Vimercate, 1935 — Desio, 2013

Agostino Bonalumi was born in Vimercate, in the province of Milan, on 10 July 1935. After studying technical and mechanical drawing, he devoted himself to painting as a self-taught artist, starting to exhibit at a very young age. Thanks to Enrico Baj, he met Piero Manzoni and Enrico Castellani in 1958: an association was formed between the three artists that would see them exhibit together first at the Galleria Pater in Milan, then in Rome, Milan and Lausanne.

In 1959 he founded the magazine ‘Azimuth’ with Castellani, while in 1961 at the Kasper Gallery in Lausanne he was one of the founders of the New European School group. His research centred on space led him to create his first ‘extroflexions’: object-paintings obtained by means of frames and structures that, placed on the back of the canvas, cause its tension and deformation.

In 1966 he began a long period of collaboration with the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan, which represented him exclusively, publishing an extensive monograph edited by Gillo Dorfles for Edizioni del Naviglio in 1973. In 1966 he was invited to the Venice Biennale with a group of works, and in 1970 with a solo exhibition.

In the 1960s his research evolved towards the creation of enrivomental-works, in which the spectator actively participates in the space. In 1980 a major retrospective exhibition was held at Palazzo Te in Mantua.

In the 1990s Bonalumi also experimented with bronze casting and steel. In 2002 he was awarded the Premio Presidente della Repubblica, on which occasion the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca dedicated a retrospective exhibition to him at Palazzo Carpegna in Rome. In 2003, he participated in the exhibition ‘Futuro Italiano’, held in the halls of the European Parliament in Brussels.
Bonalumi died in Desio on 18 September 2013.