Gianfranco Zappettini

born in 1939 in Genoa (Italy)

statement
bio / C.V.

"Only through an analytic investigation that deals with the problem of painting as painting, i.e. the material, the way of handling it, we reconstruct the new language."

In over 40 years of artistic activity, Zappettini has helped to re-establish the pictorial discipline and to give a new and high reading of the work process that orbits around analytical abstraction. Through his works he explores the ancestral meaning of pictorial praxis. he analyzes the nature of the discipline in itself and of the elements that the artist has at his disposal. For Zappettini, the pictorial surface in particular, turns to be what it was originally. That is an "opaque" space, which does not reflect other worlds - exterior or interior - and refers to nothing but itself and its intrinsic essence.

Gianfranco Zappettini was born in Genoa on June 16 1939 from a family of ancient maritime tradition. He attended the Liceo Artistico Niccolò Barabino of Genoa and the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara. In 1962 he held his first solo exhibition in his hometown and in the same year he met the German architect Konrad Wachsmann, thanks to whom he learned the formal precision, the importance of tradition and the attention to innovation. His early works (1964-1969) reflect the attempt to give order to the surface, leaving space for the artist to maneuver without allowing preconceived planning to overcome his work. Zappettini lives and works in Chiavari, where in 2003 he founded the Zappettini Foundation for Contemporary Art.

Exhibitions (selected)

2022

The golden age, Galleria Mazzoleni, Torino, IT

2019

Gianfranco Zappettini, I colori della Grande Opera, Primo Marella Gallery, Lugano, CH

Gianfranco Zappettini, Solo Exhibition, Standing Pine, Nagoya, JP

2018

Paolo Cotani, Elio Marchegiani, Marco Mazzucconi, Gianfranco Zappettini, Primo Marella Gallery, Lugano, CH

Processo e metodo della Pittura Analitica,Palazzo Reale, Genova

2017

Gianfranco Zappettini, La Luce Prima, Primo Marella Gallery Milano, IT

Gianfranco Zappettini, Primae Noctis Art Gallery, Lugano, CH

2016

Gianfranco Zappettini, Galleria Mazzoleni, Turin, IT

White Surfaces, Primae Noctis Art Gallery, Lugano, CH

2015
Pittura Analitica Ieri e Oggi, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, IT

2014
Galleria Ravizza, Lugano, CH

2013

Erben – Viallat – Zappettini: tre maestri della pittura analitica europea, MAAB Gallery, Milan, IT

2012
Lucca Center of Contemporary Art, Lucca, IT

2011
Analytische Malerei, Forum Kunst Rottweil, DE

2009
Pensare pittura, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Villa Croce, Genoa, IT

2008
Pittura aniconica, Casa del Mantegna Mantoa, IT
Analytica, Annotazioni d’Arte, Milan, IT

2007
CAMeC-Centro d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, La Spezia, IT
Forum Kunst, Rottweil, DE
Pittura analitica. I percorsi italiani. 1970-1980”, Museo della Permanente, Milano, IT

1997

Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Villa Croce, Genoa, IT

1978

Abstraction Analytique, Museo d’Arte Moderna, Paris, FR

1977

Documenta 6, Kassel, DE
Internationaal Cultureel Centrum, Anversa, BE

1975
Analytische Malerei, Düsseldorf, DE

Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, DE

1974

Geplante Malerei, Münster - Milan, IT

1973
Tempi di percezione, Livorno, IT

1971
Arte concreta, Westfälischer Kunstverein di Münster, DE