Born in Mazara del Vallo in 1920 Pietro Consagra passed away in Milan in 2005. He attended the schools in Palermo and moved to Rome in 1944 where kept studying at the Academy of Fine Arts even if retired shortly before graduation, considering the institution excessively conservative. On 15 March, 1947, with Carla Accardi, Ugo Attardi, Piero Dorazio, Mino Guerrini, Achille Perilli, Antonio Sanfilippo and Giulio Turcato, he signed the manifesto of the “Gruppo Forma”, published on the single issue of “Forma 1” magazine. Declaring themselves as “formalists and Marxists”, the young artists of “Forma 1” wanted to affirm pure form as their aesthetic value and the sole purpose of art. Starting from 1948 his idea of sculpture turned to dematerialization, to bronze little thick compositions that refused a plurality of points of view and conceiving an exclusively frontal fruition. Reached the front the presence of signs broke and began to be articulated in superpositions with voids as parts of the work. In 1964, when Pop Art was presented at the Venice Biennale, Consagra approached color and experimented with painting on nitre and aniline enamel, as a reaction to the new tendencies in art marking a step forward in his work. In the 90s he approached new projects, always consistent with the fundamental elements of his poetics: the frontal point of view applied to diverse kind of works, the dematerialization of sculpture, the relationship between sculpture and architecture.

In the 90s some of his great sculptures were arranged in the streets of Milan, Rome and in the park of the Palazzo d’Orléans in Palermo. Until the early 2000s, he worked on important exhibition projects. Besides the numerous participations in national and international exhibitions with the “Gruppo Forma”, many were the solo exhibitions held in institutions: MART, Rovereto (2018), Italian Institute of Culture, London (2017), Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona (2007, 1977), European Parliament, Strasbourg (2003), Center of Art, Cairo (2001), Museion, Bolzano and Galerie der Stadt, Stuttgart (2000), National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome (2000, 1993, 1989), Palazzo d’Orléans, Palermo (1998 ), Insitut Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt (1997), Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, Milan (1996), Hermitage, St. Petersburg (1991), Palazzo dell’Arengo, Rimini and Museo d’Arte Grafica, Gibellina (1981), Chiostro di San Nicolò, Spoleto (1979), Salone Annunciata, Milan (1976), Palazzo dei Normanni, Palermo (1973), Museum Boymans van-Beuningen, Rotterdam (1967), Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (1958). Among the numerous group exhibitions in institutions: Palazzo Strozzi, Florence (2018), Museo del Novecento, Milan (2017), The Solomon R. Guggenheim, New York (2012), National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome (2011), Peggy Guggenheim, Venice (2008), Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2007), Musée des Beaux-Arts, Montréal (2006), La Triennale, Milan (2004), MAMAC, Liege (2003), MART, Rovereto (2002), Museum of Argenti, Florence (2001), Jízdárna Prazského Hradu, Prague (1998), Palazzo Ducale, Venice (1995),

Museo della Permanente, Milan (1994), Institut Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt (1988), Museo Civico, Gibellina (1986), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires (1971), Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris (1968), The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (1967), Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf (1961), Musée Rodin, Paris (1960), Museu de Arte Moderna, Sao Paulo (1959), The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1958), The Brooklyn Museum, New York (1957), Tate Gallery, London (1953), The Art Institute of Chicago (1952), National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome (1951), Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paris (1948). Consagra also took part several times in the Venice Biennale (1993, 1982, 1972, 1968, 1964, 1962, 1960, 1956, 1954, 1952, 1950), Rome Quadriennale (2005, 1999, 1992, 1986, 1973, 1965, 1955 ), Documenta, Kassel (1964, 1959) and Sao Paulo Biennial (1955). His collaboration with Galleria Fumagalli began in 1996 when, on the occasion of the exhibition hosted at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, the gallery promoted the publication of the volume “Scultura e architettura” curated by Giovanni Maria Accame and Gabriella di Milia. In 1997 the artist’s first personal exhibition “Banche e Panche” was presented at the gallery, accompanied by the catalog “Consagra e la frontalità”; in the same year an anastatic reprint of the theoretical booklet “La città frontale” written by Pietro Consagra in 1969 was republished. In 2002 the artist exhibited again at Galleria Fumagalli proposing a series of sculptures made with polychrome marbles and on that occasion was also presented the volume “Pietro Consagra. Pietre Consagra” curated by Ada Masoero.

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SOLO EXHIBITIONS

PIETRO CONSAGRA
Pietre Consagra

Opening 6 April 2002
9 April to 22 May 2002

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PIETRO CONSAGRA
Banche e panche

May – June 1997

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GROUP EXHIBITIONS

AAVV:30

Opening 27 November 2004
30 November 2004 to 20 January 2005

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