Enrico Donati: Surrealism and Beyond [Hardcover]

Theodore F. Wolff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996 | ISBN-10: 1555951384 | ISBN-13: 978-1555951382 | Edition: 1st

Donati, the young Italian anointed Surrealism's Wunderkind by Andre Breton in 1942, has gone on to a rich career as an artist of the New York School, his vision transformed many times over through 55 years of highly provocative, richly textured, ravishingly colourful work.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Throughout his long career, Donati, who was born in Italy in 1909 and now lives in New York City, has changed painting styles many times while always remaining true to his surrealist sensibilities. Art critic Wolff (Morris Graves: Flower Paintings) lucidly analyzes the phrases of Donati's art, from the subjective imagery of the 1940s that led the surrealist poet Andre Breton to laud him as the savior of surrealism to the provocative works of the 1990s that combine surrealist elements with geometric configurations and calligraphic doodles. There is an aura of magic about Donati's paintings, for they are imbued with the artist's mystical relationship to ancient myths and his own intuitions concerning the nature of life. Wolff suggests this quality reached its apogee in the iconic Fossil series of the 1960s, which had its inception in the artist's discovery of a fossil he believed "had always been my true myth and metaphor, my guide from the very beginning of my career." He goes on to show that this kind of mysterious personal imagery characterizes all the artist's works. The handsome reproductions glow with the artist's rich colors.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Theodore Wolff's Enrico Donati: Surrealism And Beyond is a retrospective survey of visually stunning and profoundly moving works of paint and sculpture by a true master. Enrico Donati: Surrealism And Beyond includes such icons of Surrealism as his bronze "Fist" with glass eyes that turn a hand into an eerie face, and the catalogue with a glued-on foam-rubber breast created in collaboration with Duchamp for the 1947 Exposition Internationale due Surrealisme they organized at the Galerie Maeght in Paris, which would prove to the the movement's last big public event. Donati's Surrealist paintings, filled with biomorphic forms in an illusionary space, were followed in the late 1940s by paintings filled with crisp, clear, aggressively geometric forms and planes, a fanciful mechanical world. These were succeeded in turn by gestural paintings that utilize a freely invented calligraphic approach. In 1950 Donati began a series using pigment and glue thickened with vacuum-cleaner lint, their heavy black, gray and white surfaces suggestive of lunar landscapes. Color returned to Donati's work in the Sargon series of the mid-fifties, then came an ancient-looking Fossil series in the early 1960s, and a Coptic Wall series in the late 1970s. Donati's most recent work has seen a gradual enlivening and the incorporation of updated images from the earlier work in often playful geometric structures and ambiguous spaces. At the age of 87, Donati is still at work with passion and imagination on paintings that are highly provocative, richly textured, and ravishingly colorful. Enrico Donati: Surrealism And Beyond is also graced with an insightful and informative monographic essay by Theodore Wolff, "Enrico Donatie: The Fossil and the Stone". With its 87 colorplates and 28 black and white illustrations, Enrico Donati: Surrealism And Beyond is a highly recommended addition to all library art history collections. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Hardcover: 168 pages
• Publisher: Hudson Hills Press; 1st edition (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555951384
• ISBN-13: 978-1555951382
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 10.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,155,445 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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