 x 16.7 in.
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CONCETTO SPAZIALE, ATTESE, 1967 Waterpaint on canvas 73 x 60 cm 28.7 x 23.6 in.
CONCETTO SPAZIALE, 1952 Watercolour and perforations on paper 49 x 60 cm 19.3 x 23.6 in.
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CONCETTO SPAZIALE, ATTESA, 1964 Waterpaint on canvas 33.6 x 24.3 cm 13.2 x 9.6 in.
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E n r i c o CA S T E L L A N I ( b. 1930 ) Enrico Castellani is regarded as one of Italy’s most important living artists. Born in Castelmassa in 1930, he studied sculpture and painting at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, in 1952 and subsequently architecture at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Belgium. In the early 1950s he began challenging the confines of painting, sculpture, and architecture in search of a new paradigm. A catalytic figure in the European post-war Avant Garde, with the help of his mentor Lucio Fontana, Castellani founded the Azimut gallery and the related journal Azimuth in Milan in 1959 with Piero Manzoni. They organised international exhibitions and published essays that opposed the dominant art movements in Europe at the time, promoting the idea of an art that did not imitate but instead sprang self-referentially from its own techniques and materials. Considered as relief paintings, Castellani creates a three-dimensional work from a two-dimensional canvas by fastening the canvas over protruding nails to allow for variations in positive and negative space, light, and shade. This concept gradually evolved into shaped canvases, diptychs, and triptychs in a range of colours, though white predominated. In 1959 Castellani exhibited his now celebrated ‘Superficie Nera’ for the first time. To make them, he worked his monochrome canvases with a nail gun to produce a relief-life surface that induced light and shade effects through alternating depressions and raised areas. In the 1970s and 1980s, he expanded his approach to include other materials such as aluminium; but Castellani’s focus upon a poetic marriage of painting, sculpture, architecture, and space has never wavered. Castellani has exhibited at prestigious museums around the world, including The Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. He represented Italy at the Venice Biennale in 1964 and in 2010, he became the first Italian artist ever to receive the Praemium Imperiale for Painting.
SUPERFICIE OPALINE, 1976 Acrylic, graphite, polyester resin on shaped canvas 100 x 100 cm 39.4 x 39.4 in.
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SUPERFICIE BIANCA, 1990 Acrylic on canvas 120 x 120 x 10 cm 47.2 x 47.2 in.
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A g o s t i n o B O N A L U M I (1935 - 2013 ) Born in Vimercate, Milan, Italy, Bonalumi studied technical drawing at the Istituto Tecnico Industriale, Vimercate. Though his artistic talent was already evident at a young age of 13 years when he first exhibited his firguratuve work on paper. A self taught painter, Bonalumi continued his pursuit in art through his collaboration with renowned contemporary Italian artists Piero Manzoni and Enrico Castellani leading to the formation of the journal Azimuth with Castellani. It was Bonalumi’s frequent visit to Italian contemporary art master, Lucio Fontana’s studio that set the stage for Bonalumi to develop his distinctive style. Innovated by Bonalumi in the discovery of ‘extroflection’, he specifically outfitted stretcher bars with dynamically shaped relief elements to press against the back of a taut canvas, giving these flat surfaces a sense of depth and dimension. Inspired and influenced by Lucio Fontana’s radical conceptions of space in his sliced and punctured canvases, Bonalumi and his partner friends devised practices that emphasized the physical presence and forthright materiality if the work of art – an idea they referred to as ’pittur-oggetto’ (painting-object). Their work was instrumental in propagating international currents of the Avant-Garde such as the German Zero group, the French Nouveau Réalisme and the American Neo Dada. Throughout the course of his illustrious career, Bonalumi’s works have been exhibited at prestigious museums, esteemed art events and renowned galleries around the world. In 2001, Bonalumi was awarded the Presidente della Republica Prize which was supported by a solo show at the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in Rome in 2003.
BLU, 1988 Gouache on canvas 81.2 x 100.2 cm 32 x 39.4 in.
