Biography
Born in Vimercate, Milan, in 1935, after abandoning his technical and mechanical drawing studies, he devoted himself self-taught to painting, holding his first solo exhibition in 1956 at the Galleria Totti in Milan. By attending Enrico Baj’s studio he met Piero Manzoni and Enrico Castellani with whom, in 1958, he exhibited in Rome, Lausanne and finally in Milan. The following year he founded the magazine “Azimuth” with Castellani and attended the studio of Lucio Fontana, starting a research focused on space that led him to make the first extroflexions: works that the artist defines as object-paintings, obtained thanks to frames and structures that, placed on the back of the canvas, involve tension and deformation. During the sixties his research evolved towards the creation of works-environment, in which the spectator actively participates in the space: the vertices of this research are Blue habitable (1967); Great black and white environment (1968) and Painting environment from yellow to white and from white to yellow (1979). He participates in the Venice Biennale in 1966, returns to 1970 with a personal room and again in 1986. In 1980 an important retrospective of his work is set up in the rooms of the Palazzo Te in Mantua and the following year he participates with Dorazio, Rotella and Santomaso at the exhibition “Italian Art four contemporary directions” at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale in Florida. Bonalumi also deals with scenography, creating in 1970, for the Roman Theater of Verona, the scenes and costumes for the ballet Partita by Susanna Egri and in 1972, for the Rome Opera Theater, the scenes and costumes for the ballet Rot. In 2002 he was awarded the President of the Republic Award and on this occasion the National Academy of S. Luca dedicated a retrospective to him at the Palazzo Carpegna in Rome. In the same year he participated in the exhibition “Themes and variations” at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. In 2003 an exhibition was set up at the Civic Gallery of Modern Art in Gallarate and, on the occasion of the Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, he participated in the “Italian Future” exhibition held in the halls of the European Parliament in Brussels. Between 2003 and 2004, the Institut Mathildenhöe in Darmstadt set up a solo exhibition by the artist. Bonalumi died in Desio in 2013.