Biography
Gianfranco Zappettini

"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."

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.
 
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.
Exhibitions
Works
  • Gianfranco Zappettini, CON-CENTRO n. 96, 2018
    CON-CENTRO n. 96, 2018
  • Gianfranco Zappettini, CON-CENTRO n. 80, 2018
    CON-CENTRO n. 80, 2018
  • Gianfranco Zappettini, La trama e l'ordito n.75 , 2016
    La trama e l'ordito n.75 , 2016 Reserved
  • Gianfranco Zappettini, La trama e l'ordito n 09, 2009
    La trama e l'ordito n 09, 2009
  • Gianfranco Zappettini, Quadrato e cerchio blu 08.07.03 , 2003
    Quadrato e cerchio blu 08.07.03 , 2003
  • Gianfranco Zappettini, Tele sovrapposte n. 188 , 1975
    Tele sovrapposte n. 188 , 1975
  • Gianfranco Zappettini, Tele sovrapposte n. 167, 1975
    Tele sovrapposte n. 167, 1975
  • Gianfranco Zappettini, Superficie analitica n.399, 1974
    Superficie analitica n.399, 1974
Solo & Group Show
Gianfranco Zappettini

Gianfranco Zappettini CV

Born in 1939 in Genoa (Italy).

 

EXHIBITIONS

2025

The Discipline of the Essential, Primo Marella Gallery, Lugano, CH

Museo del 900, Collection, Milano, IT

Paint, Fondazione Zappettini, Chiavari, IT

Shaping the Monochrome, Guidi & Schoen arte contemporanea, Genova, IT

Bergamo Arte Fiera 2025, Galleria Lara, Alberto e Rina Costa, Bergamo, IT

Tra segno e struttura. Dolla, Griffa e Zappettini, Stella Rouskova Gallery, Genova, IT

2024

Mediterranea, Fondazione Zappettini, Chiavari, IT

2023

Infra-Spazi, Linee di ricerca nell’arte italiana, Fondazione Zappettini, Chiavari, IT

2022

The golden age, Galleria Mazzoleni, Torino, IT

2021

Art Fairs Philippines 2021, Philippines, SEA

2020

Pittura Italiana | dall’Informale alla Pittura Analitica, Valmore studio d’arte, Vicenza, IT

2019 

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

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

Pittura Italiana | dall’Informale alla Pittura Analitica, Valmore studio d’arte, Vicenza, IT

ARTVERONA 2017, Valmore studio d’arte, Verona, IT

2018 

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

Processo e metodo della Pittura Analitica, Palazzo Reale, Genova, IT

Pittura analitica: origini e continuità, Rocca Roveresca di Senigallia, Ancora, IT

2017 

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

Gianfranco Zappettini, Primae Noctis Art Gallery, Lugano, CH

ARTVERONA 2017, Valmore studio d’arte, Verona, IT

Pittura analitica: origini e continuità, Villa

Contarini - Piazzola sul Brenta, Padova, IT

2016

Gianfranco Zappettini, Galleria Mazzoleni, Turin, IT

White Surfaces, Primae Noctis Art Gallery, Lugano, CH

ARTVERONA 2016, Valmore studio d’arte, Verona, IT

I protagonisti - le opere - la ricerca, Palazzo della Gran Guardia - Piazza Bra’ - Verona, IT

2015

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

Visione Analitica: percorsi della nuova pittura degli anni ‘70, Villa Brandolini, Treviso, 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

1962
Palazzetto Rosso, Genoa, IT

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