Gianfranco Baruchello
lives and works in Rome
GIANFRANCO
BARUCHELLO - la formule
Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin
November 14, 2009 - February 20, 2010
Opening: November 13, 2009, 7 - 9 p.m.
The Michael Janssen Gallery is pleased to host the first comprehensive solo exhibition of Gianfranco Baruchello (*1924) in Berlin. The extensive and complex oevre of the 85 year old Italian artist goes back to the 60's. The Berlin exhibition focuses on work from the last twenty years. The Michael Janssen gallery shows paintings and drawings from 2007 to 2009, his "showcases" from the 70's up to today and a retrospective selection of his films. An installation, the especially for the gallery space developed garden represents an essential part of the exhibition for Baruchello.
The key work of the exhibition is a showcase consisting of eight smaller boxes that are joined together. It bears the title La formule (The Formula) after which the entire exhibition is named. The assemblages or "showcases" are an important part of Baruchello's artistic expression. He assembles cutouts and small objects such as toy cars, coins or silverware in boxes made of wood and Plexiglas. He often combines clippings from magazines with self-painted paper cutouts, creating showcases that offer the viewer a glimpse into another filigree universe.
This idea of the formula is crystallized in a recent interview with Maurizio Cattelan, as well as in Baruchello's extensive published writings. Baruchello believes to have found a formula, in accordance with which his art always functions. His sources of inspiration were never pictorial or visual art, but originate from the written word, from literature. On the one hand it was German philosophy of the 18th Century, with Hegel and Kant, on the other, the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. Yet Baruchello was clearly influenced by visual artists, most decisively by Marcel Duchamp. The two were good friends in Paris and Baruchello often dedicated works and essays to him.
Baruchello's paintings of the last years are spread with microscopic elements which seem like animal tracks, maps or maybe instruction manuals of some sort. The paintings give the deceiving impression to be "readable". Baruchello's painting has changed and developed over time. In the 60s he created colorful, abstract and freely composed images.
In the 80s the motives become denser, and are very carefully and precisely structured, representing figurative subjects. The next phase, which can also be seen in the current images, sees a more radical exploitation of surface.
In another room of the gallery grow poisonous plants. This installation developed by the artist reflects his playful, experimental and at the same time provocative nature. The installation is entitled Giftpflanzen, Gefahr (Toxic Plants, Danger). On one hand it is meant to amuse people, but also to show them how quickly their lives can be threatened by - often pretty and harmless looking - plants.
One last important part of Baruchello's oeuvre are his videos and films. Michael Janssen gallery shows a selection of from very poetic, animated, black and white pictures in the 1960s, to the narrative, colorful and sometimes demanding compositions of recent times.
Gianfranco Baruchello (*1924 in Livorno) lives and works in Rome. His work has appeared in many individual and group exhibitions since the 1960s. In 1977 he was invited to Documenta 6 in Kassel and in 2008 he took part in his last major group exhibition at the
Palazzo Grassi in Venice ( „Italics", curated by Francesco Bonami). His numerous solo exhibitions have primarily been held in Italy. Occasionally, his work has been shown in European galeries and institutions, such U.a. in Munich
at Galerie Buchholz and
Galerie Michael Hasenclever, at the Lenbachhaus, in Paris at Yvon Lambert and in Brussels at the Palais des Beaux-Arts and Galerie Greta Meert.
1924
geboren / born in Livorno (IT)
lebt und arbeitet / lives and works in Rome
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2009
Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin
2008
Vendita di Sogni e Altro. Galleria Milano, Milano
2007
Gianfranco Baruchello. Flussi, pieghe, pensieri in bocca. Auditorium Parco della Musica, Roma
2006
Gianfranco Baruchello. Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels
2004
Galerie Meert Rihoux, Brussels
Verifica incerta. Fondazione Prada, Milano
Storia segreta del cinema italiano. 61ma Biennale Cinema, Venezia
2005
Gianfranco Baruchello. Galerie Michael Hasenclever, München
2002
Tu dici: il punto, la piega. Galleria Milano, Milano
2001
Al di là del rassicurante reale. MLAC - Museo Laboratorio d‘Arte Contemporaneo, Roma
1997
Fuoricampo. Museo di Villa Mimbelli, Livorno
Mundus. Musero Laboratorio d’Arte Contemporanea, Roma
1996
Sette video del ’96. Galleria Masnata, Genova
1993
Luxe. Calme et Volupté, Galerie Krief, Paris
1992
