Born in Bologna on March 17, 1935, Adami trained as a draughtsman with Achille Funi at the Accademia di Brera in Milan. In the following years, he devoted himself to painting and developed his signature style, based on decorative stylisation and large fields of bold, flat colours. He often works from photographs, reworking everyday snapshots into fragmented and schematic canvases.
Before 1970, the subject matter of his works was drawn from everyday life: shop-windows, hotel rooms, bathroom interiors. In the following years he focused on recent political events or on the ironical depiction of modernity’s literary and philosophical myths, conceiving of his paintings as a nostalgic essay in the Western collective memory.
Reference: Alfred Pacquement. “Adami, Valerio.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T000434.
Valerio Adami. Photo: Settemuse.it
L’Aile de l’Ange, acrilico su tela. Collezione privata. Photo: ArtsLife
Non ci sono guerre giuste (There is no fair war), acrilico su tela. Collezione privata. Photo: ArtsLife
Vilette, acrilico su tela. Collezione privata. Photo: Jules Maeght Gallery, San Francisco.
Untitled, acrilico su tela. Collezione privata. Photo: Jules Maeght Gallery, San Francisco.
Further reading: Marc Le Bot. Valerio Adami: Essai sur le formalisme critique. Paris: Éditions Galilée, 1975; “Recent Works,” Valerio Adami