Giancarlo Bargoni
Genova, 1936
Between 1954 and 1958 he attended the Liceo Artistico Barabino in Genoa. At the end of his studies he exhibited for the first time in his city (together with other artists) Informal works. The masters he admires most are De Kooning, Fautrier, Wols and in general the post-World War II European abstract painting. Bargoni is animated by the readings of existentialist philosophy and the interest in Zen culture; there is a literary evocation, sometimes openly declared, by authors such as Joyce, Pound, Jacob.
Around 1959 he became friends with the collector Andrea Denini; the latter allowed him to establish a thirty-year collaboration with the gallerist Rinaldo Rotta and his galleries in Genoa and Milan.
In 1960 he spent a long stay in Spain where he frequented artists and critics. He befriends J.E. Cirlot, with whom he will maintain a long correspondence. He is fascinated by Antoni Tapies' painting.
He obtained the Duchess of Galliera scholarship, which allowed him to spend a long period in Ravenna, where he studied the mosaic technique that would greatly influence his later work. Between 1960 and 1962 he spent a period in Paris where he met and attended the studio of Sonia Delaunay and the engraving courses at Stanley Hayter’s Atelier 17. He made many engravings and organized exhibitions of works performed with this technique. Two of his works have been acquired by the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Rome and the Museo Sperimentale d'Arte Moderna in Turin.
In 1963, loaded with a good cultural background (the working relationship with the painter Manessier, a study trip to Spain, the experience of mosaic studies in Ravenna - hence the sequence "on Galla Placidia" - the Parisian attendance of the studio of Sonia Delaunay and engraving courses by Stanley Hayter) Bargoni participates with some friends painters (Carreri, Exposed, Guarneri and Stirane) to the foundation of the group Time Three in Genoa.
The group aims, on the basis of the studies of phenomenology of Husserl language and psychology of form, to determine a creative methodology and thus be a third way beyond the trends of Programmed Art and Gestaltism.
In this period his paintings began to have geometric connotations.
From 1967 to 1970 he performed the "Expressions chromolithics", a series of works on wood with colored reliefs and, from 1974 to the eighties, deals with the analysis and breakdown of the structural and fundamental elements of the picture, recognizing themselves in the group of "Painting-Painting". He is interested in the expressive possibilities of color that he experiments on different materials and with various techniques (tempera, pastels, watercolors).
Around 1980-85 he created the "Chromoplastic Expansions", a series of works on wood with colored reliefs.
It’s a period of travel in Europe; he goes on his first trip to Canada and the United States and goes on a severe self-criticism of his previous work. He decided to leave the oil painting.
Between 1986 and 1990 he spent a long time in Paris, Madrid, Munich, Dusseldorf, Hamburg and presented his works at the most important contemporary art fairs. In 1988 Bargoni, faced with the opening of a new cycle of oil works, supported by an unmistakable feeling of pleasure towards painting, declared: "I am this" and the declared will is that of "to change the ancient analysis on the infinite possibilities of color into a possible new color, supported by strong cultural reasons but also played with emotional spirit, expressive pleasure and magic,...color feeds on color" and painting remains "dominant thought".
In 1991 the Pinacoteca Comunale di Arte Moderna Di Ravenna organized an exhibition of his recent paintings.
He began collaborating with several galleries in Europe: Protée (Paris and Toulouse), Horizon (Marseille), Heseler (Munich), Ulla Sommers (Dusseldorf). He opened a studio in his family’s home town of Castel Arquato (Piacenza).
In 1993, the Galerie Protée in Paris presented him at the Salon de Mars and organized a solo exhibition in May. The following year, many ceramic works were exhibited together with paintings at the Galerie Protée in Toulouse. The Municipality of Castel Arquato promotes a large retrospective exhibition at Palazzo Pretorio.
In 1996, on the occasion of an exhibition in Lisbon, he discovered in Portugal new expressions of the color blue. In a series of new works will decline all the possibilities of this color. The Galerie Protée shows the results in Paris in an exhibition entitled "Obidos".
Around 1999 Bargoni experimented with work on glass and some pieces made at the Casarini Studio in Savona were exhibited in Paris and Parma. In 2000 he created a large marble sculpture for the garden of the new Centro Verani in Fiorenzuola d'Arda (Piacenza). The following year Bargoni, Casagrande and Ruggeri with three large canvases each, in the evocative sixteenth-century Oratory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Vigoleno (PC), set up the exhibition "Discanto" presented by Bruno Bandini. The town of Casalmaggiore and the Associazione Amici Palazzo Te di Mantova organize a large solo exhibition at the Oratorio di Santa Chiara in Casalmaggiore.
