Gianfranco Baruchello biography

Gianfranco Baruchello is an Italian artist whose artwork can be defined as a painting of protest, as it closely observes the avant-gardes of the period but decides to innovate them through his own vision of life. He was born on August 24, 1924, in Livorno. His father was simultaneously a lawyer, a professor at the University of Pisa, and the director of the city's Industrial Union, while his mother was an elementary school teacher.
After the war, Gianfranco Baruchello graduated in Law to follow in his father's footsteps and in 1947 began working at Bombrini Parodi Delfino.
In 1949, he began dedicating himself to the establishment of the chemical company Biomedica, an activity he successfully pursued until 1955, before turning his full attention to literary and figurative art in 1959.
He was inspired in this sense by the Parisian atmosphere he encountered while visiting the city and meeting important artists such as Roberto Matta and Alan Jouffroy.
In 1962, he meets Marcel Duchamp, and in 1964, John Cage in New York, who invites him to explore the new frontiers of abstract impressionism and pop art. The American experience concludes with the creation of the canvases Altre tracce, which feature black stripes that reveal the inner turmoil of the artist and modern man, grappling with technological innovations and a society that tends to exclude rather than include.
Noteworthy is his participation in the New Realists exhibition held in New York in 1962 and organized by Pierre Restany, which featured artists such as Schifano, Festa, and Rotella.
Gianfranco Baruchello's production has been quite autonomous from the early years, although the influence of the avant-garde movements that followed throughout the 1900s is still noticeable. For this reason, in 1963 he decided to inaugurate his own exhibition at the Galleria La Tartaruga in Rome, where he developed his philosophy based on fragments, miniatures, and large white canvases rich in writings and seemingly random geometric lines. The references are directed at a society inclined towards consumerism and excessive haste, immediately discarding newly purchased products to always buy new ones.
He is also intrigued by the world of television, which he reproduces with subtle references on large surfaces, using slogans and symbols to show how the reality of the small screen can sometimes be empty.
The 1960s were a time of great excitement, as the author decided to venture into the world of cinema, creating over the years Molla, Il grado zero del paesaggio and Verifica incerta. With leftover materials, he conceived a series of works made with film clips spliced together. There is also a wide production of literary texts, which fully reflect his worldview and make it understandable even to his devoted admirers.
In 1973, he founded the Azienda Agricola Cornelia right on the outskirts of Rome. His goal is to expand and incorporate the adjacent land, saving it from real estate speculation with a perspective reminiscent of the currently widespread concept of a naturally sustainable enterprise. He thus develops an interesting reflection on the relationship between man, agricultural product, and artistic product, actively participating in the management of the business and theorizing some interesting economic laws that are still valid today.
This experience led him to paint works related to the territory, which he exhibited in a show at the Galleria di Milano, giving a famous interview of which, unfortunately, only the answers remain.
At the end of the 1980s, the company was dismantled and in its place Gianfranco Baruchello proposed the project Il Giardino, which in 1989 he presented at the Festival Voci sull'acqua di Spoleto, where he engaged in a performance by tending to a small bonsai of Gingko Biloba.
The purpose was to emphasize how the garden of the mind must always be nurtured and treated with the utmost respect.
In 1998, he established the Baruchello Foundation in his former residence on the hills of the capital, and in 2011, a retrospective exhibition was dedicated to him at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna di Roma.
Numerous are the awards received, including the one at the Deichtorhallen Sammlung Falckenberg in Hamburg or the nomination as artist of the year 2016 by artwork of Radio 3.