CLAUDIO OLIVIERI

Exhibitions

Catalogues

THE ANALYTICAL LINE OF PAINTING

Biography

“I was born in Rome in 1934. My father was a teacher at elementary school. What I remember of my childhood years is the crowds in piazza Venezia, the whiteness of the monument which stands at the bottom of the piazza, the noise of the streetcars that carried us to a kindergarten on the Aventino hill, the green olives wrapped in a yellow paper my father bought me on the way.
Then my father died and the war was about to begin, so we had to move to Mantua, where my mother came from.
I remember the slow trains and the stations whose names I had never heard before: Orte,Terontola, Arezzo.
The world outside was almost silent; the landscapes were deep, and at night there were very few lights.The accent of the voices I heard changed as we travelled farther north.

Because my grandfather was a jew, we settled in the ghetto of Mantua, which lies right at the heart of that most peculiar, ancient place, a town enclosed within its lakes.Here, the atmosphere was also very quiet and intimate back then.
I remember those five years of war as a never-ending time,with blinding summers following endless, freezing winters, I remember running into bomb shelters and raiding an almost desert countryside. I remember the fear and the familiarity with danger; collapsed bridges, the disastrous floods of the Po river, the sound of sirens and the flashes of the anti-aircraft fire, the blind nights, the German trucks. I especially remember the day when, riding on my bike, I saw coming towards me forty German Panzer on their way to the warfront, where their monstrous power was about to dissolve.
When the war was over, life went back to normal, and people were almost stupefied by their newly found normality.
Within the unique spatial freedom of those times, the lakes were the backdrop of my summers, the sacred place of an unspoiled nature.
After high school, I went to Milan, where I discovered art and culture and met different people.
Those fervent years between1950 and 1970, marked by important exhibitions, polemical discussions and anger, now seem to me even more distant than war itself.
About this period, I could mention how the atmosphere in our artist world used to change with every new Biennale, how artists got more and more marginalized, as the role of organizers increasingly gained importance, how works of art slowly came to be a mere appendage of that systematizing project which I can no longer call art criticism.
All this has been taking place in an increasingly dependent Italy, a country dominated by a tyrannical ideology that tries to camouflage as absolute what is merely conventional.

In this carnival of banality, of “just in time” mentality, we artists are treated almost like warehouse stock that has to be disposed of as soon as possible. I don’t regret this too much; however, I realize with sadness that Milan has declined, it has lost its curiosity, adventurousness and spiritual solidarity, embracing the fashionable desert of todays culture.
As I sit in my study I wonder where these coloured shadows that light my mind come from, what pushes me to try to give shape and plenitude to what I sometimes fear is a mere ghost.

Many years have passed since that day in Olympia, when Praxiteles taught me that light does not clothe the world, but instead reveals and creates it at the same time. Ever since that day I have drawn vital nourishment from that source of inspiration, fearing it might vanish, running after its glow, losing its traces and groping my way back to them, continuing to live.”

Claudio Olivieri

Exhibitions

2013
“Claudio Olivieri, Opere recenti”, Tesa 105 Arsenale di Venezia, Venezia
“Due – Antonio Capaccio / Claudio Olivieri”, Galleria Anna D’ascanio, Roma
“Claudio Olivieri, La gloria dell’invisibile”, Galleria San Fedele, Milano

2012
“Luce propria”, Museo Diocesano, Milano

2010
“Quali Sensi”, Villa La Versiliana, Marina di Pietrasanta LU

2009
“ME PINXIT”, White Project arte contemporanea, Pescara
Galleria Artra, Milano

2008
“Claudio Olivieri, Per ora”, Galleria Anfiteatro Arte, Padova
“Claudio Olivieri, opere inedite”, Galleria Spazia, Bologna
Bergamo Arte Fiera
“Claudio Olivieri – opere su carta”, Galleria Anfiteatro Arte, PD e MI

2007
“Claudio Olivieri, il silenzio del colore”, sale d’arte città di Alessandria
“Claudio Olivieri. Premesse poetiche per un viaggio”, Serrone della Villa Reale, Monza
Palazzo Paleotti, Minerbio
Museo Diocesano, Milano
“Claudio Olivieri. Antologica”, Claudio Poleschi Arte Contemporanea e Chiesa di San Matteo, Lucca

2006
White Project (con P. Icaro), Pescara
“Olivieri. L’azzurro”, Grande Miglio in Castello, Brescia

2005
Fondazione Zappettini, Milano
Galleria Trentasette, Palermo
“Omaggio a Claudio Olivieri”, Galleria Pangeart, Bellinzona

