Enrico Donati

Biography
Exhibitions

Enrico Donati (Milan, 1909 – New York, 2008) was an Italian American Surrealist painter.
Donati had a happy childhood, and after graduating from the F. Parini high school, he enrolled at the University of Pavia.
His passion for music led him, after graduating with a degree in sociology, to enroll in a composition course at the Milan Conservatory.
Between 1933 and 1934, Enrico Donati decided to move to Paris to an atelier in Montmartre where he began to compose avant-garde music. It was in Paris, that in those years was a very active artistic center, that he began to take an interest in painting: he painted, visited galleries and museums.
Fascinated by the culture of the American Indians, he decided to travel to the South-West of the USA and Canada in 1934. After three months, he came back to Paris and then left for New York, where he stayed until 1936.
In 1936, he returned to Paris and enrolled at the Ecole de la Rue de Berri, which enabled him to acquire a technical background in drawing.
In 1939 on the eve of the Second World War, the future in Europe was very uncertain and Donati decided to come back to New York with his family.
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Donati started to dedicate his work to painting, as he was interested to the mystery of the creative act. He produced a series of works linked to the myth of the mandrake, a plant with anesthetic properties, which influenced his painting in the years to come. “What fascinates him most is the process of life, death and rebirth that is generated by this plant organism, a process of regeneration spoken of in ancient mythological tales. By virtue of these narratives, the mandrake suggests to Donati an imagery around which he creates his first paintings with organic forms in continuous transformation.”

In 1942 he exhibited for the first time at the Passedoit gallery in New York. In the same year he met Camillo Egas, an Ecuadorian surrealist, that became one of his friends. In 1943, Camillo Egas decided to present Donati’s works at the New School for Social Research in New York.
The art historian Lionello Venturi came to the exhibition who, touched by the closeness of Donati’s paintings to the fantastic imagery of dreams, decided to introduce him to André Breton.
The Surrealism theorist immediately welcomed him into the group and Donati found himself, within a short time, alongside some of the greatest artists of the time: Roberto Crippa, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, Roberto Sebastian Matta, Kurt Seligman and Marcel Duchamp.

It was in 1944, again at the Passedoit gallery, that Enrico Donati was officially introduced to the public of American art. On that occasion André Breton wrote the preface to the exhibition catalogue. In 1945, the second edition of André Breton’s book Le Surréalisme et la peinture was published in New York (the first edition had been published in 1928), which included a chapter entirely dedicated to Donati. The book was presented at the Brentano bookstore where, for this occasion, Enrico Donati and Marcel Duchamp collaborated on the setting up of a showcase.
“A sculpture specially made by Donati entitled Shoes was placed between the objects and the books. The sculpture reproduces the shape of two shoes with painted toes on the tips of the shoes. This work recalls the one by Magritte reproduced on the cover of the same book”.
The collaboration between Donati and Duchamp continued in 1947 when they showed at the last important official Surrealist exhibition: the Exposition International du Surréalisme at the Galerie Maeght in Paris.
The cover of the catalogue accompanying the exhibition is the result of this collaboration and consists of a foam rubber breast in the center of the cover, and the reproduction of the inscription ‘Prière de toucher’ on the back.
Other projects in which Donati is involved with Duchamp are the sequence “Nude descending the staircase” in the movie Dreams that money can buy, and the movie 8×8, both by Hans Richter.

“The 1947 exhibition in Paris had marked the end of the Surrealist movement, or rather, the end of its expansion in the USA: many artists had in fact already left New York and Donati – from an artistic point of view – began to follow a completely independent path. Tired of the excessive romanticism and colouristic vividness of his works, he began to impose a geometric rigidity on his artistic expressiveness. No longer floating figures and colourful nuances, but square and triangular shapes that clearly separate the still vivid colours in the canvases painted between 1947 and 1949. These works, however, were not exhibited until 1987 when a special exhibition was organized at the Zabriskie Gallery in New York.”
From 1949 onwards, Donati abandoned such a geometric approach in order to dedicate his work to a freer creative research. He devoted himself to a series of “gestural works” that he created by sliding liquefied tar onto the surface of the canvas, which, once cold, became as hard as enamel.
His later works are characterized by “casuality”, in which the image takes shape by freely arranging a very fluid impasto on the canvas, made by mixing oil paint with turpentine. These works were exhibited at the Jolas Gallery in New York in 1952.

