Domani 4 Ottobre presso la Galleria Robilant+Voena si aprirà una retrospettiva su Agostino Bonalumi, con una trentina di sue opere.
Comunicato stampa
Robilant+Voena
are pleased to announce the exhibition of work by Agostino Bonalumi, open from
October 4th through to November 15th. Preceded by lengthy, in-depth research,
the exhibition is curated by Francesca Pola, under the supervision of the
artist and in cooperation with the Archivio Bonalumi. This will be Bonalumi’s
first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom since 1960, when the New Vision
Centre Gallery of London last presented his work to the English public.
Bonalumi, who at that time was reaping the first international successes of a
long career, is now recognized as one of the great protagonists of the European
Avant-garde.
Bonalumi. All the
Shapes of Space 1958-1976 will showcase a selection from nearly twenty years of
his work, reaffirming his key role in the context of a creativity aimed at
going beyond informal expression towards a significant reduction of the image
in a dialogue with the most creative experiments of the period, such as those
of the artists who congregated around the Azimut gallery in Milan and the Zero
and Nul groups in Germany and Holland.
The exhibition
starts from 1958, with the exceptional rediscovery of Senza Titolo that was
published in September 1959 in the first issue of the seminal Milanese art
journal, Azimuth. The painting is emblematic of the relationship with artists
such as Castellani and Manzoni who, like Bonalumi, worked in the wake of Lucio
Fontana’s creative legacy. The exhibition reveals the complexity and wealth of
Bonalumi’s research on form and material in the transition between the 60s
(fig. 1) and 70s (figs. 2-3), through the development of his experimentation
with shaped canvases, which from the early plastic versions evolve towards
large, rhythmic and luminous progressions. The exhibition includes never before
exhibited canvases from Italian private collections and an important loan from
the Museo Berardo of Lisbon: Bianco from 1964. For the first time ever, Blu
abitabile will be shown outside Italy. This environment was created for the
historic exhibition “Lo spazio dell’immagine” held in Palazzo Trinci, Foligno
in 1967, and was shown again in 1970 at the exhibition “Vitalità del negativo”
in the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome. The piece will be presented in its
original configuration.
The exhibition
will be accompanied by a book of over 200 pages, in English, edited by
Francesca Pola and published by Skira-Rizzoli. This is the first monograph to
be devoted to this crucial period of the artist’s career. Based on extensive
studies of his work during these decades, with about 180 images of paintings
and documents, it will also include a selection of his writings from the
period, an interview with the artist for the occasion and an iconographic
mapping of approximately thirty of Bonalumi’s works in museums around the
world, from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice to the Walker Art Center
in Minneapolis.
For further
information please contact: Mira Dimitrova (mira@robilanvoena.com; +44 207 409
1540).
Exhibition OPEN:
Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m.- 6:00 p.m., Sat 11-5pm, Sun 13 and 20 Oct 12-5pm.
Admission: FREE
