biography

Franco Vimercati was born in Milan in 1940 and died there in 2001.

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.

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Franco Vimercati was born in Milan in 1940 and died there in 2001.

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: 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: 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).

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images

Esposizioni multiple

Esposizioni multiple, 1999/2020

Series of 5 photographs, gelatin silver prints

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

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Capovolte

Untitled (Depuratore), 1998

Gelatin silver print

28,2 × 22,5 cm; 43 × 37 × 3 cm framed

Untitled (Calice), 1996

Gelatin silver print

21,8 × 18,3 cm; 36,5 × 33 × 3 cm framed

Untitled (Taralli), 1996

Gelatin silver print

31 × 25,5 cm; 48 × 43,3 × 3 cm framed

Franco Vimercati – Un minuto

Installation view at Galleria Raffaella Cortese, via Stradella 1, Milan, 2020

Photo: Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Zuppiera

Untitled (Zuppiera), 1990

Gelatin silver print

19,9 × 24 cm

Installation view of "Franco Vimercati: la fotografia, la vita. Un dialogo con Giorgio Morandi", curated by Elio Grazioli, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Madrid, 2019

Photo: IIC

Installation view at Galleria Raffaella Cortese, via Stradella 7, Milan, 2016

Vaso

Vaso (o Le Temps retrouvé), 1982

Series of 6 photographs, gelatin silver prints

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

Brocca

Untitled (Brocca), 1980/81

Gelatin silver print

27,5 cm diameter; 31,6 x 41,6 x 4 cm framed

Untitled (Brocca), 1980

Gelatin silver print

25,4 × 25,1 cm; 32 × 42 × 4 cm framed

Franco Vimercati – Un minuto

Installation view at Galleria Raffaella Cortese, via Stradella 4, Milan, 2020

Installation view of "Franco Vimercati: la fotografia, la vita. Un dialogo con Giorgio Morandi", curated by Elio Grazioli, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Madrid, 2019

Photo: IIC

Parquet

Untitled (Parquet), 1977/2020

Series of 6 photographs, gelatin silver prints

31 × 10 cm each; 49,4 × 32,5 × 4 cm framed each

Franco Vimercati – Un minuto

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

Photo: Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Piastrelle

Untitled (Piastrelle), 1975/2020

Series of 6 photographs, gelatin silver prints

27,5 × 27,5 cm; 44,5 × 38,5 × 4 cm framed each

Franco Vimercati – Un minuto

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

Photo: Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Langhe

Monforte d'Alba, Panettiere e Figlio, 1973

Gelatin silver print

23,9 × 16,2 cm; 52 × 42,5 cm framed

Perno, Gioco del pallone elastico, 1973

Gelatin silver print

27,1 × 18 cm; 52 × 42,5 cm framed

Monforte d'Alba, Tabella dei giochi proibiti, 1973

Gelatin silver print

29,2 × 19,4 cm; 52 × 42,5 cm framed

Monforte d'Alba, Pettinatrice, 1973

Gelatin silver print

15,7 × 23,7 cm; 35,5 × 42,5 cm framed

Installation view at Galleria Raffaella Cortese, via Stradella 4, Milan, 2016

public exhibitions

Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil

Rio de Janeiro. Brasil

Ideias. O legado de Giorgio Morandi

15.12.2021 – 21.2.2022

Exhibition View: Ideias, O Legado de Giorgio Morandi. CCBB, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Photo: Jaime Acioli

Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil

Sao Paulo, Brasil

Ideias. O legado de Giorgio Morandi

22.9 – 22.11.2021

Photo: Ricardo Amado/Base7 Projetos Culturais

Istituto Italiano di Cultura

Madrid

Franco Vimercati: la fotografia, la vita. Un dialogo con Giorgio Morandi

1.3 – 21.6.2019

Credits: IIC

Istituto Italiano di Cultura

Madrid

Franco Vimercati: la fotografia, la vita. Un dialogo con Giorgio Morandi

1.3 – 21.6.2019

Credits: IIC

Istituto Italiano di Cultura

Madrid

Franco Vimercati: la fotografia, la vita. Un dialogo con Giorgio Morandi

1.3 – 21.6.2019

Credits: IIC

Museo della ceramica

Mondovì

Polvere di stelle

10.9.2019 – 8.1.2017

Photo: Agostino Osio

Museo della ceramica

Mondovì

Polvere di stelle

10.9.2019 – 8.1.2017

Photo: Agostino Osio

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

Dresden

Die Dinge des Lebens / Das Leben der Dinge. Proposition I

26.4 – 24.8.2014

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

Dresden

Die Dinge des Lebens / Das Leben der Dinge. Proposition I

26.4 – 24.8.2014

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

Dresden

Die Dinge des Lebens / Das Leben der Dinge. Proposition I

26.4 – 24.8.2014

Palazzo Fortuny

Venice

Franco Vimercati

1.9 – 19.11.2012

press

La fotografia materica di Franco Vimercati in mostra

Marco Arrigoni

Harper's Bazaar

December 2, 2020

Franco Vimercati: la fotografia, la vita. Un dialogo con Giorgio Morandi

Claudia Santeroni

ATP Diary

May 5, 2019

Un tempo più denso. La fotografia di Franco Vimercati

Stefano Chiodi

Doppiozero

April 17, 2019

Franco Vimercati

Galleria Raffaella Cortese, via Stradella 1

Francesca Pola

Artforum

September 2016

publications

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

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