Gianfranco Baruchello produces a radical redesign of our idea of the alphabet in Primo alfabeto, on view at MASSIMODECARLO in Milan until March 9. This exhibition, curated by Carla Subrizi and Maria Alicata, brings together the works of Gianfranco Baruchello produced between 1959 and 1962, and two drawings from 1963, for the first time.
Baruchello’s paintings, objects, and drawings form, in his own words, “a manifesto against the rhetoric of the modern world.” The figures of his work form an alphabet based on the corporeal and the emotional, rather than any pre-existing system of concepts or constructions. In fact, every aspect of the Italian artist’s technique is defined by this subversion of convention. Baruchello invents compound words in Latin to name his images. He eschews oil paints in favor of industrial enamels and materials, rustproof varnishes, and synthetic resins and solvents. At MASSIMODECARLO, Primo alfabeto sends visitors into the liminal spaces of autonomous language and the profound realm of Baruchello’s art.
Installation view of Gianfranco Baruchello’s “Primo alfabeto” at MASSIMODECARLO, photo by Roberto Marossi, courtesy of MASSIMODECARLO.
