Fausto Melotti was a pioneer of geometric abstraction in Italy. His reputation as an artist is based on the geometrical, abstracted and simultaneously figurative-lyrical creations that can be traced back to the two formative disciplines of his work: music and the art of engineering. Melotti left behind an expansive work of Italian modernism consisting of drawings and ceramics, as well as his playful and poetical teatrini, which, through their distinctive style, fuse with his imaginative wire sculptures to form a surprisingly coherent oeuvre. In constant search for new materials and creative possibilities. Melotti´s work is invested with a singular motivation. Similar to his contemporary and long-time friend Lucio Fontana, Melotti sought to represent the essence of things, disregarding everything irrelevant. His work demonstrates this struggle for simplicity in expression through the careful choice and consequent treatment of his materials.
Uninfluenced by external trends, Melotti concentrated on questions that deal with juxtapositions such as figuration and abstraction, imagination and ratio, poetry and reality, lightness and melancholia. Fausto Melotti was born in 1901 in Rovereto near Trent. His work first began to receive widespread attention relatively late in Melotti’s life, at the end of the 1960s. Since then the artist has been honoured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, in Italy and increasingly worldwide. Fausto Melotti died in 1986 in Milan.
Exhibitions
Publications
Exhibitions
Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Consulate General of Italy in New York, New York, NY, USA
Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London, UK
Hauser & Wirth, New York, NY, USA
Galleria Tonelli, Milan, Italy
Mesopica vedere vedere, Cernusco Lombardone, Italy
Castello di Miradolo, San Secondo di Pinerolo, Italy
Fondazione Tito Balestra Onlus – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Castello Malatestiano di Longiano, Longiano, Italy
Museo della Permanente, Milan, Italy
Sala Lucio Fontana, Comabbio, Italy
Montrasio Arte, Milan, Italy
Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Monaco-Ville, Monaco
Galería Elvira Gonzalez, Madrid, Spain
Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy
Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany
Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Galleria Repetto, Milan, Italy
Ronchini Gallery, London, UK
Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Rovereto, Italy
MUSMA Museo della Scultura Contemporanea, Matera, Italy
MUSMA Museo della Scultura Contemporanea, Matera, Italy
Il Chiostro Arte Contemporanea, Saronno, Italy
MADRE – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina, Naples, Italy
Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany; travelled to: Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland
Fondazione Pasquinelli, Milan, Italy
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy
Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy
Museo del Novecento, Milan, Italy
Museo Gagliardi di Noto, Noto, Italy
Triennale Museum, Milan, Italy
MAD – Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France
MADRE – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina, Naples, Italy
La Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy
Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy
Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland
Sale Duca di Moltalto, Palermo, Italy
Museo Regionale Interdisciplinare di Messina – sede storica ex Filanda, Messina, Italy
La Mole – Magazzino Tabacchi, Ancona, Italy
Museo Nivola, Orani, Italy
Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Germany
Museo Diocesano, Milan, Italy
Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, France
MART – Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Rovereto, Italy
Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland
MADRE – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina, Naples, Italy
Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Netherlands; travelled to: La Maison Rouge – Sèvres, Cité de la céramique, Paris, France
RISO – Museo d’arte contemporanea della Sicilia, Palermo, Italy
Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy
CAMeC – Centro Arte Moderna e Contemporanea della Spezia, La Spezia, Italy
Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, Florence, Italy
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy
Museo Marino Marini, Florence, Italy
Städtische Museen Heilbronn, Heilbronn, Germany
Museo d’Arte Città di Lugano, Lugano, Switzerland
Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, Milan, Italy
Galerie Karsten Greve AG, St. Moritz, Switzerland
Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul, France
Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy
Musei San Domenico, Forlì, Italy