Milan is the third important city for Enrico Donati’s artistic life. It was in Milan that Enrico Donati met Lucio Fontana, in his studio at 23 Corso Monforte.

“During these brief stays, Donati was involved in the cultural initiatives of the Spatialist group, starting with signing of the Manifesto of the Spatial Movement for Television in 1952, and of Lo spazialismo e la pittura italiana nel secolo XX in 1953”.
In Italy he showed in different personal exhibitions: in 1950 at the Galleria dell’Obelisco in Rome and at the Galleria del Milione in Milan; in 1952-53 he showed at the Galleria del Cavallino in Venice and at the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan. There are also some important group exhibitions, such as the 1950 Venice Biennale.

“Towards the mid-1950s, there is another important change in Donati’s works. He became fascinated by the fact that the accumulations of a hoover combined with pigments and glue and subsequently applied in numerous layers on the canvas create almost woolly surfaces. The colour range is reduced to blacks, greys, blues, and whites.
These works, with their rough surfaces, are characterized by images of arid, cold earths that closely resemble lunar landscapes. It is no coincidence, in fact, that Duchamp chose to title the series Moonscapes, offering a key of interpretation”.

The Moonscapes series was exhibited at the Betty Parsons Gallery in ’57, ’59 and ’60.
The Betty Parsons gallery was in those years the artistic center of the American avant-garde, with important members of the New York School such as Jackson Pollock, Marc Rothko, Banett Newmann, Richard Pousette-Dart, and Theodoros Stamos.
This group of works would evolve into the Sargon series in the second half of the 1950s. Donati, still tied to the rough, thick surfaces of the early 1950s, extended this material consistency to larger surfaces and, above all, abandoned monochrome giving space to the colour, albeit still reduced to a very limited range of earthy tones.
In 1962, he began collaborating with another New York gallery, the Staempfli Gallery. He was also a member of the Jury of Fullbright Scholarship Program and of the Yale University Council for Arts and Architecture; giving also lectures at Yale University.

In the 1980s, he started to produce a new series called Coptic Wall. The works in this series are initially dramatic, later enriched with very vivid colours.
“Colour takes over from form, particularly in the works of the 1990s in which we see a return of the geometric figures that had characterized 1947-49, although they are now arranged on the canvas in a less austere and almost more playful manner.
During this decade were organized retrospective exhibitions of the Surrealist movement by museums all over the world, with the intention of documenting its development in the post-war period and to testify to the real influence exerted by the Surrealists during the birth of the New York School.”

From 1980 to his 99th birthday, Enrico Donati showed and lived in New York.

The quotations in the text are taken from Olga Tirloni, L’attività artistica di Enrico Donati, Università degli studi di Milano.

Agostino Bonalumi, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund, 1968, Foto R.L. Hilgering

Enrico Donati ©CorradoRota

Gallery

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Gallery
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Exhibitions

