Mario Volpe (painter)

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Rideup , 1976, Bern

Mario Aldo Volpe (born October 19, 1936 in Barranquilla , Colombia ; † August 21, 2013 in Bern ) was a Colombian painter. His 50 years of artistic creation include around 3000 abstract works on paper, cardboard and canvas, mainly acrylic, ink, enamel and oil paintings as well as wax pastel, pencil and colored pencil drawings. His pictures are characterized by geometrically linear elements, organic shapes, lively colors and a pronounced use of black. Volpe's major influences include New York painting of the 1950s and 1960s, his architectural studies, and his roots in the Colombian Caribbean. His estate is looked after by the ART Estate Foundation in Bern.

Life

Mario Volpe was born in 1936 in Barranquilla, Colombia, to Italian immigrants. He traveled to New York and Italy for the first time when he was 12. After completing school in Barranquilla, he moved to the United States at the age of 19 to study English at the Wilbraham Academy (now Wilbraham and Monson Academy ) in Massachusetts and to prepare for university.

At the age of 20, Volpe made his first direct encounter with contemporary art at the Venice Biennale . A year later he started his architecture studies at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture) in Pittsburgh, which he graduated in 1961. A grant from the Carnegie Institute allowed him to spend a summer in France at the American Academy in Fontainebleau, where he began experimenting with abstract drawings and befriended painters and sculptors.

Volpe was admitted to the Harvard University Graduate School of Design , where he completed a year of Masters in Architecture. In 1962 he decided to leave Harvard to devote himself entirely to art. He joined the Art Students League of New York , where he completed a two-year art course.

A travel grant from the Art Students League took him on a study trip through Europe (London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Saint Petersburg, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Madrid and Seville) in 1964. After a year in Rome, where he met his wife Brigit Scherz, Volpe moved back to the United States to take up a position as Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Minnesota , Minneapolis.

After five years teaching in Minneapolis, Volpe moved back to Europe in 1970. He spent a year in Turin and moved to Bern in 1972, where he married Brigit Scherz in 1973. Their two children, Martina and Philippe, were born in 1974 and 1975. Volpe lived and worked in Bern until his death at the age of 76.

Works

  • 1956–1961: architectural drawings
  • 1961: First ink paintings on paper
  • 1962–1969: Abstract expressionist oil paintings on canvas, cardboard and paper
  • 1967–1980: “ Hard-edge ” paintings, with a geometric emphasis
  • 1972–1974: colored pencil drawings
  • 1979–1980: Vertical drawings
  • 1980-1981: poster
  • 1981–1993: Acrylic paintings on canvas, cardboard and paper
  • 1993–1998: "T pictures" (combinations of horizontal and vertical formats)
  • 1996–2002: "Triptychen" (three-part pictures)
  • 2002–2008: Linear ornamental works
  • 2009–2013: last works

Solo exhibitions (selection)

  • 1966: Art Students League of New York, USA
  • 1968: University Gallery Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnetonka Art Center, Orono, Minnesota, USA; Morningside College, Sioux City, Iowa, USA
  • 1969: Rochester Art Center, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
  • 1970: Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA; North Hennepin Jr. College, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
  • 1974: Bettina Katzenstein Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
  • 1977: Galerie Art Shop, Basel, Switzerland
  • 1979: Berner Galerie, Bern, Switzerland
  • 1980: Loeb Gallery, Bern, Switzerland
  • 1981: Galerie Centrale, Hermance, Switzerland
  • 1982: Van Loo Gallery, Brussels; Galerie 42, Antwerp, Belgium; Galleria Napoletana delle Arti, Naples, Italy; Musée cantonal des beaux-arts de Lausanne
  • 1983: Galeria Amics, Alicante, Spain; Knoll International, Naples, Italy; Centrum Galerie, Basel, Switzerland
  • 1984: Galleria Paesi Nuovi, Rome, Italy
  • 1985: Hannah Feldmann Galerie, Bern, Switzerland
  • 1986: Centrum Galerie, Basel, Switzerland; Salόn Cultural de Avianca, Barranquilla, Colombia
  • 1987: Galerie DeI Mese-Fischer, Meisterschwanden, Switzerland; Museo de Arte Moderno, Cartagena, Colombia
  • 1988: Galerie Susanne Kulli, Bern, Switzerland
  • 1989: Salon Parterre, Bern, Switzerland
  • 1991: Galeria Elida Lara, Barranquilla, Colombia; Galerie Susanne Kulli, Bern, Switzerland
  • 1994: Galerie Susanne Kulli, Bern, Switzerland
  • 1996: Susanne Kulli Gallery, Bern, Switzerland
  • 1998: Galeria de la Aduana, Barranquilla, Colombia
  • 1999: ATAG, Ernst and Young, Bern, Switzerland
  • 2003: Universidad deI Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia; Kunstreich AG, Bern, Switzerland
  • 2004: Galerie Wandelbar, Gstaad, Switzerland
  • 2009: Johannes Church, Bern, Switzerland
  • 2016–17: Zetcom AG, Bern, Switzerland
  • 2018: Galerie Reflector, Bern, Switzerland

In addition, Volpe took part in around 60 group exhibitions, including the Art Students League in New York, Art Expo in New York, Art Basel, Expo 2000 in Hanover and various exhibitions in Switzerland and Colombia.

literature

  • Mario Volpe: Color Black Till Schaap Edition, Bern 2014, ISBN 978-3-03828-025-5 .
  • Obituary: Life picture of Mario Aldo Volpe. In: Anzeiger von Saanen, September 6, 2013.
  • Deborah Cullen, Elvis Fuentes: Caribbean: Art at the Crossroads of the World. Exhibition catalog. Yale University Press, New York 2012, ISBN 978-0-300-17854-8 .
  • Mario Volpe, with contributions by Oswaldo Benavides C., Viana Conti: Abstractions: Obras - Works - Werke 1962–2002. Mueller Marketing and Printing, Gstaad 2003.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ART Estate Foundation , Mario Volpe
personal data
SURNAME Volpe, Mario
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Volpe, Mario Aldo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Colombian painter
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Barranquilla , Colombia
DATE OF DEATH August 21st, 2013
Place of death Bern