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AUSTIN/DESMOND<br />
FINE ART<br />
ARTURO<br />
BONFANTI
Front cover: MI.225, 1971
ARTURO<br />
BONFANTI<br />
PAINTINGS, RELIEFS AND SCULPTURE 1960-1972<br />
8 JUNE – 27 JULY 2012<br />
In collaboration with<br />
Lorenzelli <strong>Art</strong>e, Milan<br />
AUSTIN/DESMOND<br />
FINE ART<br />
Pied Bull Yard<br />
68/69 Great Russell Street<br />
London WC1B 3BN<br />
T +44(0)20 7242 4443<br />
www.austindesmond.com
Natura Morta, 1938<br />
Oil on card<br />
22 × 27 cm<br />
2
INTRODUCTION<br />
<strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti (1905-1987) was born in Bergamo in 1905. He settled in Milan in 1926, at that time the centre of the Italian avantgarde.<br />
He worked for many years as a designer and graphic artist for publishers, painting in his spare time. His early figurative works<br />
echo the ethereal still lifes of Giorgio Morandi whom he revered, this influence is particularly apparent in his work Natura Morta, 1938.<br />
The work of Morandi remained important throughout his life. Bonfanti’s first exhibition was at Galleria Permanente in Bergamo in 1927,<br />
though few of the works from this period have survived. In the subsequent years Bonfanti showed little of his work and it was not until<br />
decades later that he would exhibit regularly.<br />
Frequent visits to Paris after the Second World War brought many influential friendships among who included Alberto Magnelli, Hans<br />
Arp and Gérard Schneider and in the UK with Victor Pasmore and Ben Nicholson. This international awareness had a notable influence<br />
on his style and from 1950 onwards Bonfanti dedicated himself to the concrete manifesto, “[the] purpose of concrete art is to represent<br />
abstract thoughts in reality, in such a way that the senses perceive them.” [Max Bill]. Bonfanti rejected the object and the figure entirely<br />
in favour of pure forms, colour and line. However his works stray away from the stark rationality of some concrete artists. There is<br />
something poetic and subtle in his use of colour and soft line, each work is unmistakably his, yet each has a strong individual character.<br />
The term ‘Poetic Geometry’ has been used in reference to his work; it seems to fit well.<br />
Despite his quiet nature and solitary working habits Bonfanti found acclaim in the late 1950s, exhibiting with Galleria Lorenzelli,<br />
Bergamo in 1959; the first of many exhibitions he was to have in the gallery. Bonfanti also exhibited with the famed Galerie Denise<br />
René, Paris in 1962 as well as participating in the 1968 Venice Biennale and the 1969 X São Paulo Biennale, the former of which had<br />
a room solely dedicated to his work. Other notable group exhibitions include those with Galerie Denise René, Paris in 1961, 1963 and<br />
with Annely Juda <strong>Fine</strong> <strong>Art</strong>, London in 1972<br />
Towards the end of the 1960s, Bonfanti began to paint on pavatex, a chip board with a texture that brought a new element to his work.<br />
By the mid-1960s Bonfanti had begun his series of white wood reliefs and sculpture expanding his oeuvre into the third dimension. A<br />
full <strong>catalogue</strong> raisonné by Luca Massimo Barbero in collaboration with Lorenzelli <strong>Art</strong>e was published in Milan 2011.<br />
Emily <strong>Austin</strong>, London 2012<br />
3
Printemps, 1960<br />
Oil on board<br />
46 × 55 cm<br />
4
Composizione A.13., 1961<br />
Oil on board<br />
46 × 55 cm<br />
6
Composizione A. 8, 1961<br />
Oil on board<br />
46 × 55 cm<br />
7
Composizione 107. B., 1962<br />
Oil on board<br />
27 × 35 cm<br />
8
A. S. 277, 1966<br />
Oil on panel<br />
25 × 30 cm<br />
9
S. 395., 1968<br />
Oil on canvas<br />
81 × 100 cm<br />
10
P. 369., 1968<br />
Oil on canvas<br />
30 × 35 cm<br />
12
MI.243, 1971<br />
Oil on canvas<br />
