Antoni Calderara

ANTONIO CALDERARA (1903-1978).
Untitled. 1977.
Silkscreen on Fabriano paper, copy 14/42.
Signed and justified on the back.
Measurements: 49 x 48 cm.

Self-taught in Milan, and later tutored for a time by Lucio Fontana, Antonio Calderara's first influences were the figuration and light effects of Piero della Francesca, Seurat and the Milanese painters of the Novecento. After abandoning his university engineering studies in 1925, the young man dedicated himself fully to experimenting with color and form. Through portraits, landscapes and still lifes, Calderara depicted people, scenes and objects from his native Italy, all imbued with a delicate, hazy light inspired by the atmospheric glow of Lake Orta in Vacciago, where the artist moved in 1934 with his wife Carmela, and where he would work for most of his life. In the mid-1950s, Calderara began to move away from figurative painting to adopt a more geometric approach, radically reducing both the scale and compositional elements of his paintings through the use of simple forms and flat blocks of hazy, subtle color. Without placing himself within either the Constructivist or Minimalist movements, his reduced vocabulary of lines and squares, refined color palette and precise measurements placed Calderara very close to other Minimalist painters of the time, such as Piet Mondrian and Josef Albers, whom the artist greatly admired. Later, and in failing health, Calderara began to focus on watercolor, a medium that perfectly captured the subtleties of transparency, washed with an even and uniform treatment.

Solo exhibitions include 'Antonio Calderara: Light-Spaces. Paintings from Fifty Years', Ernst Barlach Haus, Hamburg, Germany (2018); Kunstmuseum, Winthertur, Switzerland (2017); MASI, Lugano, Switzerland (2016); Fondazione Zappettini, Milan, Italy (2011); Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany (2003); Museum of Contemporary Art, Genoa, Italy (1995); ICA, London, United Kingdom (1974); Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Germany (1973); Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland (1969); Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam, Netherlands (1968); Kunstmuseum Lucerne, Switzerland and Museo d'Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1965). His work was included in the Venice Biennale in 1948 and 1956 and in Documenta 4 in Kassel (Germany) in 1968. More recently, his work has been included in the 33rd Biennial of São Paolo, Brazil (2018). His work is in numerous private collections, as well as in the R&B Collection and the Sammlung Hackenberg in Munich (Germany); the P420 Art Gallery in Bologna (Italy) and the Josef Albers Museum in Bottrop (Germany).

The legacy of this important Italian artist is preserved through the Fondazione Antonio e Carmela Calderara, the artist's former home and studio located in a 17th-century cloister villa in Vacciago, north of Milan. The collection includes many of Calderara's own works, as well as more than 300 works by dozens of international artists with whom he maintained relationships of friendship and esteem, all of which have been added to the collection.