Lorenzo Piemonti biography

Lorenzo Piemonti was born in Carate Brianza in 1935. From a young age he showed an interest in art, but it was a sporting event that sparked his passion for painting. During a stage of the Giro d'Italia, observing a painting created by Fausto Coppi's fans, he decides to paint a portrait of his idol Gino Bartali. This first work represents the starting point of his artistic career.
Piemonti initially approached figurative painting, painting landscapes, portraitsand still lifes. His works from this period include depictions of sewing machines, inspired by his mother, an expert in bobbin lace. However, his art evolves rapidly, abandoning the figurative to explore new expressive languages.
In the mid-1960s, Piemonti entered the "Ovale" phase (1965-1968) and subsequently the "Ovaletubular" phase (1966-1978). In these periods, he creates sculptures characterized by the use of oval and tubular shapes. These works include tube columns, wall-mounted tubular objects and bifrontal constructions. The sculptures of this period are distinguished by the alternation of solids and voids, flat and curved surfaces, reflecting a desire for balance and openness.
From 1965 to 1975, Piemonti spent a decade in Switzerland, where he collaborated with the Schlaeppischaufensterfiguren of Zurich, creating models for fashion exhibitions. During this period, he came into contact with Swiss Concretism and was influenced by theorists such as Max Bill. His art is increasingly approaching concrete abstractionism, focusing on "aesthetic quantities" and on the analysis of chromatic and structural relationships. Piemonti develops an art based on geometry and arithmetic, with the square as the fundamental matrix and a skilful use of primary, secondary and tertiary colours.
In 1973, Piemonti introduced a significant change in his artistic practice, starting to dedicate himself to performance and the creation of manipulable works. During a performance in Varese – Galliate, the artwork was no longer just an aesthetic object but a manipulable module, continuously modified by other artists such as Remo Bianco, Mario Schifano, Bruno Munari and Emilio Isgrò . This period saw the creation of " multiples ", works that allowed the public to create personal compositions, dissolving the concept of uniqueness of the artwork of art and making it accessible to a wider audience. In 1990, Piemonti became a co-founder of the Madì Italia movement, an artistic movement born in Argentina in 1946. Madì is characterized by the continuous reinvention of mathematical-geometric laws and by a logical and mathematical pictorial conception. Piemonti reflects on the surface-relief dialectic, freeing the latter from the former with the addition of external elements to the basic matrix, creating works that are a synthesis between painting and sculpture.
Piemonti's works are exhibited in numerous international and Italian museums, including the National Museum of Belgrade, the Kilgore Law Center and Madì Museum in Dallas, the Gallery of Modern Art in Turin and the Pagani Museum in Legnano. Furthermore, he creates public works such as "Universal Brotherhood" (1976), a steel monument placed in the courtyard of the elementary school of Carate Brianza.
Official critics have often celebrated Piemonti's artwork . Bruno Munari, a great artist and designer, described his chromoplastics as works that provoke the perceptive system, creating a mixture of colors that challenges the security of our visual organs.
Piemonti continued to work until his death in 2015, leaving an artistic legacy that continues to influence and inspire. His solo and group exhibitions have been hosted in Italy, France, Switzerland, Serbia, USA, Hungary, Romania and Spain, with some of his latest exhibitions at the Mariani Civic Gallery in Seregno (2019) and at the IV Italy China Biennale in Beijing ( 2016).
In conclusion, Lorenzo Piemonti was an innovative artist and intellectual, whose work ranged from painting to sculpture, from performance to manipulable art. His continuous experimentation and his rigorous and disciplined approach have left an indelible mark on the world of contemporary art.