Space Oddity

March - May 2022

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023
Enrico Donati New York Parigi Milano, Studio Gariboldi, Milan, Italy
2022
Enrico Donati, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Usa
2021
Enrico Donati, Washburn Gallery, New York, Usa
2020
Enrico Donati, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Usa
2016
Enrico Donati – Prima Materia, Weinstein Gallery, Clementina Street, San Francisco, California, Usa
2004/2005
The Fertile Eyes Gallery, Parigi
2000
Alter & Gil, Beverly Hills, retrospective, Usa
1998
Alter & Gil, Beverly Hills, retrospective, Usa
1997
Boca Raton Museum, retrospective, Usa
Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York, Usa
1996
Horwitch-Newman Gallery, Scottsdale, Usa
1995
Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York, Usa
Horwitch-Newman Gallery, Scottsdale, Usa
1994
Louis Newman Gallery, Beverly Hills, Usa
Carone Art Gallery, Ft. Lauderdale, Usa
1992
Carone Art Gallery, Ft. Lauderdale, Usa
1991
Louis Newman Gallery, – Beverly Hills, Usa
1990
Carone Art Gallery, Ft. Lauderdale, Usa
1989
Zabriskie Gallery, Parigi
Louis Newman Gallery, Beverly Hills, Usa
1987
Gimpel & Witzenhoffer Gallery, New York, Usa
Zabriskie Gallery, New York, Usa
1986
Louis Newman Gallery, Beverly Hills, Usa
Gimpel & Witzenhoffer Gallery, New York, Usa
1985
Georges Fall Gallery, Parigi
1984
Carone Art Gallery, Ft. Lauderdale, Usa
Gimpel & Witzenhoffer Gallery, New York, Usa
1982
Joan Ankrum Gallery, Los Angeles, Usa
Staempfli Gallery, New York, Usa
1980
Grand Palais, FIAC, Parigi
Staempfli Gallery, New York, Usa
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Usa
1979
Joan Ankrum Gallery, Los Angeles, Usa
Norton Gallery, Palm Beach, Usa
Osuna Gallery, Washington, D.C., Usa
Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., Usa
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SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2022
Space Oddity, Studio Gariboldi, Milano
Winter Festival, Part One:The abstract painters, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
2021/2022
Arcimboldo Face to Face, Centre Pompidou Metz, France
2018
Moon Dancers: Yup’ik Masks and the surrealists, Upper East Side, New York, Usa
2017
Exilic pleasures: surrealism refuged in America, Leila Heller Gallery, New York, Usa
2015
Fields of dream: the surrealist landscape, Upper East Side, New York, Usa
2014
Surrealism and Magic, Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, New York, Usa
2002
Galleria d’Arte Contemporanea Cascina Roma, San Donato Milanese, Italy
2001
Galleria Arte & Arte, Bologna, Italy
2000
Galleria Credito Valtellinese, Sondrio, Italy
Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasburgo, France
1999
Pisa, Villa Pacchiani, Santa Croce sull’ Arno, Italy
Solomon Guggenheim Museum, New York, Usa
1998
Bruce Museum, Connecticut, Usa
Galleria Credito Valtellinese, Sondrio, Italy
1997
Galleria d’arte Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy
Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara, Italy
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida, Usa
MIART, Milano, Italy
1996
Modena, Pinacoteca e Galleria d’arte contemporanea – Pavullo, Modena, Italy
Basilica Palladiana, Vicenza, Italy
Studio Amedeo Porro arte moderna e contemporanea, Vicenza, Italy
1995
Galleria d’arte Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy
1994
Miami International, Miami, Florida, Usa
Fondazione Mudima, Milano, Italy
Hunter College Art Galleries, New York, Usa
Isidore Ducasse Fine Arts, New York, Usa
1992
Miami International, Miami, Florida,
1991
ART/LA, International Contemporary Art Fair,Los Angeles, Usa
Museo National Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
Miami International, Miami, Florida, Usa
Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
1990
ART/LA, International Contemporary Art Fair, Los Angeles, Usa
Fundacion Cultural Mapfre Vida, Madrid, Spain
1989
Schirn Kunsthallel, Francoforte, Germany
Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas, Spain
Palazzo Reale, Italy
Zabriskie Gallery, New York, Usa
1987
Villa Malpensata, Lugano, Switzerland
Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venezia, Italy
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1986
Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, New York, Usa
Artcurial, Parigi, France
Biennale, Venezia, Italy
1982
Grace Borgenicht Gallery/ferry Dintenfass Gallery, New York, Usa
1981
American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Art Galleries, New York, Usa
1978
Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, Florida, Usa
1977
Rutgers University Art Gallery, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Usa
1976
University Art Museum, University of Texas, Austin,Usa
Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, Usa
Ankrum Gallery, Los Angeles, Usa
Galleria d’ arte Cortina, Milano, Italy
Staempfli Gallery, New York, Usa
1974
Château de Saint- Cirq-Lapopie, Lot, Francia
1970
Whitney Annual, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Usa
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Usa
1969
Galleria d’arte Cortina, Milano, Italy
1968
University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, Usa
1967
Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut, Usa
1966
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Usa
Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan, Usa
Whitney Annual, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Usa
1965
Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Bruxelles, France
Whitney Annual, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Usa
1964
University Galleries, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Usa
New York World’s Fair, New York, Usa
Whitney Annual, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Usa