In 2003 he returned to work at the Ceramica San Giorgio di Albisola of his friend Giovanni Poggi. A monograph edited by Claudio Cerritelli is published by REXbuilt-in. He exhibited his pieces at the exhibition "Ceramica Contemporanea" organized by the Associazione Amici Palazzo Te in Casalmaggiore and at the Studio Centenari in Piacenza.
In 2005 the Province of Mantua organized an anthological exhibition at the Casa del Mantegna with over forty oil paintings and a section of paintings dedicated by Bargoni to the frescoes of the Camera degli Sposi.
In March 2006 he presented three large-format oil paintings with Ruggeri and Casagrande at the Art Paris exhibition at the Grand Palais. The first of December opens a solo exhibition with fifty works at the Künstlerhaus in Marktoberdorf organized by the Museum Foundation
Museums where his works are kept:
National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome
Experimental Museum of Modern Art in Turin
Pinacoteca d'Arte Moderna of Ravenna
Municipal Art Gallery of Modern Art in Alessandria
Cabinet of Prints of Pisa
Ciudad Bolivar Museum of Modern Art (Venezuela)
Museum of Ceramics of Albisola Ligure (Savona)
Diotti Museum, Viadana (MN)
They wrote about his work, among others:
Amadei, Accame, Apollonio, Argan, Baccino, Bacigalupo, Bafico, Bandini, Ballero, Battisti, Benignetti, Beringheli, Bissoni, Berndt, Bocci, Bossaglia, Bovi, Branzi, Cajani, Caramel, Castagnoli, Cavazzini ), Cirlot, Celant, Cerritelli, Cirone, Conti, Comte, Crespi, Crispolti, Bethloff, Dorfles, Faucher, Francou, Gaston, Chiglione, Giuffr´, Guzzi, Harembourg, Lambertini, Maugeri, Maltese, Masini, Mattei, Menna, Molinari, Migone, Montana, Montenero, Mura, Nuridsany, Oggero, Paglieri, Pannini, Politi, Ponente, Pontiggia, Ricaldone, Riva, Rog´, Ronco, Saletti, Savoia, Sossi, Tepper, Tiglio, Toni, Trucchi, Tola, Vincitorio, Vitone, Venturoli.
Bibliography:
Enciclopedia Universale Seda della Pittura Moderna, Milano, Seda, 1969;
Bargoni Peitures, Galerie Protée, Paris, 2002.
Around 1959 he became friends with the collector Andrea Denini; the latter allowed him to establish a thirty-year collaboration with the gallerist Rinaldo Rotta and his galleries in Genoa and Milan.
In 1960 he spent a long stay in Spain where he frequented artists and critics. He befriends J.E. Cirlot, with whom he will maintain a long correspondence. He is fascinated by Antoni Tapies' painting.
He obtained the Duchess of Galliera scholarship, which allowed him to spend a long period in Ravenna, where he studied the mosaic technique that would greatly influence his later work. Between 1960 and 1962 he spent a period in Paris where he met and attended the studio of Sonia Delaunay and the engraving courses at Stanley Hayter’s Atelier 17. He made many engravings and organized exhibitions of works performed with this technique. Two of his works have been acquired by the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Rome and the Museo Sperimentale d'Arte Moderna in Turin.
In 1963, loaded with a good cultural background (the working relationship with the painter Manessier, a study trip to Spain, the experience of mosaic studies in Ravenna - hence the sequence "on Galla Placidia" - the Parisian attendance of the studio of Sonia Delaunay and engraving courses by Stanley Hayter) Bargoni participates with some friends painters (Carreri, Exposed, Guarneri and Stirane) to the foundation of the group Time Three in Genoa.
The group aims, on the basis of the studies of phenomenology of Husserl language and psychology of form, to determine a creative methodology and thus be a third way beyond the trends of Programmed Art and Gestaltism.
In this period his paintings began to have geometric connotations.
From 1967 to 1970 he performed the "Expressions chromolithics", a series of works on wood with colored reliefs and, from 1974 to the eighties, deals with the analysis and breakdown of the structural and fundamental elements of the picture, recognizing themselves in the group of "Painting-Painting". He is interested in the expressive possibilities of color that he experiments on different materials and with various techniques (tempera, pastels, watercolors).
Around 1980-85 he created the "Chromoplastic Expansions", a series of works on wood with colored reliefs.
