Lugano
Agostino Bonalumi was born in 1935 in Vimercate, Milan, where he studied technical and mechanical drawing.
Bonalumi, along with Castellani and Manzoni had their first exhibition as a group in 1958, at the Pater Gallery in Milan. This was followed by many others also in Rome and Lausanne. It was in this Swiss city where Bonalumi co-founded the New European School movement.
Arturo Schwarz was the first to organise a solo exhibition of the artist in 1965, and later he became Bonalumi’s sole agent. In 1966, Bonalumi participated to the Venice Biennale with some of his artworks, and later in 1970 he exhibited a solo show. It followed a period of study and work in the Mediterranean countries of Africa and in the United States, where he presented a solo exhibition at Gallery Bonino in New York.
In 1967, he was invited to the Sao Paulo Biennale and the next year to the Youth Biennale in Paris. During the ’70s Bonalumi explored the three dimensional space, breaking the evenness of the canvas such as: “blu abitabile” for Lo Spazio dell’Immagine show, and “dal giallo al bianco e dal bianco al giallo” for the Pittura ambiente show.
In 1970, he also realised the scenic design of Partita ballet, at Teatro Romano in Verona. In 1973, Schwarz supervised the publication of a comprehensive monograph on the artist by Edizioni del Naviglio, written by Gillo Dorfles.
Agostino Bonalumi died in Monza in 2013.