Farewell to Eliseo Mattiacci, the sculptor of theAddio a Eliseo Mattiacci, the sculptor of the cosmic order

Sculptor Eliseo Mattiacci passed away overnight in Fossombrone (Pesaro-Urbino). Born in Cagli (Pesaro-Urbino) in 1940, Mattiacci, after studying at the art institute in his hometown, moved to Pesaro in 1959 and two years later exhibited for the first time in a group show of young artists at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome. In a short time, thanks in part to the exhibition of his works in one of the most important Roman galleries of the time, La Tartaruga in Piazza del Popolo, famous for its exhibitions of the exponents of Arte Povera (which Mattiacci would later join), he became one of the most important artists on the Italian scene. 1967 also saw his participation in the exhibition at the La Bertesca gallery in Genoa, which effectively sanctioned the birth of Arte Povera, while from the following year he began exhibiting at another landmark Arte Povera gallery, L’Attico in Rome.

In the 1970s came international success with his first participation in the Venice Biennale, which dedicated an entire room to him in 1972. Exhibitions at L’Attico continued in the meantime, and in 1981 came an important solo show (which saw him exhibiting in pairs with Vito Acconci) at the Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea in Milan. The 1980s were also the period in which Mattiacci’s interest in spatial and cosmic works developed (the sculpture entitled Cosmic Order is one of his most famous creations), and from this period his works did not stop traveling the world. His participations in the São Paulo Biennale in Brazil (1975), again in the Venice Biennale (1978, 1988) at the International Biennale of Graphic Art in Florence (1978) and at the Quadriennale in Rome (1965, 1968, 1986) can be counted. Awards, on the other hand, include the Bolaffi Prize in 1976 and the Antonio Feltrinelli Prize for sculpture awarded to him in 2008 by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Mattiacci was also an academician of San Luca.

His research first focused on the interaction between work and space (his Agip tube, also presented at the 1967 Genoa exhibition, is particularly important in this regard), then on the use of metals for large-scale works, and then again on cosmic energies (such as gravity or magnetism). His works are now in the Museo Novecento in Florence, the Mart in Trento and Rovereto, the Museum of Contemporary Sculpture in Matera, and several other collections.

Farewell to Eliseo Mattiacci, the sculptor of theAddio a Eliseo Mattiacci, the sculptor of the cosmic order

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