Agenore Fabbri

Agenore Fabbri

"Caccia al cinghiale" by Agenore Fabbri

Agenore Fabbri (born May 20, 1911 in Pistoia , † November 7, 1998 in Savona ) was an Italian sculptor and painter .

Life

From the age of twelve, Agenore Fabbri attended the Scuola d'Arti e Mestieri in Pistoia. He then enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence . There he frequented the artist café Caffè Le Giubbe Rosse (meeting point for the intellectual group “Ermetici” ( Eugenio Montale , Carlo Bo and others)). He was in contact with the painters Ottone Rosai and the poet Mario Luzi .

He broke off his studies prematurely for financial reasons and went to Albisola (Savona) in 1932 , where he started as a worker in the ceramic factory “La Fiamma” (the flame) and later worked as a modeler. In his spare time he started as a freelance artist and created his first terracotta sculptures and, in the second half of the 1930s, bronze ones. His works have the theme of "humans and animals" with an expressionistic expression. During these years he met the most important exponents of the second Futurism in Albisola and got to know the sculptor Arturo Martini , who acknowledged him and encouraged him to continue on his way. His lifelong friendship with Lucio Fontana began , they worked together in the Mazzotti ceramic factory and traveled a lot together.

In 1937 he exhibited a work for the first time in the National Museum of Naples . His first solo exhibition was in 1941 at the Gian Ferrari gallery in Milan. As a result of military service, his artistic work was restricted in the following years.

In 1946 he moved to Milan and in the summer months he lived in Albisola, where his ceramic and terracotta works were created. (In these post-war years Albisola became an internationally important place for artists, working there in the ceramic factories Marino Marini , Giacomo Manzù , from the artist group CoBrA Karel Appel , Guillaume Corneille and Asger Jorn , and Wifredo Lam and Roberto Matta also lived in Albisola . In the 1950s. Years ago, other artists such as Giuseppe Capogrossi , Roberto Crippa , Emilio Scanavino and Piero Manzoni appeared here .)

In 1947 Fabbri had his first meeting with Picasso in Vallauris , together with Tullio d'Albisola. During these years important works such as Donna del popolo ("Woman of the People", a title suggested by Picasso) and other works in ceramics and terracotta were created.

In 1956 he traveled to the People's Republic of China , for more than three months with Antonietta Raphael Mafai, Giulio Turcato , Aligi Sassu and others. a. This trip greatly influenced his work over the next few years. The breakthrough came in the 1950s and 1960s: Participation in numerous international events ( Antwerp , Madrid , Zurich , Athens , The Hague , Munich , London , Paris , Tokyo , Boston , New York City , São Paulo , Mexico City , Cairo and other). Solo exhibitions in the USA took place in New York City and Philadelphia ; in Europe and a. in London, Paris, Stockholm , Rome and Milan and two at the Venice Biennale (1952 and 1960). Today his works are in numerous museums in Europe and overseas.

In the 1980s and 1990s his work was shown in retrospectives and solo exhibitions at the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum (Duisburg); Sprengel Museum (Hanover) Museum Ludwig (Cologne), Museum Ostwall (Dortmund) and Triennale (Fellbach) are shown.

On November 7, 1998, Agenore Fabbri died in Savona of a cerebral haemorrhage .

Works

In the 1930s he mainly produced works in terracotta and ceramics, plaster and wax with a plaster core, as well as some portraits in bronze, these are commissioned works by well-to-do citizens.

After the war, his sculpture became an instrument of expression by which he expressed his personal indictment and protest against all forms of violence, oppression, torture and killing. In 1947 Fabbri began with a series of animal sculptures in colored terracotta in the expressionist style. They show moments of suffering and dying such as B. Cavallo colpito (injured horse), Cane ferito (injured dog), Gatto ferito (injured cat) or in the fatal fight between humans or humans and animals z. B. Rissa di uomini (fight between men), Lottatori (fighters) or L'uomo e la bestia (the man and the beast).

His work is recognizable by his modeling technique, the plastic surface is furrowed, the figures - whether human or animal - are intricately twisted, expressive and convulsive, his creatures appear emaciated, anemic and torn.

In the first half of the 1950s he, like Fontana, lived from commissioned work, namely designs for decorative and practical ceramics. He created household items such as coffee and tea sets, plates, vases, candle holders, mirror frames, fireplace cladding and thus secured his livelihood. During these years, however, his main works were created - life-size figures such as San Sebastiano , ballerina (dancer), Partigiano morto (dead partisan) etc. In the second half of the 1950s, he completely changed his style and material. The atomized animals and people in bronze or steel emerged, burned, annealed and charred frightful figures after an atomic explosion, with which he joined the “Arte nucleare”, to name a few examples Uomo atomizzato ( atomized man), Insetto atomizzato ( atomized Insect).

At the end of the 1950s, the series with the theme of extraterrestrial monsters such as Mars or moon creatures was also made in bronze or iron. At the same time he began a series of wooden reliefs in which the surfaces were partially broken open and damaged due to an impact coming from behind, e.g. B. Lacerazione (crack), Ferita (injury), rottura (break). Another series of works was created in which Fabbri created informal structures or textures with cloth soaked in liquid glue on a wooden panel, which then hardened in the final state. At the end of the 1960s Fabbri returned to the empirically “correct” human figure or animal, and figures such as Bellezza ferita (wounded beauty) or cavallo colpito (injured horse) were created, using bronze or terracotta as material.

In 1982 he switched from sculpture to painting, resulting in colorful canvas paintings in oil - the Giardini pubblici (Public Gardens) series. From 1984 Fabbri used acrylic paints, sand and stones and various materials in his paintings, which he collected on the beach of Albisola, where they had been washed up by the sea. With this, painting was increasingly displaced and pictorial objects were created in which the sculptor appeared again.

literature

• Agenore Fabbri. Sculpture Drawings. Edited by Roberto Sanesi, Fortunato Bellonzi, Franco Russoli, Emilio Tadini, Dino Buzzati , Agenore Fabbri. Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum , Duisburg 1984.
• Agenore Fabbri. The informal phase. Edited by I. Bartsch, VW Feierabend, C. Brockhaus and Dieter Ronte . Gabriele Mazzotta Verlag, Milan 2002, ISBN 88-202-1381-8 .
• Agenore Fabbri. Sculpture and painting. Edited by Erich Steingräber , Siegfried Salzmann , Gerald Gassiot-Talabot, Gillo Dorfles and Remi de Cnodder. Hirmer Verlag, Munich 1988, ISBN 978-3-7774-4790-2 .
• Marco Valsecchi: Sei artisti milanesi 1960-1965. Catalog for the exhibition by Bruno Cassinari , Agenore Fabbri, Toni Fabris, Franco Francese, Umberto Milani and Ennio Morlotti in the Palazzo della Gran Guardia. Verona 1966.
• Agenore Fabbri. Senso dell'esistenta. Studio d'Arte Campaiola Publishing House, Rome 2005.
• Agenore Fabbri. Catalog raisonné sculpture / painting . (II vol.). Silvana Editoriale, Milan 2011, ISBN 978-88-366-2058-6 / ISBN 978-88-366-2059-3 .

Web links

• Agenore Fabbri website