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Tu r i S I M E TI ( b. 1929 ) Turi Simeti is an Italian painter affiliated with Spatialism and the ZERO group and is considered a true pioneer, a “maestro” of 20th and 21st century Italian art. Simeti is often described as an engineer of light, colour, and geometry. Simeti was born in Sicilia in 1929 before moving to Rome in 1958, where he then started painting as an autodidact. Simeti embarked upon a successful career as an artist in 1962, developing the oval motif that would be a keystone of his work for decades to come. Known for his Minimalist, monochrome canvases, Simeti worked alongside other members of the Avant-Garde such as Yves Klein and Piero Manzoni. Simeti’s work embodies the desire of the artists of his generation to capture a peaceful quality through monochromatic abstraction during the aftermath of World War II. Simeti’s first Milanese years led to a considerable number of experiences where the surface of his canvases became a space to be conquered with radical elements, drawn both from minimalism and the notion of the monochrome. For the last 50 years, Simeti has created in his works different types of tension on several formats, frequently relying on small-scale canvases to produce startling dimensions. Usually employing the motif of the oval and oblong ellipses, he has attempted to develop an irregular writing system that liberates the surface of the canvas from the old principles of materiality which allowed nothing but the silent expression of the dynamic patterns dancing across the monochromatic surfaces of shaped canvases. This focused combination of color and shape speaks to Simeti’s concern with emphasizing the physical presence of the artwork itself, rather than an expression of the artist’s voice. Simeti’s work explores the play of light on shapes created on monochromatic and tactile canvas surfaces. His works exist not as single entities but as an active experience of colour, shape and shadows that ultimately captures the dynamism that exists between these aesthetic elements. Simeti’s monochrome shaped canvases are examples of pure formalism that helped pioneer the now well-established idea that paintings can be three-dimensional art objects. Always subtle, his oeuvre is dynamic in its textured surfaces, saturated colours and masterful shadow work. Since 1965 his work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, and is included in prominent collections such as the MAM (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), the Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bolzano (Bolzano, Italy), and the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum (Ludwigshafen, Germany). In 1965, he was included in “ZERO Avantgarde,” an exhibition of young Italian artists held at Lucio Fontana’s atelier in Milan, Italy. After this, he had solo exhibitions around the world, such as the prestigious Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, USA and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy. He currently lives and works in Milan, Italy.
UN OVALE rosso, 2015 Acrylic on shaped canvas 30 x 30 cm 11.8 x 11.8 in.
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UN OVALE BIANCO, 2015 Acrylic on shaped canvas 30 x 30 cm 11.8 x 11.8 in.
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P i n o M A N O S ( b. 1930) Pino Manos was born in Sassari, Italy, on March 10, 1930. In 1951 he moved to Milan where he attended the Academy of Fine Arts “Cimabue” (along with Enrico Castellani and Vincenzo Agnetti) and “Brera”. Befriends Roberto Crippa, Gianni Dova, Marino Marini, Augustino Bonalumi and Bruno Munari but especially with Lucio Fontana adhering to the movement of Spatialism. At the same time he joined the faculty of Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano. In 1956, he lives and works in Rome inserting in the artistic and cultural heritage, very alive and fruitful in that period, characterised by its association with Alberto Burri. In 1957 he moved to Florence, the city where he finished his studies of Architecture. Since 1962, he has been making long trips and stays of study and soul-searching in Europe and in India, Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Iran, Peru, Mexico, USA and in the Middle East. In 1962 he was called to London, along with the thirty most eminent artists in Europe to be the Manifesto “Europe 1962” Painting and Sculpture organised by New Vision Centre Gallery as the basis of the emerging European Union. Manos participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Italy and other parts of the world; his works are in several private and public collections in Italy and abroad (three of his works are in the collection of Nelson Rockefeller in New York). Manos moved permanently to Milan in 1968 where he currently lives and works. In 1980 he founded in Milan “The Creative” for the socialisation of Art and the development of creativity as a therapeutic element. The aim and purpose of the association is the awakening of latent potential in every individual through creativity, liberating the energies and untapping potential in a progressive journey of body awareness in its multiple modes of communication and expression. The liberation of the creative potential implies a therapeutic dimension for themselves and others. This methodology has been applied with positive results in drug addiction and disability. Manos organises and coordinates numerous seminars and conferences in various Italian cities, on topics related to Art and soul searching with contemplative practices. In 2010 it is the movement “rigor” in the horizon of Transpazialismo and beyond with artists Enrico Castellani, Agostino Bonalumi, Giuseppe Amadio, Cesare Berlingeri, Alberto They, Pino Manos, Vanna Nicolotti, Turi Simeti, Paul Scheggi, Paul Bazzocchi, Umberto Mariani, Pino Pinelli, curated and organized by Flavio Lattuada the Galleria Lattuada following the poetic space of Lucio Fontana. The group of artists are presented by philosopher Massimo Donà is expressed in a more radical spatialism and “rigorizzano” the canons exceeding common dimensionality accepting new forms of figuration and opening up to new means of expression.
sincronico nero profundo, 2015 Mixed media on canvas 130 x 130 cm 51.2 x 51.2 in.
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SPAZIO ESTROFLESSO GIALLO SOLARE, 2013 Mixed media on canvas 100 x 100 cm 39.4 x 39.4 in.