18 × 15 cm<br />
14
AC Murale 171, 1969<br />
Oil and acrylic on pavatex<br />
35 x 38 cm<br />
15
Sculptura, 1970<br />
White lacquered wood<br />
Edition of 6<br />
Height 30 cm<br />
16<br />
Rilievo 349, 1968<br />
Oil on wood panel<br />
25 × 30 cm
ARTURO BONFANTI<br />
SOLO EXHIBITIONS<br />
1927 <strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Bergamo, Galleria Permanente.<br />
1943 Bonfanti, Bergamo, Galleria Permanente.<br />
Milan, Galleria Ranzini, 16-31 December.<br />
1959 Bergamo, Galleria Lorenzelli, November.<br />
1961 Bonfanti, Zürich, Galerie Charles Lienhard, September.<br />
1962 Bonfanti, Paris, Galerie Denise René, February – March.<br />
Bonfanti, Milan, Galleria Lorenzelli, June.<br />
1965 Wesel, Galerie Schloss-Ringenberg.<br />
Bonfanti-Nangeroni, Locarno, Flaviana Galleria d’<strong>Art</strong>e<br />
Moderna, 10 – 23 April.<br />
<strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Milan, Galleria Lorenzelli, June – July.<br />
Bonfanti, Genoa, Galleria La Polena,<br />
18 December 1965 – 7 January 1966.<br />
1966 Copenhagen, Galeria Hybler.<br />
Bonfanti. Pitture disegni sculture. 1959-1966 Bergamo,<br />
Galleria Lorenzelli, June – July<br />
Bonfanti, Madrid, Sala de Stanta Catalina del Ateneo,<br />
November – December.<br />
1967 Madrid, Galeria Seiquer.<br />
Milan, Galleria Vismara, 18 April – 1 May.<br />
Bonfanti. Zeichnungen, Essen, Museum Folkwang,<br />
10 December 1967 – 7 January 1968.<br />
1968 Barcelona, Galeria Gres.<br />
Bonfanti, Bergamo, Galleria Lorenzelli.<br />
<strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Turin, Galleria Martano/Due, March – April.<br />
34 Biennale Internazionale d’<strong>Art</strong>e, Venice,<br />
22 June – 20 October.<br />
18<br />
1969 Brussels, Inter Gallery.<br />
Padua, Galleria Adelphi.<br />
Basel, Galerie Bettie Thommen, April – May.<br />
<strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Milan, Galleria San Fedele, June.<br />
X Biennal de São Paulo do Brazil, São Paulo, October.<br />
<strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Livorno, Galleria d’<strong>Art</strong>e Peccolo, December.<br />
1970 <strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Paris, Galerie Arnaud, 29 January – February.<br />
<strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Rome, Galleria Rizzoli, 30 April – 15 May.<br />
Florence, Galleria Palazzo Vecchio 24 October – 5 November.<br />
Bonfanti, Auvernier, Galerie Numaga,<br />
5 December – 10 January 1971.<br />
1971 Cologne, Instituto italiano di Cultura.<br />
Bonfanti, Coblenz, Galerie Teufel, 29 February – 25 March.<br />
<strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Milan, Galleria Falchi, April.<br />
Bonfanti, Cologne, Galerie Teufel, 2-29 April.<br />
<strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Ölbilder-Graphik, Frankfurt, Frankfurter<br />
Westend Galerie, June – July.<br />
1972 Bergamo, Galleria Lorenzelli.<br />
Bologna, Galleria la Nuova Loggia.<br />
Padua, Galleria Adlephi.<br />
Wesel, Galerie Schloss-Ringenberg.<br />
Basel, Galerie Bettie Thommen, March – April.<br />
<strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti. Bilder-Handzeichnungen, Bremen, Ausstellung<br />
Kunsthalle, 26 March – 30 April.<br />
<strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Milan, Galleria Lorenzelli, October.<br />
Milan, Galleria Lorenzelli, October.<br />
1973 <strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Rome, Galleria della Trinità, April.<br />
Giorgio Morandi Radierungen. <strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti Oelminiaturen<br />
Zeichnungen, Frankfurt, Galerie Westend, September – October.<br />
<strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti. Opere, Intra, Galleria Corsini,<br />
September – November.<br />
Bonfanti (huiles et dessins), Auvernier, Galerie Numaga,<br />
1-30 December.
