• Source: Enrico Donati

      • Enrico Donati (Milan, February 19, 1909 – New York, April 25, 2008) was an Italian-American Surrealist painter and sculptor.


      Life and work


      Son of Federico Donati and Marianna Vita, nephew of Angelo Donati, born in Milan in 1909, Enrico Donati studied economics at the Università degli Studi, Pavia, and in 1934 moved to the USA, where he attended the New School for Social Research and the Art Students League of New York. His first one-man shows were in New York in 1942, at the New School for Social Research and the Passedoit Gallery. At this stage he was clearly drawn to Surrealism. This was reinforced by meeting André Breton and coming into contact with Marcel Duchamp and the other European Surrealists in New York at the time. A typical work of this period, St Elmo’s Fire (1944; New York, MoMA), contains strange organic formations suggestive of underwater life.
      Donati was one of the organizers of the Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme held in Paris in the summer of 1947, to which he contributed a painting and two sculptures. In the late 1940s he responded to the crisis in Surrealism by going through a Constructivist phase, from which he developed a calligraphic style and drew onto melted tar, or diluted paint with turpentine. He also became associated with Spatialism, founded by Lucio Fontana. Thus began his long fascination with surface and texture, including mixing paint with dust, that culminated in the 1950s in his Moonscapes, a series that has similarities with the work of Dubuffet. The fossil became a major theme for Donati through the 1960s, and he gave new importance to color in his Fossil works, for example in Red Yellow Fossil (1964; Miami, Hills Col., see Selz, p. 19). In 1961, he was given a major retrospective at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and frequently exhibited at group shows in the USA and elsewhere. He held a number of important teaching and advisory posts, including visiting lecturer at Yale University (1962–1972).
      Enrico Donati married Claire Javal of the important Javal family and had two daughters with her.


      Death


      Considered by some in the art world to be one of the last of the Surrealists, Enrico Donati died in his home in Manhattan on April 25, 2008, aged 99. Donati's health had been failing since involved, as a passenger, in a taxi accident in July 2007. He eventually succumbed to complications sustained from his injuries.


      Museums and collections


      The Museum of Modern Art, New York
      Guggenheim Museum, New York
      Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
      Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri
      Museum of Fine Art of Houston, Texas
      Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida
      Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Belgium
      Museum of International Center of Aesthetic Research, Turin
      Albright-Knox Art Gallery, New York
      The Detroit Institute of Art, Michigan
      University of Michigan Art Gallery, Michigan
      Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland·Newark Museum Association, New Jersey
      Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome
      Mitchener Foundation, Pennsylvania
      Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts
      The Rockefeller Institute, New York
      Johns Hopkins Hospital, Maryland
      Yale University Art Gallery, Connecticut
      Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Washington D.C.
      Tougaloo College, Mississippi
      Israel Museum, Israel
      University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley
      University of Texas at Austin
      Museum of Fine Arts, Florida
      Tacoma Art Museum, Washington
      St. Paul Art Center, Minnesota
      The Lowe Museum, University of Miami, Florida
      High Museum of Art, Georgia
      Doane University, Nebraska
      Seattle Art Museum, Washington
      Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, CA [1]
      Vassar College, New York
      Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania
      Minnesota Museum of American Art, Minnesota
      The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.
      Museum of Art, Florida
      Orlando Museum of Art, Florida
      Housatonic Community College, Connecticut
      Arturo Schwarz Surrealist Foundation, Italy
      Gallerie di Piazza Scala, Milan, Italy, magma bianco Archived 2013-04-11 at archive.today


      Selected solo exhibitions


      2007, The Surreal World of Enrico Donati, de Young Museum, San Francisco
      2006, Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, California (Retrospective : 130 Selected works from the Artist's Personal Collection 1942 - 2001)
      2004, 2005 Gallerie Les yeux fertiles, Paris
      2000-04 Galerie Yoramgil, West Hollywood, California
      1998 Galerie Yoramgil, West Hollywood, California (retrospective)
      1997 Boca Raton Museum (retrospective)
      1995-97 Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York
      1995-97 Horwitch Gallery, Scottsdale
      1986, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993 Louis Newman Galleries, Beverly Hills
      1989 Galerie Zabriskie, Paris
      1987 Zabriskie Gallery, New York
      1985 Georges Fall, Paris
      1994, 1990 Carone Gallery, Fort Lauderdale
      1984, 1986, 1987 Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer, New York·1980 Grand Palais, FIAC, Paris
      1980 Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs
      1979 Osuna Gallery, Washington D.C.
      1979 Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.
      1950 Galleria del Milione, Milan·1950 Obelisco, Rome
      1950 Paul Rosenberg Gallery, New York
      1947 Galerie Drouant Gallery, Paris
      1947, 1958 Syracuse University, New York
      1945-47, 1949 Durand Ruel, New York
      1944, 1959 Chicago Arts Club, Chicago
      1944 G. Place Gallery, Washington D.C.
      1942, 1944 Passedoit Gallery, New York
      1979 Norton Gallery, Palm Beach
      1978 Wildenstien Art Center, Houston
      1978 Davenport Municipal Art Gallery, Iowa
      1978 Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga
      1977 Fairweather Hardin Gallery, Chicago
      1977 Tennessee Fine Arts Center, Nashville
      1977 Chrysler Museum, Norfolk
      1977, 1979, 1982 Ankrum Gallery, Los Angeles
      1977 Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul
      1965 Obelisk Gallery, Washington D.C.
      1964 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
      1964, 1966 J.L. Hudson Gallery, Detroit
      1962, 1963, 1966, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1980, 1982 Staempfli Gallery, New York
      1962 Neue Gallery, Munich
      1961 Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
      1954, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1960 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York
      1953 Naviglio, Milan
      1952, 1953 Cavallino, Venice
      1952 Alexander Iolas Gallery, New York


