Vittorio Bellini Unexpectedly Pop

The works on display at Galleria Michelangelo will surprise the visitor discovering an unreleased side of the artist Vittorio Bellini (Vertova, Bg. 1936 – Bergamo 2009).

His debut goes back to 1960. A striking and eclectic personality emerges from his very first works, curiosity combined with Bellini’s inclination to innovate lead him to experiment with and juxtapose different art movements. Starting from a figurative matrix, towards the end of the Sixties Bellini approaches the “New Figuration” movement, characterized by a painting rich in sensitivity and allure, before suddenly switching to a pop style that will last about three years. Albeit the short duration, this period reveals the Bellini’s artistic worth and his desire for challenge.

The exhibition reveals surprising side of Bellini, full of irony and fun; a style characterised by an immediate and quick sign, which takes inspiration from lines, shapes and colours that characterized the pop horizon, with tributes to personalities dear to the artist (Fontana, Filippini, Crippa, Turcato).

These are works made between 1972 and 1973 after having seen Valerio Adami’s exhibitions and american Pop art works. The paintings on display, cartoonish and caricatural, impress the viewer with their innovative and original chromatic combinations.

This pictorial cycle has been shown to the public only once in 1972 for the exhibition “Bellorio, dipinti e poesie” presented by the art historian Davide Cugini at Galleria Michelangelo …our Bellorio, gathering and harmonizing different movements, shows us, with his skilfulness and fantasy, products that spread an ineffable sense of humour and arouse in the observer a glad astonishment that leaves a sense of pleasure and satisfaction… (D. Cugini, 1972, Catalogue presentation).

More than forty years after the last exhibition, we are glad to make these works known to the new generations.

At the same time in the gallery, you can find a series of painting ascribable to the “Visual Poetry” movement (1972), through which the artist expresses with great originality his anguish due to the progressive sinking of Venice, with great sensivity, the artist does not remain indifferent to the situation: we can thus see appearing on the white canvases a multitude of balloons trying to lift the city; once again unexpectedly Pop!

The quest for new languages places Bellini in the international context, leading him to a variety of national and international exchanges with prestigious artists.