Lugano
Michelangelo Pistoletto was born in Biella in 1933. His artistic training took place in his father’s studio where he began working at the age of 14, before attending the advertising graphics school directed by Armando Testa. He began exhibiting between 1955 and 1960, holding his first solo show at the Galleria Galatea in Turin.
His early painting work was characterized by an exploration of self-portraiture. Between 1961 and 1962, he created the Mirror Paintings, which directly include the presence of the viewer in the artwork, introduce the real dimension of time, and reopen perspective, reversing the Renaissance perspective that had been closed off by the 20th-century avant-gardes. With these works, Pistoletto quickly achieved international recognition and success, leading to solo exhibitions in prestigious galleries and museums across Europe and the United States already during the 1960s.
Between 1965 and 1966, he produced a series of works entitled Minus Objects, considered fundamental to the birth of Arte Povera, an artistic movement in which Pistoletto was both a driving force and a key figure.
In the 1990s, with Progetto Arte and the establishment in Biella of Cittadellarte–Fondazione Pistoletto and the University of Ideas, he placed art in active relation with various areas of the social fabric, aiming to inspire and foster responsible transformation of society.
In 2003, he was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale. In 2004, the University of Turin awarded him an honorary degree in Political Science. On that occasion, the artist announced what would become the most recent phase of his work, known as the Third Paradise.
In 2013, the Louvre Museum in Paris hosted his solo exhibition Michelangelo Pistoletto, année un – le paradis sur terre. That same year, he received the Praemium Imperiale for painting in Tokyo. In May 2015, the University of the Arts in Havana awarded him an honorary degree. In the same year, he created a large-scale work entitled Rebirth, installed in the park of the Palace of Nations in Geneva, home of the United Nations. In 2017, he published his book “Omnitheism and Demopraxy: A Manifesto for the Regeneration of Society”.
In 2021, the Universario was inaugurated at Cittadellarte, an exhibition space where the artist presents his most recent research. In December 2022, his latest book, “The Formula of Creation”, was published, retracing the key steps and evolution of his entire artistic journey and theoretical reflection. In February 2025, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
