| ALDO MONDINO | Biography | |
| quadrettature e non solo. 1963-1972 | browse the Catalog | |
| curated by ALBERTO FIZ | ||
| 24 february – 14 april 2018 |
Galleria Santo Ficara, which has followed Aldo Mondino’s work for many years, and Galleria Il Ponte, which over the years has put together an important group of works made between 1963 and 1964, present a double solo exhibition in collaboration with the Archivio Aldo Mondino.
In its Omaggio, Galleria Santo Ficara presents works chosen from its collection. These embrace a vast period of time, from 1965/66 with Ottobre russo to 2004 with Applausi, and touch on the topics that most fascinated the artist in his painting: Das Meer (1980), Eiffel Safariana (1989), Turcatina (2001), Pittore d’insegne (2001), Tauromachia (2003), Mosaico (2003) and Danza Sufi (2004).
Galleria Il Ponte instead presents works made in the short period between 1963 and 1972: Quadrettature, Monocromi, Casorati and Onde. These works, exhibited in 1964 at Galleria Gian Enzo Sperone in Turin and at Gian Tomaso Liverani’s Galleria La Salita, display an oblique approach to Pop Art and were the artist’s first great revelation.
As Alberto Fiz wrote several years ago now: “The problem is still, always painting. […] Whichever move we make, Mondino is able to wrong-foot us, and this is what he has done throughout his forty-year artistic career. His is a complex game, continually calling into question the conventions of art. […] The Turinese artist asks himself about the hidden meaning of the image; he grasps its unconscious dimension, but at the same time does not desist from creating a genuinely decorative depiction, on the basis of the idea that Henry Matisse had of decoration and that western painting has often denied. No exceptions made for trends, no conceptual temptations, no need to stick to an aesthetic model, but a mental journey that passes through canvas, paintbrushes and linoleum. […] But we should not forget the basic element that underlies all of Mondino’s research: paradox. […] Everything slips into another dimension, seeking to grasp the many aspects of the image following the way paved by Dadaism and Surrealism.” (Alberto Fiz, Il Paradosso della pittura, Milan 2002)
The exhibition is in collaboration with the Archivio Aldo Mondino
