Agostino Bonalumi

While the first volume provides a monographic study and examines the cultural context within which he worked for over half a century, the second constitutes the complete catalogue of some two thousand works, from his debut to his death. The publication offers scholarly guidance for those wishing to understand the course of his work and provides details on his oeuvre thanks to the Archivio Agostino Bonalumi, which for years has tracked down and catalogued all his works and now makes the results available to collectors.

Bonalumi was born in Vimercate (Milan) in 1935. After technical studies, he embarked on an artistic career and exhibited for the first time in 1956. In 1958, together with Castellani and Manzoni, he constituted the initial core of what was soon to be the Azimuth group. In 1959, he invented extroversion, a technique he would successfully develop across the world in terms of stylistic variety, for example with the Zero group.

At least three major periods can, in any case, be identified: from his debut to 1971, with extroversions of various shapes; from 1971 to 1988/1999, when his extroversions on canvas took the form of parallel linear strips; and 1989-2013, when he went through a sort of second experimental stage starting with a freer approach and then returning to geometry.

Agostino Bonalumi by Marco Meneguzzo and Valerie Caimi provides a comprehensive insight into the artist's journey and creative evolutions through these crucial stages.