Renato Birolli’s painting may be regarded as abstract art and initially appears non-representational, but it is the penetration of reality which drives him. This is the first step before he addresses the substance of the painting’s content. Nature, landscapes, the sea, light, and fire appear in his paintings through an interweaving of abstract forms and colours. This work from the Reinhard Ernst Collection shows all the elements of a natural process with a rich red-brown, strong orange, bright red, and a light white and blue: Un fuoco che si spegne – a fire going out.
Renato Birolli is one of the most important artistic personalities in Italy after the Second World War.
Renato Birolli (1905–1959)
Fuoco che si spegne, 1957/58
Currently exhibited: No
Material: Oil on canvas
Size: 113.2 x 121 cm
Inv-Nr.: B_246
Keywords:
Previous owner: Catherine Viviano Gallery, New York
Acquisition: Reinhard Ernst Collection, Christie’s, Milan, 2012
Solo exhibitions:
2005
‘Renato Birolli sentire la natura’, Museo d’Arte Mendrisio, Mendrisio, Switzerland
2001
‘Renato Birolli 1943–1958’, Rifugio Gualdo – Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Italy; Casa del Mantegna, Mantua, Italy
1979
‘Renato Birolli. Le Cinque Terre e i disegni della Resistenza’, Centro Allende, La Spezia, Italy; Circolo Curiel, Manarola, Italy; Accademia Linguistica di Belle Arti, Genoa, Italy
1977
‘Renato Birolli’, Università di Parma – Centro studi e archivio della comunicazione, Parma, Italy
1970
‘Renato Birolli’, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara, Italy; Palazzo Te, Mantua, Italy
1969
‘L’ultima stagione di Renato Birolli’, Galleria Narciso, Turin, Italy
1962
‘Renato Birolli’, Catherine Viviano Gallery, New York, USA
Group exhibitions:
2004
‘Viaggio dell’anima nel Golfo dei Poeti’, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, Italy
1967
‘Arte italiana dal 1920 a oggi’, Quadriennale Nazionale d’Arte – Istituto Italo-Latino-Americano, Rome, Italy; El Salvador, Central America; Guatemala, Central America; Honduras, Central America; Nicaragua, Central America; Costa Rica, Central America
Renato Birolli’s painting may be regarded as abstract art and initially appears non-representational, but it is the penetration of reality which drives him. This is the first step before he addresses the substance of the painting’s content. Nature, landscapes, the sea, light, and fire appear in his paintings through an interweaving of abstract forms and colours. This work from the Reinhard Ernst Collection shows all the elements of a natural process with a rich red-brown, strong orange, bright red, and a light white and blue: Un fuoco che si spegne – a fire going out.
Renato Birolli is one of the most important artistic personalities in Italy after the Second World War.
He moved to Milan in 1928 immediately after studying art at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Verona. In 1937, he co-founded the artist group Corrente (ital. Current) which opposed fascism with artistic means and was closely associated with the Resistenza. Birolli was also involved in the founding of the Nuova Secessione Artistica Italiana (New Italian Art Secession), later known as Fronte Nuovo delle Arti (New Front of the Arts). He participated in the XXIV Venice Biennale in 1948 as a member of this group. In 1952, with seven other artists in Rome, he founded the Gruppo degli Otto (The Group of Eight), which advocated abstraction in art. These eight abstract painters – who also included Mattia Moreni, Giuseppe Santomaso, and Emilio Vedova, whose works are also in the Reinhard Ernst Collection – participated in the Biennale on several occasions.
Birolli also participated in the first and, posthumously, in documenta II (1959). His work has also been shown in a large number of national and international solo and group exhibitions, including the I Biennial of São Paulo in 1951.
