Luciano Bartolini was an Italian artist born in Fiesole, just outside of Florence. He was very influenced by the arte povera movement which drew materials and forms from everyday life and flourished in Italy in the 1960s as a reaction to modernist abstract painting that had dominated European art in the 1950s. Beginning in the 1970s, Bartolini made many trips to the Orient, especially to northern India and Nepal. Later he spent time on the Greek island of Santorini and visited Mount Athos. In 1980 he was invited to show his work at the Venice Biennale. In 1983, he was given a one-man show at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin and in 1989 at the Frith Gallery in London. He exhibited extensively in Europe, becoming known for his graphic works and collages often using ephemeral materials such as tissue paper. One of his most important series of works was titled Kleenex, in which he used sheets of the tissue arranged in regular patterns. A monograph on the artist was published by Charta in Milan in 2000.

Luciano Bartolini 1948-1994
Abstract Composition
Oil and gray ink
Signed and dated, lower right:
Provenance: Acquired from the artist
Sheet Size:6 X 4½ inches
Frame size: 10¾ X8?
FC15036   $175
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