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Born in 1938 in Bresso, near Milan, and passing away on December 4, 2022, Antonio Recalcati was a major artist of the second half of the 20th century. Initially known as a painter of the Nouvelle figuration in Paris, he later became particularly associated with the Figuration Narrative movement.

 

Despite lacking formal artistic training, he garnered attention in the early 1960s with his "Empreintes" (Impronte), paintings created by applying his own body or empty garments (shirts, briefs, undershirts) directly onto the canvas using oil. This technique was entirely unique at the time and carried an unprecedented expressionist charge. It became enigmatic when combined with abstract forms or narrative devices, such as dividing the canvas into multiple frames, resembling a comic book page.

 

Antonio Recalcati exhibited his work in Italy, in Paris at salons and galleries (including Galerie Mathias Fels, Galerie Claude Levin, and Galerie André Schoeller), in Brussels (Galerie Smith, Galerie Lanzberg), and in New York (Odyssey Gallery). He also took part in historical exhibitions such as "Mythologies quotidiennes" (Paris, 1964), "Figuration et Défiguration, de Picasso à nos jours" (Ghent, 1964), and "La figuration narrative dans l’art contemporain" (Paris, 1965).

 

During these same years, he formed friendships with poets, Jacques Prévert and novelists like Dino Buzzati. He participated, along with other artists like Gilles Aillaud, Enrico Baj, Eduardo Arroyo, and Jean-Jacques Lebel, in several iconic collective works emblematic of the commitment of a new generation of painters, including "Grand Tableau antifasciste" (MAMC de Strasbourg), "Vivre et laisser vivre ou la Fin tragique de Marcel Duchamp" (Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid), and "Une passion dans le désert" (MAM de Paris).

 

As a key figure in the Parisian art scene, he exhibited multiple times in the 1970s at the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, as well as at the Centre National d'Art Contemporain and the Centre Pompidou.

 

He also engaged in dialogues with other art scenes by making several trips to London and New York and frequently traveling to Italy, where he devoted himself to ceramics in the 1990s.

 

His work, straddling the realms of the personal and the political, offered a unique reflection on the relationship between human beings and the world, often representing them as reflections, shadows, or imprints—present yet absent.

 

Antonio Recalcati's art is represented in numerous museum collections in France and abroad, including the Centre Pompidou-MNAM, MAM de Paris, CNAP, MAMC de Strasbourg, MAMAC de Nice, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dôle, Musée d'Ixelles, Museo Reina Sofia, as well as major private collections like the Eric de Rothschild Collection, Fondation Gandur pour l'Art, and Fondation Maeght.

The Kaleidoscope Gallery represents the estate of the artist.

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