ART GALLERYOPERA GALLERY

Opera Gallery Monaco is proud to present the exhibition Monochromes Italiens, a selection of works of artists from around the world who have contributed to monochrome painting such as Lucio Fontana, Turi Simeti , Agostino Bonalumi, Marcello Lo Giudice and Alessandro Algardi.
Although monochromes have existed since ancient times in Asia and Africa, it was only as of 1915 that a concept was conceived by Kasimir Malevitch and illustrated in his famous painting Black Square on White Backdrop, considered ‘‘the ultimate point in painting, or its zero point’’. Monochrome art has undergone in-depth research while experiencing success and failure throughout the 20th century. It is, however, unquestionably in Italy, after World War II, that it earned its stripes.
In 1947, Lucio Fontana published his Primo Manifesto dello Spazialismo, followed by Manifesto Spazialismo in 1948, where he exposed his theories on unity in art and architecture. These publications inspired young artists like Agostino Bonalumi and Turi Simeti. In 1951, the artist completed his first monochrome pieces, initially created as architectural ornaments before being considered as unique works of art.
Monochrome art is not a style nor a movement but rather the result of an atitude, a personal stand taken by the artist. Its main goal is to explore the relationship between context and content.
Monochromes Italiens, which will be exhibited from April 25th to April 30th, reflects the genre’s variety of approaches and techniques. This is how Lucio Fontana transformed the monochrome piece into architectural concepts symbolising all the questions related to the era of reconstruction in the 1950s. As for Marcello Lo Giudice, the artist used the genre as a support for his organic works using the elements of nature, the Earth and volcanos, as echos to the various ecological issues of the early 21st Century. Monochromes inevitably evoke the perceptions of a given me and the artist’s interrogations of the era.