Franco Vimercati

Works

Senza titolo (Zuppiera)1991

Gelatin silver print

17,4 × 22,3 cm; 40 × 45 × 3 cm framed

Untitled (Zuppiera)1990

Gelatin silver print

18,7 × 24 cm; 40 × 45 × 3 cm framed

The World in a Grain of Sand

Installation view, 2023, GNAM, Rome

The World in a Grain of Sand

Installation view, 2023, GNAM, Rome

The World in a Grain of Sand

Installation view, 2023, GNAM, Rome

The World in a Grain of Sand

Installation view, 2023, GNAM, Rome

objects from Franco Vimercati's studio

The World in a Grain of Sand

Installation view, 2023, GNAM, Rome

objects from Franco Vimercati's studio

Vaso (o Le Temps retrouvé)1982

Series of 6 photographs, gelatin silver prints

26 × 26 cm each; 48 × 42,7 × 3 cm framed each

Installation view: Die Dinge des Lebens / Das Leben der Dinge. Proposition, 2014, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden

Untitled (Brocca)1980

Gelatin silver print

25,4 × 25,1 cm; 32 × 42 × 4 cm framed

Untitled (Brocca)1980

Gelatin silver print

25,4 × 25,1 cm; 32 × 42 × 4 cm framed

Installation view, Un Minuto, at Galleria Raffaella Cortese, via A. Stradella 4, Milan, 2020.

Senza titolo (Rollei)1995

Gelatin silver print

18,7 × 22,9 cm; 47 × 42,5 × 3 cm framed

Senza titolo (Macinacaffè)1997

Gelatin silver print

Esposizioni multiple1999/2020

Series of 5 photographs, gelatin silver prints

30,5 × 24,5 cm each; 48 × 43 × 3 cm framed each

Untitled (Lattiera)2000

Gelatin silver print

20,2 × 16,1 cm; 48 × 43 × 3 cm framed

Installation view, Un Minuto, at Galleria Raffaella Cortese, via A. Stradella 7, Milan, 2020.

Installation view, Un Minuto, at Galleria Raffaella Cortese, via A. Stradella 7, Milan, 2020.

Installation view, Un Minuto, at Galleria Raffaella Cortese, via A. Stradella 7, Milan, 2020.

Monforte d'Alba, Panettiere e Figlio1973

Gelatin silver print

23,9 × 16,2 cm; 52 × 42,5 cm framed

Monforte d'Alba, Pettinatrice1973

Gelatin silver print

15,7 × 23,7 cm; 35,5 × 42,5 cm framed

Monforte d'Alba, Postino1973

Gelatin silver print

19,4 × 29,2 cm; 42,5 × 52 cm framed

La fotografia, la vita

Installation view, 2019, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Madrid

Biography

Franco Vimercati was born in Milan in 1940 and died there in 2001.
He is represented by Galleria Raffaella Cortese since 1995.

Franco Vimercati was a meticulous and essential photographer, interpreter of the silent and repetitive nature of the real. His interest has always been directed to the analysis of everyday objects, like a bottle of mineral water, an electric iron, a tureen, and to the composition and decomposition of the scene, repeatedly assembled according to the need of the photographic eye. Marked by the experience of photographers such as Luigi Ghirri and Ugo Mulas, Franco Vimercati made his first photographic series Sulle Langhe, in 1973. After this experience, the artist isolated the camera within his four walls and in 1975 produced a series comprising thirty-six photographs of bottles of mineral water. Influenced by the new artistic discoveries of minimalism and figures such as Ad Reinhardt, Robert Ryman, Agnes Martin and Giulio Paolini, Franco Vimercati soon began to complicate the photographed object in form and composition, by focusing on a more limited selection of items. It is no longer the series to be potentially infinite but the possibilities of the representation that are always different.

Important solo shows have been devoted to the artist: Ad Reinhardt & Franco Vimercati, Oriole, Hamburg, Germany (2024); Franco Vimercati. The World in a Grain of Sand / Il mondo in un granello di sabbia, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome (2023); Ideias. O legado de Giorgio Morandi, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, San Paolo, poi Rio de Janeiro (2021); Franco Vimercati. La fotografia, la vita. Un dialogo con Giorgio Morandi, Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Madrid, Madrid (2019); Franco Vimercati, Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan (2016); Die Dinge des Lebens / Das Leben der Dinge. Franco Vimercati & George Kubler, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden (2014); Franco Vimercati. Tutte le cose emergono dal nulla, Palazzo Fortuny, Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia, Venice (2012); Fotografia Europa – Eternità. Il tempo dellʼimmagine, Reggio Emilia (2009).

