Giancarlo BARGONI : 2012 June 17-22

Oil : getting immersed in lyric abstract

Click on a thumbnail to display a larger picture

To open the materials list : click here

In this workshop, that is for artists who have already a good experience of abstract, I will teach my oil painting technique without making any difference between figurative and abstract painting. We will focus on drawing because, in my opinion, mastering the skills of drawing is the paramount requirement to become an abstract artist. The foundation of my teaching will consist in getting to know the materials and how to use them because this affects the realization of a painting. Thus we will thorougly examine how to use oil colors, canvasses, cardboard, paper, brushes, palette knives and solvents. On this basis each student will discover his personnel interest and language on which we will focus because modern art gives way to an enormous opening on free expression.

Biography:
1936: Born in Genoa
1954/58: Studies at the Liceo Artistico Barabino in Genoa
1959: Lengthy research into informal painting, in particular De Kooning and Fautrier.
In Nervi, for the Massine ballets, he creates costumes and fabrics based on Manessier sketches. He forms a friendship with the collector Andrea Denini. He starts a collaboration that would last almost thirty years with the art gallery manager Rinaldo Rotta and with his galleries in Genoa and Milano.
1960: A long stay in Spain where he associates with artists and critics. He becomes friends with J.E.Cirlot with whom he corresponds for a long period of time. He is fascinated by the work of Tapies.
1961/62: He receives the Duchessa di Galliera scholarship that allows him to stay in Ravenna for a long period of time where he studies the mosaic technique that would greatly influence his subsequent work. He stays in Paris for a long period of time where he meets Sonia Delaunay and frequents her studio and attends engraving courses at Stanley Hayter's Atelier 17. He creates many engravings and organises exhibits for this technique.
One of his works is acquired by the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Rome and one by the Museo Sperimentale d'Arte Moderna in Torino. Together with his painter friends Carreri, Esposto, Guarneri and Stirone, he founds the Tempo 3 group in Genoa that intends, based upon studies of the phenomenology of language and the psychology of form, to determine a creative methodology and be therefore a third way in addition to the tendencies of programmed art and Gestalt psychology.
1967/70: “Chromoplastic expressions”, a series of works on wood with coloured reliefs.
1974/80: Studies regarding the fundamental elements of paintings. He becomes interested in the expressive possibilities of colour, experimenting on various materials and with various techniques (temperas, pastels, watercolours)
1980/85: Travel period in Europe. First trip to Canada and the United States. Severe self criticism of his previous work. He decides to restart from oil painting.
1986-1990: He spends long periods of time in Paris, Madrid, Monaco, Düsseldorf and Hamburg. He presents his works at the most important contemporary art shows.
1989: He forms a friendship with the musician and collector Gian Piero Reverberi.
1991: The Pinacoteca Comunale di Arte Moderna in Ravenna organises an exhibition with his most recent paintings.
1992: He starts collaborating with various European galleries: Protée (Paris and Tolosa), Horizon (Marseilles), Heseler (Munich), Ulla Sommers (Düsseldorf). He opens a studio in his families' town of origin, in Castell'Arquato (Piacenza).
1993: The Galerie Protée of Paris presents him at the Salon de Mars and organises a one-man show for him in May.
1994: Numerous ceramic works that will be shown together with his paintings at the Galerie Protée in Tolosa. Large retrospective exhibition promoted by the Commune of Castell'Arquato at Palazzo Pretorio.
1996: In Portugal, he discovers new expressiveness in the colour blue at an exhibit in Lisbon. In a series of works he expresses all of the possibilities of this colour. The Galerie Protée exhibits the results in Paris in a show entitled “Obidos”.
1999: Bargoni experiments his work on glass. Some of the pieces he creates at the Studio Casarini in Savona will be exhibited in Paris, in Parma.
2000: He makes a large marble sculpture for the garden of the new Centro Verani in Fiorenzuola d'Arda (Piacenza).
2001: Bargoni, Casagrande and Ruggeri show three large paintings each at the exhibit “Discanto” presented by Bruno Bandini at the Oratory of Santa Maria delle Grazie at Vigoleno (PC). The commune of Casalmaggiore and the Amici Palazzo Te Association of Mantova organise a large one-man exhibition at the Oratory of Santa Chiara in Casalmaggiore.
2003: Returns to work at his friend Giovanni Poggi's San Giorgio Ceramics in Albisola. A monograph edited by Claudio Cerritelli is published by REXbuilt-in. He shows his work at the exhibit “Ceramica Contemporanea” organised by the Amici Palazzo Te Association in Casalmaggiore and at the Studio Centenari in Piacenza.
2004: The Galerie Protée exhibits six large sized paintings at the Art Paris show at the Carrousel du Louvre.
Jean Rogé presents the book “Ailleurs, incertaine” with poetry by Béatrice Comte and watercolours by Bargoni at the Studio Centenari in Piacenza.
2005: The Province of Mantova organises an anthological exhibit at the Casa del Mantegna with more than forty oil paintings and a selection of paintings dedicated to the frescoes of the Camera degli Sposi (the Wedding Chamber).
A new one-man show in November at the Galerie Protée in Paris.
2006: In March, he presents three large sized paintings with Ruggeri and Casagrande at the Art Paris show at the Grand Palais. On December first he inaugurates a one-man show with more than fifty of his works at the Künstlerhaus in Marktoberdorf that is organised by the Museum Foundation.
Museums:
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna di Roma
Museo Sperimentale D'Arte Moderna di Torino
Pinacoteca d'Arte moderna di Ravenna
Pinacoteca Comunale d'Arte Moderna di Alessandria
Gabinetto delle Stampe di Pisa
Museo d'Arte Moderna di Ciudad Bolivar (Venezuela)
Museo della Ceramica di Albisola Ligure (Savona)
Museo Diotti, Viadana (MN)
Musée Estrine, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence