06 Sep 2013

'Bonalumi. All the Shapes of Space 1958-1976' at ROBILANT+VOENA, London

ROBILANT+VOENA announce a major 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 60sand 70s, 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.