Among the group exhibitions: Panorama Monferrato, Camagna, Monferrato, Italy (2024); Nel Tempo, Villa Panza, Varese, Italy (2024); ArteNumero, Museo Archeologico Regionale Valle d’Aosta, Aosta, Italy (2024); At the Studio, Collezione Giancarlo e Danna Olgiati, Lugano (2023); Photo Affection, Musei Civici di Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy (2021); 5 Weeks: On Time, Daniel Marzona, Berlin (2021); Sulla Luna e sulla Terra / fate largo ai sognatori!, Palazzo dei Musei, Reggio Emilia, Italy (2021); Natura in posa. Masterpieces from the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna in dialogue with contemporary photography, Museo Santa Caterina, Treviso, Italy (2020); Surface Matters, A photographic collection on ceramic, MUT – Mutina for Art, Fiorano Modenese (2018); Infrasottile. L’arte contemporanea ai limiti, Baco, Bergamo, Italy (2018); Think of this as a Window, MUT, Mutina for Art, Fiorano Modenese, Italy (2018); It, Fondazione Rolla, Bruzella, Switzerland (2018); Quand fondra la neige où ira le blanc. Opere dalla Collezione Enea Righi, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice (2016); L’Inarchiviabile/The Unarchivable, FM Centro per l’arte contemporanea, Milano (2016); The Lasting, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome (2016); Cantiere del ‘900. Opere dalle collezioni Intesa Sanpaolo, Gallerie d’Italia, Milan (2015); Addio anni settanta. Arte a Milano 1969/1980, Palazzo Reale, Milan (2012); Conceptual Art – The Panza Collection, Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Rovereto (2010); Italics – Arte italiana fra tradizione e rivoluzione 1968-2008, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2008); Utopie quotidiane, PAC Padiglione Arte Contemporanea, Milan (2002); Every Day, 11th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney (1998); Fotomedia, Rotonda della Besana, Milan (1975).

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Gallery Exhibitions

Public exhibitions

Ad Reinhardt & Franco Vimercati
30 December 2024 – 22 January 2025
Oriole, Hamburg
Panorama Monferrato
4 September – 8 September 2024
Camagna, Monferrato, Piedmont, Italy
Franco Vimercati. The World in a Grain of Sand / Il mondo in un granello di sabbia
7 June – 10 September 2023
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, Italy
Ideias. O legado de Giorgio Morandi
15 December 2021 – 21 February 2022
Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil , Rio de Janeiro. Brasil
Franco Vimercati: la fotografia, la vita. Un dialogo con Giorgio Morandi
1 March – 21 June 2019
Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Madrid
Polvere di stelle
10 September 2019 – 8 January 2017
Museo della ceramica, Mondovì
Die Dinge des Lebens / Das Leben der Dinge. Proposition I
26 April – 24 August 2014
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden
Franco Vimercati
1 September – 19 November 2012
Palazzo Fortuny, Venice

Press

Franco Vimercati, The World in a Grain of Sand
Photograph
September 2, 2023
Il fotografo che per 10 anni ha scattato la stessa foto
Artribune
June 25, 2023
Ripetizione, intervallo, oggetto. Franco Vimercati alla GNAM
Artslife
June15, 2023
La fotografia materica di Franco Vimercati in mostra
Harper's Bazaar
December 2, 2020
Franco Vimercati: la fotografia, la vita. Un dialogo con Giorgio Morandi
ATP Diary
May 5, 2019
Un tempo più denso. La fotografia di Franco Vimercati
Doppiozero
April 17, 2019
Franco Vimercati
Artforum
September 2016

Publications

Franco Vimercati. Il mondo in un granello di sabbia
Susan Bright
Tlon
Rome
2023
Franco Vimercati. Un Minuto Di Fotografia / One Minute of Photography
Marco Scotini
Quodlibet
Milan
2020
Franco Vimercati: La fotografía, la vida. Un diálogo con Giorgio Morandi
Elio Grazioli, Javier Hontoria, Marilena Pasquali
Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Madrid
Madrid
2019
The Lasting. L’intervallo e la durata
S. Cincinelli
Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea
Rome
2016
La percezione del futuro. La collezione Panza a Perugia catalogo
M. G. Caccia D. Panza
Fabrizio Fabbri Editore
Perugia
2015
Franco Vimercati and George Kubler: Die Dinge des Lebens / Das Leben der Dinge
Edited by Wolfgang Scheppe
Buchhandlung Walther König
Köln
2014
Franco Vimercati: Works
Edited by John and Fausta Eskenazi
Sylph Editions
London
2012
Sulle Langhe
Davide Lajolo
Alfa-Documenta
Turin
1974

Focus