Paolo Cotani
(Rome, 1940 - 2011)
Paolo Cotani was born in Rome in 1940, where he first approached an art education. From 1964 to 1970 he lived in London, where he held courses on “Techniques and materials of the historical avant-gardes: at the Chelsea College of Arts. Thanks to Joseph Rykwert he obtains the professorship at the Colchester School of Art. He worked for several theatrical sets where he absorbed highly important cultural influences for the definition of certain aspects of his research that is in tune with what occurred in England in those years. Giorgio De Marchis defined him as the most British of our neo-abstract Roman painters. Nevertheless, in the early 70s, Cotani adheres to that research area that was concerned with the analysis of the syntactical tools of the language known by the name of Zero Degree of Painting. In his art of poetry declarations, the artist proves his capacities and shows a relevant self-reflexive and metalinguistic attitude, the result of a decidedly conceptual approach to art. In Cotani the idea is never too far from the action. According to the model of the Greek teknè: action and knowledge together, action and thought; the action of painting – and with painting – as the means of knowledge. In 2008, as part of the Analitical Painting review, he display at the Permanente in Milan. The Italian routes 1970-1980. Cotani died in January 2011, while his exhibition in Palazzo Ducale di Senigallia was in preparation.
Among his solo and group exhibitions, we can mention: Galleria Ferro di Cavallo (Rome, 1968); IX Biennale (Paris, 1975); Analytische Malerei (Genova, Milan and Düsseldorf, 1975); Documenta 6 (Malmo; Kassel, 1977); 16 Italian Artists (Rotterdam, 1977); Metafora (Venice, 1981); L'identité italienne. L'art en Italie de plus 1959 (Centre Pompidou - Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 1981); L’Italie aujourd’hui / Italia oggi (Nizza, 1985); Quadriennale d’Arte (Rome, 1986); La costanza della visione (Galleria d’arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Palazzo Forti, Verona, 1991); L’immagine negata (Universidad de Castilla La Mancia a Cuenca, Spain, 2004); Consonanze. Paolo Cotani e un'opera di Giulio Turcato (Fondazione Zappettini, Milan, 2005); Pittura ’70 – Then and Now (Istituto di Cultura Italiano, London, 2006); Tensioni 1971 - 2007 (Erica Ravenna Fiorentini Arte Contemporanea, Rome, 2007); Pittura Analitica. I percorsi italiani 1970-1980 (Permanente di Milano, Milan, 2008); L'aragosta è un mostro delicato (LAC - Lagorio Arte Contemporanea, Brescia, 2009); The Russian Tea Room (Galleria Delloro, Rome, 2009); La pittura (Erica Ravenna Arte Contemporanea, Rome, 2015).
