{"id":5092,"date":"2018-03-22T19:12:17","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T18:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marottaeditori.com\/?p=5092"},"modified":"2018-05-29T23:34:19","modified_gmt":"2018-05-29T21:34:19","slug":"the-arabic-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.marottaeditori.com\/en\/the-arabic-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"The arabic numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zero, Four, Seven, Eight, Ten, Fifty, One hundred: these are the Arabic Numbers<\/strong>\u00a0of\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0Bolaffi Art Covers<\/strong>. Developed in the ’70s, they gather some of the most famous names of the international artistic scene. From\u00a0Emilio Vedova<\/strong> to\u00a0Henry<\/strong> Moore<\/strong>,\u00a0Enrico Baj,\u00a0<\/strong>Joan Mir\u00f2<\/strong>, including\u00a0Arnaldo Pomodoro, Emilio Scanavino <\/strong>and\u00a0Mauro Reggiani<\/strong>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The arabic numbers<\/strong>\u00a0are a symbolic representation, which is essential for the everyday life and the development of mathematics.\u00a0<\/b>They were born in\u00a0India between 400 a.C. and 400 d.C., giving their name to the work of arabian mathematicians and astronomers (they call them “indian numbers”) who diffused them across Europe.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The arabic numbers from zero to ten<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

The series developed by Bolaffi starts with\u00a0Number 0<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, created by\u00a0Mauro Reggiani<\/b>. The artist, born in Emilia Romagna region, is deemed to be one of the major exponents of the abstract art in Italy.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Reggiani was born in 1897 in Nonantola and, after war, moved to Milan. Here, he attended the\u00a0Gruppo Novecento<\/em>\u00a0and took part in the Milione II Gallery<\/strong>, where the european abstract avant-garde met surrealism. He figures among the signers of the Abstract Art First Manifesto<\/em>\u00a0and between the\u00a0’30s onwards, his artworks become extremely powerful. The shapes mix up according to orthogonal directices and his palette, consisting in basic colors and towards more vivid nuances<\/em>. In\u00a0Number Zero<\/em> the figure merges to vertical rigid stripes.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Emilio Vedova <\/b>is the author of\u00a0Studio Number 4<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.\u00a0Born in Venezia in 1919 from a family of artisans and laborers, he was a self-taught painter ever since the ’30s. In 1942 he joined the movement against the 20th century,\u00a0Corrente,\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0which also\u00a0Renato Guttuso <\/b>and\u00a0Renato Birolli<\/b> belonged to. Affirmed antifascist, between 1944 and 1945 he took part in the Resistance movement. After war, he signed the\u00a0Oltre Guernica<\/i>\u00a0Manifesto and was among the main founders of the Italian\u00a0<\/em>New Secession <\/i>then New front for arts.<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nIn the ’60s Vedova produced the series\u00a0Plurimi<\/i>, as in compositions in which painting combines with different backings, materials and techniques<\/strong> up to develop three-dimensional elements. These can be observed just by turning around it. \u00a0Number 4<\/em> shows the typical signs of the gestual painting of Vedova. Furthermore, the cardboard is die-cut and bended in a way that makes the work trhree-dimensional.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ennio Morlotti<\/strong><\/em> is the author of Number<\/strong><\/em> 6<\/a>. He is deemed to be one of the most important naturalists of the 18th century. Morlotti was born in Lecco in 1910. After working as workman and accounting, he decided to take art studies that he completed first at the academy of Brera and then at the beaux arts in Florence.<\/p>\n

In 1937 his stay in Paris was crucial for the development of his poetics. There, he came in contact with the artworks of Paul C\u00e9zanne, Cha\u00efm Soutine, Georges Rouault and Fauves. Morlotti was one of the fewest Italians who saw Guernica at the Universal exposition of Paris. Thanks to that, he will bring to Italy reproductions and studies.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Number 7<\/strong><\/em><\/a> of the series is the\u00a0Enrico Baj’<\/b>s work. Born in Milan in 1924, Baj begins to study medicine, but soon after the Second World War he drops it to shift to Law. He gradutes and indeed becomes a lawyer. Simultaneously he approaches the Academy of Beauty Arts of Brera. He builds friendships with Italian and International poets and intellectuals such as\u00a0Andr\u00e9 Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Raymond Queneau, Edoardo Sanguineti, Umberto Eco. <\/strong>He often dedicates himself to the illustration of classical and modern texts. Started with an informal style, he soon shifts to other forms of expression.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the ’50s he founds the Nuclear Painting<\/b><\/i>\u00a0movement and the I<\/strong><\/em>nternational Movement for an Immaginist Bauhaus.\u00a0<\/b><\/i><\/span><\/span>He is the signer of the manifestos: Against style<\/em> and<\/span>\u00a0Manifeste de Naples. <\/i>He experiments different techniques , from dripping to collage, including marquetry.\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0Baj is also influenced by Surrealism and Dadaism, but his attention to social subjects are always vivid.<\/span><\/p>\n