2004
“L’occhio e l’anima”, Galleria Centofiorini, Civitanova Marche

2003
Rocca Paolina, Perugia

2002
“Olivieri. Visibile, segreto”, Casa del Mantenga, Mantova

2001
“Olivieri, piccolo formato”, Linea d’Ombra Quadri, Conegliano
“Olivieri. Opere 1969 – 2000”, Palazzo Sarcinelli, Conegliano Veneto

2000
Frankfürter Westend Galerie, Francoforte
Galleria Centofiorini, Civitanova Marche

1999
Claudio Olivieri, Galleria Omega, Reggio Emilia

1998
Galleria Bambaia, Busto Arsizio
Galleria Liba, Pontedera
Studio Delise, Portogruaro
Spazio Cesare da Sesto, Sesto Calende

1997
Artline, Amsterdam

1996
Studio Centenari, Piacenza

1995
Scuole Elementari, Sarego
Arte Studio Clocchiati, Udine

1994
Galleria Spazia, Bologna
“Claudio Olivieri”, PAC, Milano, Ferrara

1993
Galleria Eidos, Asti

1992
Galleria Bambaia, Busto Arsizio
Galleria Tega, Milano

1990
XLIV Biennale di Venezia, Venezia
“Carte di Claudio Olivieri”, Galleria Meta, Bolzano
Galleria Spazia, Bologna

1989
“Claudio Olivieri. Opere su carta”, Museo Civico, Crema
“Claudio Olivieri. Dipinti e opere su carta”, Museo Civico, Desenzano
“Claudio Olivieri. Dipinti recenti”, Galleria del Milione, Milano
“Claudio Olivieri. Dipinti e opere su carta 1982 – 1989”, Galleria 1997 Bambaia, Busto Arsizio
“Insonnie”, Galleria Il Triangolo Nero, Alessandria

1988
“Claudio Olivieri. Opere su carta”, Circolo degli artisti, Brescia
“Claudio Olivieri”, Galleria d’Arte Niccoli, Parma
“Claudio Olivieri. Opere su carta”, Galleria del Milione, Milano

1987
Galerie Schaefer, Giessen

1986
Olivieri – Oldbilder – Gouachen der Letzen Fünf Jahren, Galerie Von Loe, Bonn
Galleria Corraini, Mantova

1985
Galerie “E” Edition, Monaco

1984
“Claudio Olivieri”, Casa del Macchiavelli, Sant’Andrea in Percussina
“Il quinto elemento: l’indecidibile”, Studio 10 arte contemporanea, Napoli
Claudio Olivieri, Galleria Nuova 2000, Bologna
“Claudio Olivieri”, Galleria Lorenzelli, Milano

1983
“Claudio Olivieri. Opere 1962 – 1983”, Galleria Civica, Modena
“Claudio Olivieri”, Studio Dossi, Bergamo

1982
Centro Sant’Elmo, Salò
PAC, Milano
“Claudio Olivieri. Opere su carta”, Massimo Minini, Milano

1981
Galleria Bluart, Varese
Castello di Sartirana, Sartirana
“Claudio Olivieri”, Galleria Banco – Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia

1980
Galleria Il Sole, Bolzano
XXXIX Biennale di Venezia, Venezia

1979
Oolp, Torino

1978
Galleria Lorenzelli, Milano

1977
Galleria Forma, Genova
Galerie Stevenson Palluel, Parigi
Galleria Il Capricorno, Venezia
Galleria Banco, Brescia

1976
Galleria Espace 5, Montreal

1975
“Olivieri, Galleria del Milione, Milano
“Claudio Olivieri”, Galleria Stufidre, Torino

1974
Galleria La Piramide, Firenze
“Claudio Olivieri”, Westfalischer Kunstverein, Munster
Galleria Peccolo, Livorno
“Claudio Olivieri – Valentino Vago”, Galleria San Luca, Bologna
Galleria Quattro Venti, Palermo

1973
“Claudio Olivieri”, Galleria 3 B, Bolzano
“Claudio Olivieri”, Centro Sant’Elmo, Salò

1971
“Olivieri”, Galleria del Milione e Galleria Morone 6, Mi
Claudio Olivieri, Galleria Quattro Venti, Palermo

1969
“Claudio Olivieri”, Galleria La Ruota, Parma
Galleria La Nuova Loggia

1968
Galleria del Milione, Milano
Galleria L’Ammolita, Genova
Galleria Mosaico, Chiasso

1967
“Claudio Olivieri. Pitture –sculture”, Salone Annunciata, Milano
Galleria Greco, Mantova

1966
“Olivieri”, Salone Annunciata, Milano

1962
“Olivieri”, Salone Annunciata, Milano

1961
“Olivieri – Della Torre”, Galleria George Lester, Roma

1960
“Opere di Claudio Olivieri”, Salone Annunciata, Milano

1959
“Tempere di Claudio Olivieri e incisioni di Enrico Della Torre”, The British School