Workshop Space, Chiasso Cultural Center (Canton of Ticino – Switzerland)
26 MAY 2024 – 21 JULY 2024
The exhibition is part of the trend of the masters of the 20th and 21st centuries and is focused on the work of the Florentine master Giuliano Vangi (1931-2024), with particular reference to the study of drawing and graphic representation, in relation to sculpture. The artist processes and expresses his feelings and impressions using a medium that combines thought and execution: drawing, which in turn is transformed, at the end of the creative process, into sculpture. Vangi’s artistic strength leads him to experiment with various graphic engraving techniques including etching, burin, aquatint and drypoint, a technique he considers ideal. The sign or grapheion, as a creative and original act, leads him to redesign and rework the same theme several times, so that the graphics express all the artist’s poetics. To develop his art, Vangi draws directly from life, and is able to transmit his own intellectual and sentimental code of great caliber.
At the Spazio Officina, almost two hundred study drawings in pencil and ink with white lead and watercolours, in small and large formats, and two sculptures are on display. In particular, a selection of his graphic production will be exhibited starting from 1944, the year in which he began to execute academic drawings, up to 2023, with works of great emotional value: overall, eighty years of artistic activity, which makes this exhibition unique at an exhibition level. A section of the exhibition will be at the Villa Pontiggia Seminar Center in Breganzona, in whose park there are three sculptures by Vangi, one of which is inserted in the wooden pavilion designed by Mario Botta.
From a young age, Giuliano Vangi demonstrated strong artistic ability and a passion that led him to create drawings imbued with technical knowledge and emotional strength. He trained at the Porta Romana Art Institute and the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. From the beginning, he dedicated himself completely to sculpture, as a student of Bruno Innocenti. From 1950 to 1958 he moved to Pesaro, where he taught at the city’s Art Institute. In 1959 he moved to Sao Paulo, Brazil and dedicated himself to abstract research, working on crystals and metals. In 1962 he returned to Italy and taught at the Cantù Art Institute. His artistic production was exhibited in 1967 at the Strozzina in Palazzo Strozzi, an event which was followed by a rich series of exhibitions in various European cities: Stuttgart, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, London. In 1983 he won the prize from the Accademia di San Luca and then the Feltrinelli prize for sculpture at the Accademia dei Lincei. In 1988 he brought his works to the East for the first time in an exhibition in Tokyo, at the Gallery Universe. In 1994 he was appointed Honorary Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara. In 2002 Vangi received the Praemium Imperiale for sculpture. A museum in Mishima, Japan, which exhibits around a hundred of his works, is dedicated to the artist, now internationally renowned.
Among the numerous personal exhibitions held, we remember the one in Florence at the Forte Belvedere in 1995, at the Uffizi in 2000, at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg in 2002 and at the Hakone Museum in 2002, the one in 2011 with works of different materials and polychromes on display at the Palazzo Pretorio in Barberino di Mugello, his town of origin. In the same year he received the Giotto and Angelico prizes. In 2022 he exhibited at the Mart in an exhibition entitled Conversation with the Ancient. Pisano, Donatello, Michelangelo.
Curated by Marco Fagioli and Nicoletta Ossanna Cavadini
