Antonio Bueno and the postmodern prophecy

The exhibition halls of the High-rise block a Biella offer a fresh critical perspective on the work of Antonio Bueno, tracing the career of one of the most original, irreverent and visionary artists of the The Second Half of the 20th Century. Promoted by the Sella Group and the Artistic Director at Banca Patrimoni Sella & C. in collaboration with theBueno Cultural Association, the exhibition draws on a rich collection of works by the family collection, supplemented by public and private collections.

The exhibition itinerary winds its way through four creative seasons. We’ll start with the early days at Florence in the the 1940s alongside his brother Xavier, a season marked by the rediscovery of the The Tuscan Renaissance and from a comparison with the paintings of Velázquez e Zurbarán, culminating in the Double Self-Portrait and on the first few bends neo-metaphysical. In the the 1950s the well-known compositions featuring plaster pipes e eggs, suspended between the rigour of Piero della Francesca and the metaphysics of Giorgio de Chirico, a cycle that was later abandoned in favour of the series Pipe Graveyard before making way for the first iconic ones ladies.

The 1960s place the artist at the heart of the Florentine avant-garde: in 1962 he founded New Figuration with its monochrome prints, whilst in 1963 he founded the Group 70 with Pignotti, Miccini, Ori e Marcucci, working alongside figures of the calibre of Umberto Eco, Edoardo Sanguineti e Sylvano Bussotti to create verbal and visual collages criticising consumer society. The final section celebrates full maturity postmodern, featuring recurring characters such as Marinaretti, Carabinieri e firefighters, as well as the famous based on which ironically parody the masters of the past such as Bronzino, Caravaggio e Ingres, right up to the triumph of the “Museo Ludico” at the 1984 Venice Biennale. To round off the experience, which is enriched by an archive of period documents, there are musical collaborations with the Perosi Academy Foundation and in-depth features with the Edoardo Sanguineti Inter-University Research Centre of theUniversity of Turin.