Lugano
Valerio Adami was born in Bologna in 1935. He trained at the Brera Academy from 1951 to 1954 under Achille Funi. From the outset, his interest lay in the structure of the image rather than its naturalistic rendering. Between 1957 and 1960, he travelled extensively between London, Paris and New York, coming into contact with artists, writers and philosophers who would have a profound influence on his vision.
From the early 1960s onwards, Adami developed his distinctive style, characterised by flat areas of colour, sharp black outlines and fragmented compositions that evoke a mental rather than visual narrative. In 1964, he participated in Documenta III in Kassel, thus consolidating his position on the international art scene. For Adami, painting was a tool for thought. As the artist himself wrote, ‘Drawing is a form of writing: painting thinks.’
Between the 1970s and 1990s, he created large pictorial cycles inspired by literature, political history and personal memory, exhibiting at institutions such as the Centre Pompidou and the Reina Sofía Museum.