BONI PAOLO
Italian
1926-2017
BIOGRAPHY
Painter, printmaker, and sculptor Paolo Boni was born in Vicchio di Mugello, Tuscany, Italy, on April 12, 1926. His formal art training began early, enrolling at the Liceo Artistico di Porta Romana (State Artistic High School, Porta Romana) as a teen, studying under sculptor Corrado Vigni. By 1946 he was regularly exhibiting throughout the major cities of Italy. He and his wife, American photographer Katherine White, moved to Paris, France, in 1954, where Boni established a studio in the city as well as in rural Alésia, and became known as the “Italian artist from Paris”.
He exhibited in France, Italy, and the United States, and began investing time learning intaglio printmaking techniques that allowed him to employ his knowledge of sculpting. He developed a style in which he would use relief and integlio processes, affixing pieces of carefully shaped metal to the plate, often indivdually inking the pieces or occasionally leaving the entire composition uninked, to form a collage of shapes. In the 1970s he named this technique “grafisculpture”.
Boni’s work is held in the Pushkin Museum (Moscow); Picasso Museum in Antibes; the Contemporary Art Museums of Chicago; the Museum of Modern Art (NY); the Museum of Modern Art (Paris); the New York Public Library; the National Museum of Fine Arts, Quebec (Canada); and the National Gallery (Washington, D.C.), among others.
Paolo Boni died in Paris, France, on March 29, 2017.
INFLUENCES
His collections were highly influenced by expressionism, highlighting emotions from a subjective perspective. Boni earns his reputable name recognition due to his mosaic engravings known as “graphisculpture.”
LIST OF WORKS
Title & Artist |
Medium |
Date |
Notes |
– |
Allegro by Paolo Boni |
Original Relief Intaglio Etching |
1972 |
Signed, dated, titled and numbered ’19/50′ by Paolo Boni in black pen along the lower margins. |
|
Attraction by Paolo Boni |
Original Relief Intaglio Etching |
1962 |
Signed, titled, dated and numbered, ’12/15′ by Paolo Boni in pencil along the lower margin. |
|
Constructed Forms by Paolo Boni |
Original Gouache Painting |
c. 1960 |
Signed by Paolo Boni along the lower right margin. |
|
Recueillement by Paolo Boni |
Original Relief Intaglio Etching |
1966 |
Signed by Paolo Boni in pencil along the lower margin. Limited Edition of 250 impressions. Published by The Print Club of Cleveland (Publication No. 44). |
|
1965 – 1975:Works with Gayzay Zakarian
1961 – 1964:Works with the gallery “Le Point Cardinal”, Paris
Works and travels in Europe and USA
TO READ FROM OR ABOUT THE ARTIST :
* « Domaine vert », Patrice Cauda, illustrations, de l’artiste, Ed. Pierre André Benoit, 1962
* « Omaggio a Paolo Boni », Nicola Micieli, catalogne d’exposition, Casa di Giotto, Vicchio, 1984
* « Paolo Boni », in Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres sculpteurs dessinateurs et graveurs, Ed. Gründ, 1999
* « Paolo Boni, Graphisculpture », Philippe Lepeut, Ed. Italian Cultural Institute, New York, 2013
