AGNETTI, Vincenzo (Milano, 1926 - Milano, 1981)Scritti d'arte (1959-1981()

Italian artist, writer and poet Vincenzo Agnetti was one of the leading exponents of conceptual art. He made his debut in the late 1950s practising informal painting and visual poetry. In the years 1959-1960, he collaborated with Enrico Castellani and Piero Manzoni in the activities of the Galleria Azimut, opened in Milan, and the associated magazine Azimut. His first solo exhibition ‘Principia' was held at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara in 1967. The following year he exhibited his Macchina drogata (Drugged Machine), an Olivetti calculator in which the numbers were replaced by letters of the alphabet, at the Galleria Cenobio Visualità, so that all the words resulting from the operations supported ‘an operation of language criticism'. In the 1970s, he participated in the most important art exhibitions, including: Venice Biennale (years 1974, 1976, 1978, 1980); São Paulo Biennale (1973); Documenta 5, Kassel (1972); Quadriennale di Roma (1972). He had numerous solo exhibitions at the most prestigious Italian and American art galleries: Galleria Blu, Milan; Galleria la Tartaruga, Rome; Galleria Martano, Turin: Galleria Toselli, Milan; Galerie Annemarie Verna, Zürich; Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York; Galerie Art in Progress, Munich; Civic Center, Philadelphia; Sonnabend, Paris; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Galerie Wintersberger, Köln; Galleria Emilio Mazzoli, Modena; Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna; Galerie Brigitte March, Stuttgart. In 2008, a major retrospective of his work was held at MART in Rovereto.
Alongside his artistic activity, he is an intense essayist and writer of artist's books, among the main ones: Obsoleto (1968), Ciclostile 1 (1970); Tesi (1972); Progetto per un Amleto politico (1973); Elisabetta d'Inghilterra, (1976), Machiavelli 30 (1978).