1974 Milan, Galleria Il Milione, March.<br />
Bergamo, Galleria Lorenzelli, September.<br />
1975 <strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Bologna, Galleria Pellegrino.<br />
<strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Zürich, Gimpel & Hanover Galerie,<br />
18 April – 18 May.<br />
Il segno di Bonfanti, 50 disegni dal 1946 al 1975, Milan,<br />
Centro Culturale San Fedele, October.<br />
1976 <strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Finale Ligure Borgo, Studio Rotelli, August.<br />
1977 Padua, Galleria Adelphi.<br />
Le Minipitture di <strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Milan, Galleria Lorenzelli,<br />
24 March – 30 April.<br />
Bonfanti, Bergamo, Galleria Lorenzelli, December.<br />
Bonfanti , Amsterdam, Galerie Swart, 13 – 31 December.<br />
1978 Basel, Galerie Bettie Thommen.<br />
1979 Milan, Galleria Lorenzelli, December<br />
(Posthumous retrospective).<br />
1980 Bergamo, Galleria Lorenzelli, January.<br />
1982 Locarno, Atelier Lafranca, 13 November 1982 – 31 January<br />
1983 (Retrospective of graphic works).<br />
1983 Frankfurt, Frankfurter Westend Galerie.<br />
<strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti. Réstrospective. Stampe 1968-1977,<br />
Neuchâtel, Galerie Ditesheim, 2 July – August.<br />
1985 Padua, Galleria Carrain.<br />
<strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, 1905-1978, Sesto San Giovanni, Centro<br />
Culturale Rondottanta 15 March – 13 April.<br />
1986 Munich, WaBermann, Galerie E.<br />
1987 <strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Milan, Lorenzelli <strong>Art</strong>e.<br />
<strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Lodi, Museo Civico – Salone dei Notai,<br />
25 April – 17 May.<br />
1990 <strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Piacenza, Rosso Tiziano <strong>Art</strong>e<br />
5 May – 24 July.<br />
1991 <strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Eine Restrospektive – Une Réstrospective,<br />
Zug, Kunsthaus, 23 March – 26 May: Vevey, Musée<br />
Jenisch, 8 July – 11 August.<br />
1992 <strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Finale Ligure, Valente <strong>Art</strong>econtemporaneo,<br />
April – May.<br />
<strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti. Ein Restrospektive – Une Réstrospective,<br />
Cholet, Musée Municipal, 15 May – 20 July; Ludwigshafen,<br />
Kunstverein, estate; Bergamo, Galleria d’<strong>Art</strong>e Moderna e<br />
Contemporaneo – Accademia Carrara,<br />
17 December 1992 – 31 January 1993.<br />
2001 <strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Intime Abstraktionene – Intime<br />
Astrazioni 1926 – 1975, Darmstadt, Institut Mathildenhöhe,<br />
1 July – 2 September.<br />
<strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Opere 1929 – 1978, Milan, Lorenzelli <strong>Art</strong>e,<br />
27 September – 27 October.<br />
2002 <strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti – Antologica – Opere dal 1930 al 1978,<br />
Locarno, Casa Rusca, Pinacoteca Comunale,<br />
24 May – 30 June.<br />
2004 <strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti, Piacenza , Solaria <strong>Art</strong>e, 20 March – 16 May.<br />
2008 Bonfanti. Nangeroni, Brescia, LAC Lagorio <strong>Art</strong>e<br />
Contemporanea, 15 March – 30 May<br />
2011 <strong>Art</strong>uro Bonfanti: Colour that pulsates in the silence of<br />
space, Milan, Lorenzelli <strong>Art</strong>e, 1 December 2011 – 3 March<br />
2012<br />
19
AUSTIN/DESMOND<br />
FINE ART<br />
Compiled by Emily <strong>Austin</strong><br />
Printed by Healeys Print Group<br />
Photography by Colin Mills,<br />
Bruno Bani and Matteo Lorenzelli<br />
Many thanks to Matteo Lorenzelli<br />
<strong>Austin</strong> / <strong>Desmond</strong><br />
<strong>Fine</strong> <strong>Art</strong><br />
Pied Bull Yard<br />
68/69 Great Russell Street<br />
London WC1B 3BN<br />
T +44(0)20 7242 4443<br />
F +44(0)20 7404 4480<br />
gallery@austindesmond.com<br />
www.austindesmond.com<br />
20
Back cover: MI.231, 1971
www.austindesmond.com
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