Herny Moore<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>signs the<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Numero 8<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, with its unique illustrations of strong symbolic tension and soft lines. Born in \u00a0Yorkshire in 1898, he takes part in the First World War injuring himself.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Throughout his academic carrier, started in the ’20s, Moore receives several grants that allow him to attend prestigious courses at the college <\/em>and visit\u00a0<\/em>Italy. Very well known as sculptor, he has his landmark in illustrations of vigorous volumes and curvy shapes.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Valerio Adami<\/strong> is the author of Number 9.<\/strong><\/em> Born in Bologna in 1935, Adami gets interested in painting since very young, gaining some practice in Venice with Felice Carena.<\/p>\n

In the 50’s he becomes friend with Oskar Kokoschka and starts studying drawing at the accademy of Brera in Milan with Achille Funi. influenced by\u00a0 Francis Bacon, he started with expressionism to go back to\u00a0 figuration after confronting with\u00a0 the Pop Art, particularly with Roy Lichtenstein’s works. Truly convinced that painting needed a sort of pictures syntesis<\/u>, he makes his paintings through cromatic brush strokes within net contours. He often paints inner environments and typical objects as symbols of modernity.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Number 10<\/strong> <\/em>of the Arabic numbers <\/em>series belongs to\u00a0Arnaldo Pomodoro<\/b>, one of the greatest italian contemporary sculptors. Born in Morciano di Romagna in 1926, he works in Pesaro as advisor for the reconstruction of public buildings until ’50s. At that time he attends the local Institute of Art and shows interest in scenography and goldsmiths. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Pomodoro’s artistic path begins in 1954, after moving to Milan, where he comes in contact with Lucio Fontana, Enrico Baj, Sergio Dangelo\u00a0<\/b>and other artists. In the same year he exhibits at the Montenapoleone Gallery. Famous on internazional level, he currently lives and works in Milan. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In his works every shape leads back to an euclidean solid such as a sphere, a cube, cylinder or a parallelepiped. Often its repetion seems to resemble the sequence of the notes in a music composition.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Fifty and One Hundread: the series’s end\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

The\u00a0Number 50<\/strong> <\/em><\/a>is signed by\u00a0Enrico Scanavino<\/b>, originary of Genova and close to\u00a0Spazialism,<\/em>\u00a0he started from a figurative language. Born in 1926, Scanavino lives and express his inner tension through art. Tension caused by different religious creeds of his parents: \u00a0the theosophy of his father and the catholicism of his mother.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In 1942 he moves to Milan to attend Architecture, but the call to armies makes him leave his studies. His painting suffers a sudden change after his stay in London where he gets fascinated by B<\/strong>acon, Sutherland <\/b>and\u00a0Matta’s works<\/b>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span>Scanavino’s reproduction of the ’50s is featured by the pictorical translation of his inner pain and the born of a distinctive sign which will follow him through the next years as in a stylized knot.
\n<\/span><\/span>Since ’68 on he works even more in\u00a0Calice Ligure, where he founded an artistic community <\/b>that included among excellent activities, the ceramics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Joan Mir\u00f2<\/b>\u00a0is the author of \u00a0Number 100<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. Born in Barcellona in 1893, Mir\u00f2 takes economy studies due to his father’s will. But after working as accounting for a short period, he has a nervous breakdown that leads him to dedicate to painting, his passion.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the ’20s Mir\u00f2 lives in Paris where he comes in contact with the most artistic environment of avant-guarde. Picasso, Tristan Tzara, Max Ernst, Jean Arpe,\u00a0 Pierre Bonnard<\/b>. And obviously, with the surrealist groups gathered around Bre<\/strong>ton, Aragon, Eluard, Prevert<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0P\u00e9ret<\/b>. On the brink of the Spanish Civil War, he collects in Paris some money for the republican cause. However, he is forced to live the city due to the nazist envasion. An international artist described by<\/strong>\u00a0“the most surrealist of us all<\/em><\/b>“<\/b>, Mir\u00f2 has exhibited in Europe and worldwide. Nevertheless to gain some recognition in his home town he had to wait until the end of francoism.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

His language is unique, as much as the symbols that charaterize his production (most of all, the woman and the birds). Both represent the pilars upon which it has been built the art of the 20th century.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zero, Four, Seven, Eight, Ten, Fifty, One hundred: these are the Arabic Numbers\u00a0of\u00a0\u00a0Bolaffi Art Covers. Developed in the ’70s, they gather some of the most famous names of the international artistic scene. From\u00a0Emilio Vedova to\u00a0Henry Moore,\u00a0Enrico Baj,\u00a0Joan Mir\u00f2, including\u00a0Arnaldo Pomodoro, Emilio Scanavino and\u00a0Mauro Reggiani.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[318,248],"tags":[319,325],"class_list":["post-5092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arabic-numbers","category-multiples-of-art-series","tag-arnaldo-pomodoro-en","tag-mauro-reggiani-en"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/old.marottaeditori.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/numeri.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.marottaeditori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.marottaeditori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.marottaeditori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.marottaeditori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.marottaeditori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/old.marottaeditori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.marottaeditori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.marottaeditori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.marottaeditori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.marottaeditori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}