      Selected group exhibitions


      2005 Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona and Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilboa, Spain
      2005 National Academy of Design, New York, and Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona
      2002 Kouros Gallery, New York
      2002 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
      2001-02 Tate Gallery, London and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
      2001 Portland Art Museum, Oregon
      2001 Cultural Center Bank of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro
      1999-2004 Galerie Yoramgil, West Hollywood, California
      2000 Musees de Strasbourg
      1999 Musee National Centro de Arte Reina Solia, Madrid
      1998 Bruce Museum, Connecticut·1997 Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida
      1995 Nassau County Museum of Art, New York
      1995 Galleria d'arte Bergamo, Italy
      1994 Hunter College Art Galleries, New York
      1992 Isidore Ducasee Fine Arts, New York
      1991-92 Miami International, Florida
      1991 Musee National Centro de Arte Reina Sophia, Madrid, Spain
      1991 Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris, France
      1990-91 ART/LA, Los Angeles, California
      1990 Riva Yares Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona·Fundacion Cultural Mapfre Vida, Madrid
      1989-90 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno
      1989 Schim Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
      1989 Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy
      1977 Rutgers University Art Gallery, New Brunswick, New Jersey
      1977 Nashville Museum, Tennessee
      1976 Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, Texas
      1976 Ankrum Gallery, Los Angeles, California
      1970 University of Texas, Austin
      1964 New York World Fair
      1964 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
      1964 Whitney Museum, New York
      1963 Allentown Art Museum, James A. Michener Foundation, Pennsylvania
      1963 Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina
      1963 Herron Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
      1962 Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama
      1961 Decorative Arts Center, New York
      1961 Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, Virginia
      1961 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
      1960 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
      1960 University of Colorado, Boulder
      1960 Marton May Exhibition, St. Louis, Missouri
      1960 Martha Jackson Gallery, New York
      1960, 1977 Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul
      1959 Michigan State University
      1959 De Cordova & Dana Museum, Massachusetts
      1959 American Federation of Arts, New York
      1959 Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
      1959 Rhode Island School of Design, Providence
      1958 Gutai 9, Osaka, Japan
      1958, 1962 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
      1958 Inter-American Paintings & Prints Biennial, Mexico City
      1959, 1957 Indiana University, Bloomington
      1955 Munson-Williams Proctor Institute, Utica, New York
      1954-55, 1961 Guggenheim Museum, New York
      1953-54 Museum of Modern Art, New York
      1953, 1954 University of Nebraska
      1953 Biennale, São Paulo
      1952 Saarbrücken
      1952 Architectural Figurativa, Milan Italy
      1952 Galleria del Cavallino, Venice, Italy
      1952 Artists Spaziale, Trieste
      1952 Premio Gianni, Milan, Italy
      1951 Third Tokyo Annual
      1951 Ninth Street Annual, New York
      1950, 1986 Biennale, Venice, Italy
      1948-51, 1953, 1960, 1961 University of Illinois
      1947 Pasedot Gallery, New York
      1947 Toledo Museum of Art
      1947 University of Iowa
      1947 Exposition Surrealist, Prague
      1946 Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
      1946, 1963 Herron Museum of Art, Indianapolis
      1945-47 Bignou Gallery, New York
      1945, 1954, 1956, 1958–59, 1961–63, 1964, 1970 Whitney Annual, New York
      1945, 1947, 1957 Pennsylvania Art Academy
      1945, 1947, 1956, 1960-61 Cocoran Gallery, Washington D.C.
      1945, 1954, 1957, 1960 Chicago Art Institute
      1945, 1947, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1958, 1961 Carnegie International


      Honors


      1954-56, 1963-64 Member of the Jury of Fulbright Scholarship Program
      1960, 1961, 1962 Visiting Lecturer at Yale University
      1962-72 Member of the Yale University Council for Arts and Architecture
      1970, 1972 Chairman National Committee, University Art Museum of California, Berkeley


      See also


      Art informel
      Michel Tapié
      Gutai group


      Notes and references




      External links


      New York Times obituary for Donati
      Obituary in The Independent by Marcus Williamson
      Finding Aid for Enrico Donati letters received and manuscripts at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession No. 940120. The collection consist of circa 200 letters received from galleries, museums, and artists, four manuscripts, and circa 20 printed items primarily relate to the Surrealist retrospective "Le Surrealisme en 1947" curated by Andrei Breton and Marcel Duchamp and held at the Galerie Maeght in Paris, July–August 1947.

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