Gianni Colombo
curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and Marco Scotini
September 16, 2009 – April 5, 2010

Gianni Colombo (Milan, 1937 - Melzo, 1993) was one of the leading figures in the field of international kinetic art that developed over the course of the 1950s and 1960s. Interested in the Surrealism of Max Ernst and in the poetic world of Paul Klee, he attended the Accademia di Belle Arti in Brera. His artistic research was soon characterized by experiments with materials and their perception, from ceramics to graphics, from works with an emphasis on material consistency to the creation of multiples and, above all, of ‘environments’ accessible to viewers. In the 1950s, during a period of intense economic recovery and within Milanese art circles characterized by a lively international debate, he was drawn to developments by the “nuclearists” and to the Spatialism of Lucio Fontana.