Alberto Biasi was born in 1937 in Padua, Italy. Biasi, along with other artists, founded the Group ENNE in 1959. Biasi is known internationally to be one of the leading artists of optical-kinetic art and a number of other initiatives for artistic experimentation, thriving especially in the 1960’s. This due to his artistic creations built on the basis of precise optical illusions. His paintings generally have surfaces that change appearance depending on the angle of view, thus giving the false sense of movement. Biasi was involved in numerous milestone exhibitions in the history of kinetic art, such as "Nine Tendencije" in Zagreb and the exhibition The Responsive Eye at MoMA in New York. In 1988 he was part of a major retrospective at the Museum of the Hermits of Padua, in 1995 the retrospective "Biasi and the Group ENNE,” in 2007 the exhibition at the Diocesan Museum of Barcelona and participated in 2008 at the International Triennale of Contemporary Art in Prague.
Embossed PVC on table
Diameter 28.15 inches (71.5 cm)
Provenance
Collection of the artist
Agostino Bonalumi was born in 1935 in Milan, Italy. Bonalumi studied technical and mechanical design at the Istituto Tecnico Industriale, but eventually abandoned his studies to become a painter. He is recognized as an abstract artist known for his estroflessioni (painting objects) and was one of the leading figures in the post-World War II Italian avant-garde. In the late 1950s, the artist befriended Piero Manzoni and Enrico Castellani and the three held their first exhibition together in 1958. The artists also co-founded the gallery Azimuth, as well as a publication under the same name. During the 1960s, Bonalumi began creating reliefs and other sculptural objects, and by the 1970s, he turned away from the illusionism of painting completely to focus on three-dimensional works. Greatly inspired by Lucio Fontana and his ground-breaking use of space, Bonalumi placed objects behind the canvas, which were then pressed against the surface to create the effect of volume beyond the picture plane. He was also commissioned to create sets for the Teatro Roma in Verona, as well as the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome. Bonalumi has held exhibitions in galleries and museums around the world, including in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States. In 2002, he was awarded the Presidente della Repubblica Prize. Bonalumi lives and works in Milan.
Oil on shaped canvas
55 x 55 in. (140 x 140 cm)
Turi Simeti was born in 1929 in Alcamo, Trapani, Italy. Simeti moved to Rome in 1958 and while attending the studio of Alberto Burri he was initially inspired by his burned material before his work became purely monochrome. In the 1960s, he actively participated in major exhibitions organized by spatialists, in particular New Trend 3, Arte Programmata - Aktuel 65 and the ZERO movement. In 1965, he was invited to participate in the debut ZERO Avantgarde project in Lucio Fontana’s studio, followed by his participation in 1966 in the historic White on White exhibition curated by Harald Szeemann at theKunsthalle Berne in Switzerland. As Artist-In-Residence at the Fairleigh Dickinson University, NJ, Simeti spent most of the late 1960s in his New York studio, where he produced numerous works. His work began to attract great attention in Switzerland and Germany and for most of the 1970s his works were exhibited all across Europe. In the 1980s he spent long periods in Brazil, where he exhibited at the Paco Imperial in Rio de Janeiro. In 1989 he returned to Italy with a solo presentation at the Vismara Gallery in Milan, followed by a three person exhibition; Bonalumi - Castellani - Simeti: Three Itineraries in Milan in 1990. In the 1990s Simeti saw more international attention of with solo exhibitions in cities including Rio and Bolzano, as well as a retrospective in 1996 at the Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, which traveled to Erice, Sicily. New works by Simeti were recently featured in a solo show in Paris. Today Simeti lives and works in Milan, Italy.
Wood, acrylic on canvas
31 by 39 inches (80 x 100 cm)
Wood, acrylic on canvas
39 3/8 by 27 9/16 inches (100 x 70 cm)
Provenance:
Private Collection, Switzerland
Wood, acrylic on canvas
78.7 by 39.4 inches (200 x 100 cm)