Vincenzo Agnetti
Vincenzo Agnetti, born in Milan on September 14, 1926, is considered one of the leading figures of Italian conceptual art. Graduated from the Brera Academy, Vincenzo Agnetti's path is marked by constant experimentation and intense theoretical reflection. After an initial period dedicated to informal painting and poetry, Agnetti approached the most radical movements of the '50s and '60s. His friendship with artists like Piero Manzoni and Enrico Castellani introduced him to the Azimuth group, with whom he collaborated through critical and theoretical writings. However, it was from the '60s onward that Vincenzo Agnetti abandoned traditional painting to fully dedicate himself to conceptual art.
In 1962 Agnetti left for Argentina, where he worked in the field of electronic automation. During these years of detachment from the Italian art scene, the artist developed deep reflections on the nature of art and existence.
He returned to Italy in 1967, firmly determined to transform his vision into manifest art. His first exhibition at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara represents a milestone in his path. Here he exhibited Principia, an artwork that reflects on the relativity of meanings in language.
Among the most famous artworks by Vincenzo Agnetti the artist is the Drugged Machine (1968), an Olivetti Divisumma 14 calculator modified to generate words instead of numbers, posing a radical critique of language and its ambiguities. In the '70s the artist created the Feltri and the Bacheliti, artworks that introduce words, numbers, and diagrams into an intellectual and visual dialogue. Artworks like the Project for a Political Hamlet (1973), defined as "static theater", explore the interaction between language, time, and political critique.
Alongside his artistic production, Vincenzo Agnetti maintained an intense critical and theoretical activity. He collaborated with contemporary artists such as Colombo, Scheggi and Parmiggiani, while maintaining a creative independence that distinguished him from the main currents of the time. His work is often accompanied by writings and reflections that amplify its conceptual scope.
In 1975, Vincenzo Agnetti moved to New York, where he collaborated with the Feldman Gallery and created the exhibition Image of an exhibition. The American experience further broadened his artistic vision, placing his artwork in dialogue with the international scene. The experiments continued with works like Events precipitate (1974), an investigation into the relationship between time, language, and visual representation.
In the last years of his life, Vincenzo Agnetti the artist devoted himself to Photo-graffie (1979-1981), artworks made on treated photographic paper, where he intervenes with scratches to recover a figurative element in a conceptual key. These artworks represent a definitive fusion between poetry and image, two central elements in his artistic language. In 1978 he published Machiavelli 30, a collection of poems accompanied by images of his artworks, uniting writing and art in a single dialogue.
Vincenzo Agnetti suddenly dies in Milan on September 1, 1981, leaving unfinished the artwork Lucernario. His artistic legacy, however, continues to live through his creations, which redefined the boundaries of contemporary art.