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SINCRONICITA ROSSO ARANCIO, 2016 Mixed media on canvas 100 x 140 cm 39.4 x 55.1 in.
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TRITTICO DI SPAZIO ESTROFLESSO GRIGIO PERLA, 2011 Mixed media on canvas 150 X 150 cm 59.1 X 59.1 in.
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DITTICO ESTROFLESSO ROSSO CADMIO LUCE, 2013 Mixed media on canvas 90 x 90 cm 35.4 x 35.4 in.
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SPAZIO ESTROFLESSO CYAN, 2013 Mixed media on canvas 120 x 120 cm 47.2 x 47.2 in.
sincronico bianco dinamico, 2015 Mixed media on canvas 60 x 120 cm 23.6 x 47.2 in.
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A l e s s a n d r o A L G A RD I ( b. 1945 ) Alessandro Algardi is an Italian artist born in Milan in 1945. Fluctuating within the experimental field of the visual-poetic, Algardi’s works examine the fluidity between the act of writing and the materiality of the canvas. Working on monochromatic canvas and paper, Algardi carves several layers of scripture onto one line, rendering the words unreadable and ultimately devoid of meaning. The painting, then, becomes the storyteller – a visual poetry suggesting the limitations of language to denote a complete reality. Algardi has participated in over one hundred gallery exhibitions worldwide, including the Imago Art Gallery in London, United Kingdom, the International Arts Center in Venice, USA, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, USA, throughout this career. His works appear in permanent collections of the Dubugue Museum of Art in Iowa, the Savannah College of Art & Design in Georgia, USA and the Museo Giovanni Verga in Vizzini, Italy, the Mart Museum in Rovereto and the Museo del Novecento in Milan, Italy, among others.
POEMA CELATO, 2014 Oil on canvas 100 x 95 cm 39.4 x 37.4 in.
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POEMA EVANESCENTE, 2013 Oil on canvas 180 x 220 cm 70.9 x 86.6 in.
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XXIV testo, 2015 Oil on canvas 119 x 121 cm 46.9 x 47.6 in.
MANOSCRITTO, 2013 Transparent acrylic colour on Plexiglas 100 x 100 cm 39.4 x 39.4 in.
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M a r c e l l o L O
G I U D I CE
( b. 1957 ) Marcello Lo Giudice graduated from the University of Bologna, Italy, in 1988 with a degree in geology. He then attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, where he studied under three figures of modern Italian art: Emilio Vedova (1919-2006), Giuseppe Santomaso (1907-1990), and Virgilio Guidi (1892-1984). Lo Giudice is considered one of the most innovative artists in the second wave of the European Art Informel, a form of abstract expressionism pioneered in France following the Second World War. The renowned art critic Pierre Restany, who coined the term Nouveau Réalisme with Yves Klein during a group show in Milan in 1960, described Lo Giudice’s work as, “…where light’s energy blends with metamorphism of the material to create remote geological views”. The art of Lo Giudice is rich in textures achieved through the application of coloured pigments in layers. Through these different interplay of textures, pigments and colours, Lo Giudice’s works are a visual and artistic representation of geographical form with a robust tactile quality. Lo Giudice has been written about and reviewed by numerous esteemed art critics, including Italian contemporary art critic and professor of History of Contemporary Art at La Sapienza University in Rome, and internationally renowned French art critic and philosopher, Pierre Restany. He has participated in the Venice Biennale in 2009 and 2011, and has exhibited in numerous exhibitions throughout the world. Lo Giudice’s works can be found in major public collections and museums including the MoMa, Zagreb; The Museum of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rome; John Elkann Collection, George Segal Collection, Phillip Morris, Switzerland among many others.
EDEN BLU, 2014 Pigment and oil on canvas 130 x 130 cm 51.2 x 51.2 in.
67 — 68
YELLOW SUN, 2016 69 — 70
Pigment and oil on canvas 130 x 130 cm 51.2 x 51.2 in.
EDEN RED, 2015 Pigment and oil on canvas 130 x 130 cm 51.2 x 51.2 in.
EDEN blu, 2015 Pigment and oil on canvas 50 x 60 cm 19.7 x 23.6 in.
71 — 72
Nous tenons à remercier les artistes pour leur confiance, ainsi que tous nos collectionneurs pour leur soutien bienveillant au fil des années. We would like to thank the artists for their trust, as well as all our collectors for their kind support throughout the years.
Coordinators: Fatiha Amer, Aurélie Heuzard, Annabel Decoust Authors: Fatiha Amer, David Rosenberg, Annabel Decoust Photography: Courtesy of Opera Gallery
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