It’s a period of travel in Europe; he goes on his first trip to Canada and the United States and goes on a severe self-criticism of his previous work. He decided to leave the oil painting.
Between 1986 and 1990 he spent a long time in Paris, Madrid, Munich, Dusseldorf, Hamburg and presented his works at the most important contemporary art fairs. In 1988 Bargoni, faced with the opening of a new cycle of oil works, supported by an unmistakable feeling of pleasure towards painting, declared: "I am this" and the declared will is that of "to change the ancient analysis on the infinite possibilities of color into a possible new color, supported by strong cultural reasons but also played with emotional spirit, expressive pleasure and magic,...color feeds on color" and painting remains "dominant thought".
In 1991 the Pinacoteca Comunale di Arte Moderna Di Ravenna organized an exhibition of his recent paintings.
He began collaborating with several galleries in Europe: Protée (Paris and Toulouse), Horizon (Marseille), Heseler (Munich), Ulla Sommers (Dusseldorf). He opened a studio in his family’s home town of Castel Arquato (Piacenza).
In 1993, the Galerie Protée in Paris presented him at the Salon de Mars and organized a solo exhibition in May. The following year, many ceramic works were exhibited together with paintings at the Galerie Protée in Toulouse. The Municipality of Castel Arquato promotes a large retrospective exhibition at Palazzo Pretorio.
In 1996, on the occasion of an exhibition in Lisbon, he discovered in Portugal new expressions of the color blue. In a series of new works will decline all the possibilities of this color. The Galerie Protée shows the results in Paris in an exhibition entitled "Obidos".
Around 1999 Bargoni experimented with work on glass and some pieces made at the Casarini Studio in Savona were exhibited in Paris and Parma. In 2000 he created a large marble sculpture for the garden of the new Centro Verani in Fiorenzuola d'Arda (Piacenza). The following year Bargoni, Casagrande and Ruggeri with three large canvases each, in the evocative sixteenth-century Oratory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Vigoleno (PC), set up the exhibition "Discanto" presented by Bruno Bandini. The town of Casalmaggiore and the Associazione Amici Palazzo Te di Mantova organize a large solo exhibition at the Oratorio di Santa Chiara in Casalmaggiore.
In 2003 he returned to work at the Ceramica San Giorgio di Albisola of his friend Giovanni Poggi. A monograph edited by Claudio Cerritelli is published by REXbuilt-in. He exhibited his pieces at the exhibition "Ceramica Contemporanea" organized by the Associazione Amici Palazzo Te in Casalmaggiore and at the Studio Centenari in Piacenza.
In 2005 the Province of Mantua organized an anthological exhibition at the Casa del Mantegna with over forty oil paintings and a section of paintings dedicated by Bargoni to the frescoes of the Camera degli Sposi.
In March 2006 he presented three large-format oil paintings with Ruggeri and Casagrande at the Art Paris exhibition at the Grand Palais. The first of December opens a solo exhibition with fifty works at the Künstlerhaus in Marktoberdorf organized by the Museum Foundation
Museums where his works are kept:
National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome
Experimental Museum of Modern Art in Turin
Pinacoteca d'Arte Moderna of Ravenna
Municipal Art Gallery of Modern Art in Alessandria
Cabinet of Prints of Pisa
Ciudad Bolivar Museum of Modern Art (Venezuela)
Museum of Ceramics of Albisola Ligure (Savona)
Diotti Museum, Viadana (MN)
They wrote about his work, among others:
Amadei, Accame, Apollonio, Argan, Baccino, Bacigalupo, Bafico, Bandini, Ballero, Battisti, Benignetti, Beringheli, Bissoni, Berndt, Bocci, Bossaglia, Bovi, Branzi, Cajani, Caramel, Castagnoli, Cavazzini ), Cirlot, Celant, Cerritelli, Cirone, Conti, Comte, Crespi, Crispolti, Bethloff, Dorfles, Faucher, Francou, Gaston, Chiglione, Giuffr´, Guzzi, Harembourg, Lambertini, Maugeri, Maltese, Masini, Mattei, Menna, Molinari, Migone, Montana, Montenero, Mura, Nuridsany, Oggero, Paglieri, Pannini, Politi, Ponente, Pontiggia, Ricaldone, Riva, Rog´, Ronco, Saletti, Savoia, Sossi, Tepper, Tiglio, Toni, Trucchi, Tola, Vincitorio, Vitone, Venturoli.
Bibliography:
Enciclopedia Universale Seda della Pittura Moderna, Milano, Seda, 1969;
Bargoni Peitures, Galerie Protée, Paris, 2002.