Cincinnati Art Museum, Óhio, Usa
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Usa
1963
John Herron Art Museum, Indianapolis, Indiana, Usa
Whitney Annual, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Usa
Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania, Usa
Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina, Usa
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana, Usa
1962
Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, Usa
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Usa
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Usa
Galleria Civica d’arte Moderna, Torino, Italy
1961
Hayden Gallery, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Usa
Mary Washington College Galleries, Fredericksburg, Virginia,
Decorative Art Center, New York, Usa
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Usa
Whitney Annual, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Usa
Carnegie International, Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Usa
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana, Usa
Corcoran Biennal, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Usa
1960
Sibell Wolle Gallery, University of Colorado, Boulder, Usa
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Usa
Galleria Schwarz, Milano, Italy
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Usa
Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, Usa
Pius XI Memorial Library, Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, Missouri, Usa
Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul, Usa
1959
Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, Usa
The Arts Club of Chicago, Usa
Kresge Art Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Usa
The Cordova and Dana Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts, Usa
American Federation of Arts. Providence, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, New York, Usa
College of Fine and Applied Arts, Architecture Building, University of Illinois. Urbana, Usa
Corcoran Biennial, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Usa
1958
Inter– American Paintings and Prints Biennal, Mexico City,
Whitney Annual, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Usa
Gutai 9, Osaka, Japan
Carnegie International, Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Usa
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Usa
Galleria La Tartaruga, Roma, Italy
1957
Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, Usa
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Usa
Signa Gallery, East Hampton, New York, Usa
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Usa
Corcoran Biennal, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C, Usa
1956
Galleria del Naviglio, Milano, Italy
Whitney Annual, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Usa
Carnegie International, Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie, Pittsburgh Institute, Usa
1955
San Francisco Museum of Art, Usa
Munson- Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art, Utica, New York, Usa
1954
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Usa
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Usa
Stable Gallery, New York, Usa
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Usa
Whitney Annual, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Usa
Carnegie International, Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Usa
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California, Usa
1953
University Galleries, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Usa
Stable Gallery, New York, Usa
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Usa
Galleria la Chiocciola, Padova, Italy
Biennal, San Paulo, Brazil
Galleria del Cavallino, Venezia, Italy
Sale del Ridotto della Fenice, Venezia, Italy
1952
Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, Usa
Amici della Francia, Milano, Italy
Galleria del Naviglio, Milano, Italy
Alexandre Jolas Gallery, New York, Usa
Michel Tapié, Parigi, Italy
Studio Paul Facchetti, Parigi, France
Carnegie International, Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Usa
Saarbrucken, Germany
Galleria Casanova, Trieste, Italy
1951
Galleria San Fedele, Milano, Italy
Ninth Street Annual, New York, Usa
Third Tokyo Annual, Tokyo, Japan
College of Fine and Applied Arts, Architecture Building University of Illinois, Urbana, Usa
1950
Biennale, Venezia, Italy
College of Fine and Applied Arts, Architecture Building, University of Illinois, Urbana, Usa
Carnegie International, Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Usa
1948
Carnegie International, Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Usa
College of Fine and Applied Arts, Architecture Building, University of Illinois, Urbana, Usa
1947
University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Usa
Bignou Gallery, New York, Usa
Passedoit Gallery, New York, Usa
The Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, Usa
Galerie Maeght, Parigi, France
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Usa
Carnegie International, Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Usa
Topicova Salon, Praga, Czech Republic
Corcoran Biennial, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Usa
1946
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, Usa
John Herron Art Museum, Indianapolis, Indiana, Usa
Bignou Gallery, New York, Usa
1945
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Usa
Bignou Gallery, New York,
Whitney Annual, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Usa
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Usa
Carnegie International, Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Usa
Corcoran Biennal, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Usa

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