L’Altopiano dell’Incerto. Tour Fromage, Aosta
1998
Gianfranco Baruchello. Galerie Michael Hasenclever, München
1987
Bringer of plurabilities. Galleria Milano, Milano
1983
Il Grande Fiume. Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara
1982
Monogrammes. Galerie Le Dessin, Paris
Gianfranco Baruchello. Museo Progressivo d’Arte Contemporanea, Livorno
La Casa del Mantenga. Mantova
1981
Agricola Cornelia. Galleria Milano, Milano
1978
L’altra casa. Galerie Michel Delorme, Paris
1976
Navigateur en solitarie. Biennale di Venezia, Padiglione Italia, Venezia
1975
Gianfranco Baruchello. Galleria Schwarz, Milano
Let’s mix all feelings togheter. Stadtiche Galerie am lembach Haus, München/
Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt/ Lousiana Museum, Copenhagen/ Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris
1973
Gianfranco Baruchello. Galerie Der Spiegel, Köln
Sur la contradiction. Galerie Craven, Paris
1971
Gianfranco Baruchello. Galerie Buchholz, München
1969
Gianfranco Baruchello. Galerie Schmela, Düsseldorf
Gianfranco Baruchello. Galerie Lauter, Mannheim
1968
More news in a moment, but first this message. Rome Gallery, Chicago
Supericonoscopio. Galleria Schwarz, Milano
Artiflex. Galleria La Tartaruga, Roma
1967
Gianfranco Baruchello. Palais de Beaux Arts, Brussels
Limbeantipouvoir. Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris
1966
Verifica incerta (proiezione), MOMA, New York
Verifica incerta (proiezione), Guggenheim Museum, New York
Ioiomiss. Galleria Schwarz, Milano
1965
Verifica incerta (proiezione), (prima proiezione del film), Post Paresien, Paris
Uso e manutenzione. Galleria Schwarz, Milano
1964
Gianfranco Baruchello. Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, New York
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selection)
2009
Italics. Italian art between tradition and revolution 1968 - 2008. (Kuratiert von / curated by Francesco Bonami)
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
2008
Italics. Italian art between tradition and revolution 1968 - 2008. (Kuratiert von / curated by Francesco Bonami)
Palazzo Grassi, Venezia (Katalog / Catalogue)
Peripheral vision and collective body. MUSEION - Museum für moderne und zeitgenössische Kunst, Bolzano
Time & Place - Milano - Torino 1958-1968. Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Out of Nothing. Omaggio a Baruchello. annarumma 404 - Milan, Milan
2006
Tuttolibri. Galleria Milano, Milan
2005
Pop Art Italia. Galleria Civica di Modena, Modena
2004
Puzzle. Galleria Il Ponte, Firenze
FUNNY CUTS - Cartoons und Comics in der zeitgenössische Kunst. Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart
Künstler der Galerie. Michael Hasenclever, Munich
Attraversare Genova. Percorsi e linguaggi internazionali del contemporaneo. Villa Croce Museo d´Arte Contemporanea, Genova
Dintorni Pop. Galleria Arte e Arte, Bologna
Roma, London, Paris. Galleria Il Ponte, Firenze
2003
Geografie del mistero. Metafisica, dada, surrealismo. Il Narciso Galleria d´arte contemporanea, Rome
2002
Europa Video Art. Chiesa di San Paolo, Modena, Modena
Utopie Quotidiane - L‘uomo e i suoi sogni nell‘arte dal 1960 ad oggi. PAC - Padiglione d‘Arte
Contemporanea, Milano
„Fünf Künstler - Fünf Bilder“ . Galerie Michael Hasenclever, München
2000
La Ville, le Jardin, la Mémoire. Académie de France à Rome - Villa Médicis, Rome
1998
Gärten der Lüste (1998). MUSEION - Museum für moderne und zeitgenössische Kunst , Bolzano
1977
Documenta 6. Documenta, Kassel
1973
Italy two. Art Around ‘70. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
1967
Pictures to be Read/ Poetry to be Seen. Museum of Contemporay Art, Chicago
1965
Recent Acquisitions. MoMA, New York
European Drawings. Guggenheim Museum, New York
1962
The New Realists. Sidney Janis, New York
Collage et Objets. Galerie du Cercle, Paris
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Centre Pompidou - Musée National d´Art Moderne, Paris
FRAC - Rhône-Alpes, IAC - Institute d`art contemporain, Villeurbanne
Galleria d´Arte Moderna di Bologna - GAM, Bologna
Macedonia (F.Y.R.M.)
Republic of Macedonia Museum of Contemporary Art Skopje, Skopje
Arbitare The Office, January 2009
Artnet, Gianfranco Baruchello bei Michael Janssen, Der Schoss ist eine Zwiebel von Dominikus Müller (PDF), November 2009
Eiskellerberg.tv, Gianfranco Baruchello, Landkarten ohne Ziel von Ilka Tödt, (PDF), November 2009
Interview with Gianfranco Baruchello by Maurizio Cattelan (PDF), October 2009
New York Times (pdf 88KB), 1985
| Films by Gianfranco Baruchello screened a.o. during the exhibition la formule at Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin November 14th 2009 - February 20th 2010 |
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Gianfranco Baruchello
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Gianfranco Baruchello
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Gianfranco Baruchello
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