The exhibition will provide the rare opportunity to see around 40 works of the famous Italian artist, chosen amongst his most relevant production.

Gino De Dominicis, as Bellini writes “can be considered one of the most emblematic and mysterious figures in the history of Italian art in the post-WWII period. He is still in many ways something of a mystery, surrounded by a legendary aura.

De Dominicis was and remains an isolated case, a complex personality who always turned his back on the logic of groups and movements, cultivating a superior, noble, and solitary notion of artistic creation.”

The curators have decided to focus this project on painting, an activity the artist profoundly believed in, thus on a time period ranging from the 1980’s to 1998, the year of his death.

Yet, the exhibition will also present works belonging to his first period, generating a symbolic path across the evolution of De Dominicis’ thinking and artistic production: the memorable Asta of 1967, a vertical balance element without any apparent support, D’IO (1971) a diabolic laugh receiving visitors outside the Fondazione Merz, and the famous Il tempo, lo sbaglio, lo spazio (1970), a human skeleton with roller skates holding a dog skeleton on a leash.

“De Dominicis’s close focus on fundamental themes like those of gravity and immortality are revealed iconographically by the highlighting of some essential figures, and on the intellectual level there are similarities in his striving to achieve extremely sophisticated painting by means of a few, basic elements: the use of wood and the prevalent use of basic colours, sometimes apparently monochromes, and pencil – the most ancient and yet the most modern of tools. The most ancient art is that of today. What precedes it is younger and more modern.”, writes Laura Cherubini in her essay mentioning the artist.