GIUSEPPE UNCINI ©

GIUSEPPE UNCINI

Giuseppe Uncini was born in Fabriano in 1929. After the beginnings in his hometown, in 1953, on the exhortation of Edgardo Mannucci, he moved to Rome, as a guest of his studio, where he came into contact with some figures of Italian and international art residing in the capital (Capogrossi, Afro, Mirko, Gentilini, Cagli and then Franchina and Colla that together with Emilio Villa assiduously attended the studios of Burri and Mannucci). In 1955 he participated in the VII Quadrennial in Rome at the Palazzo dell'Esposizione and, two years later, exhibited for the first time in Germany, in Frankfurt am Main, the collective "Abstrakte Italianische Kunst". In 1956-57 begins the cycle of works called "Earth", tables made with tuffs, sand, ash and colored pigments. But the turning point in the artistic evolution of Uncini is with the creation, between 1957 and 1958, the first "Cementarmati", works made with iron, cement and wire mesh allow a glimpse of the structure of their making, in contrast to the compact and rough surfaces of concrete that often expose the grain of the formwork. In his works it is evident the geometric-spatial research that puts in the foreground the constructive and architectural principle where "the matter is no more, writes Giovanni Maria Accame, as in the Informal, metaphor of an existential condition, but becoming receptive to external stimulations and confronting itself with the historical reality, it presents itself as material". There are several exhibitions that bring together the so-called Young Roman School: Uncini, Festa, Lo Savio, Angeli and Schifano. The first important personal exhibition was in 1961 at the Galleria l'Attico in Rome. In 1963 the foundation of the Group One was made official with Biggi, Carrino, Frascà, Pace and Santoro who held a series of exhibitions and published a manifesto explaining their poetics. Gruppo Uno, dissolved in 1967, opposed the research of the Informal, the idea of an art linked to the theory of perception, suggesting the different function of the artist in society. Argan was one of the most convinced supporters of this group. Uncini's research continued from 1962 to 1965 with the "Ferrocementi", where the extremely polished cement, to the point of losing all reference to the material, has the iron rod as its true protagonist which, if it determines the dimensions of the cement, becomes a line of continuity between the external limit and the internal parts. It follows in 1965 the group of works "Strutturespazio", which will then be present at the XXXIII Venice Biennale in 1966. In 1968, Uncini focuses his interest on the function of the shadow that will accompany him for a long time in the realization of his works and it is precisely in that year that Palma Bucarelli commissions the "Open door with shadow" that will be exhibited as a division of two environments in the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome. The meetings with the Galleria Christian Stein in Turin (personal in 1968, 1971 and 1975) and with Studio Marconi in Milan (personal in 1973, 1976, 1980 and 1995) mark an important stage in the career of the artist. Then, between 1969 and 1972, the series of the "Bricks" was born, and between 1972 and 1978 the series of the "Shadows", whose massive architectural presence dialogues and confronts itself with its own shadow, which is also constructed and made into a volume. The '80s are marked by the "Dwellings", surfaces that give the idea of an architectural landscape: buildings, doors, windows, thresholds and their shadow brought. In 1984 Uncini is still present at the Venice Biennale with a personal room. In 1990 he participates in the exhibition L'Altra Scultura in Madrid, Barcelona and Darmstadt with the new cycle "Spaces of iron". In 1994, with the works "Spazicemento", Uncini begins the collaboration with the Gallery Fumagalli of Bergamo. He continues his work with the series of "Muri di cemento". In 1999 it exposes to the PS1 of New York in Minimalia. In 2001 an important retrospective on the work of Uncini is held at the Stadtische Kunsthalle in Mannheim. In September 2002 two important personal exhibitions were held in Milan, at the Galleria Christian Stein w at the Galleria Giò Marconi, while between 2002 and 2003, the Galleria Fumagalli of Bergamo, alongside some historical pieces, proposed a series of jewels in gold, silver and diamonds, made with the lost wax casting technique. Since 2004 he continues his work with the "Architectures". In 2007 three different personal exhibitions were held at the same time at the Fondazione Marconi and Galleria Christian Stein in Milan and at Galleria Fumagalli in Bergamo. In 2008, on the occasion of the Bologna Fair, the catalog raisonné of Giuseppe Uncini's work is presented to the public, edited by Bruno Corà. In the same year he starts the new cycle "Artifici" and he is commissioned an important work for the Sculpture Park of the MART of Rovereto and at the same time began working on the project for the traveling anthological exhibition to be held between 2008 and 2009 at the ZKM in Karlsruhe, at the MART in Rovereto and at the Landesmuseum Joanneum in Graz. On the night of March 31, at the age of 79, Uncini died suddenly in his home-studio in Trevi.