The sensitive imagination of Antonio Calderara

Antonio Calderara was an Italian painter of the twentieth century, born in 1903 and passed away in 1978. An enigmatic character, difficult to pigeonhole, who spent much of his existence in almost ascetic isolation on the shores of Lake Orta. His artistic path is that of a self-taught person who gradually discovers and draws inspiration from many other Italian and international artists, freely developing his own language in a new and autonomous way of expression. Calderara was formed in the Milanese art scene, passing from an initial figurative period, influenced first by the currents of the Novecento group, then by the discovery of Piero della Francesca and Seraut, but also by Morandi, Guidi and Donghi, to an abstract one, in line with the research of great European Masters, such as Albers, Mondrian, Mavigner and Max Bill. Organized in collaboration with the Lisson Gallery, this is the first museum exhibition dedicated to Calderara in the UK. It will include approximately 35 works spanning the artist's career, including a series of figurative paintings produced before his turn to geometric abstraction in the late 1950s.