Paolo Cotani Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Paolo Cotani (1940 - 2011) was born in Rome in 1940 and attended the Art School and the French Academy, later going to Paris in 1959 to study tapestry and stained glass techniques at the Academy of Decorative Arts. Upon returning to Rome in 1961, he followed courses at the French Academy, participating in some collective exhibitions. Read the full biography

Paolo Cotani Biography

Paolo Cotani (1940 - 2011) was born in Rome in 1940 and attended the Art School and the French Academy, later going to Paris in 1959 to study tapestry and stained glass techniques at the Academy of Decorative Arts. Upon returning to Rome in 1961, he followed courses at the French Academy, participating in some collective exhibitions. From 1964 to 1970 he stayed in London, where he held courses on "Techniques and materials of the historical avant-garde" at the Chelsea College of Arts and worked for various theater productions, absorbing the cultural influences that determined his artistic research. In 1968 he held his first solo show at the Galleria Ferro di Cavallo in Rome and in 1970 he was presented together with David Russell at the CCAC Gallery in Oakland, California. At the beginning of the Seventies Cotani joined that area of ​​research interested in the analysis of the syntactic tools of language, known as the Zero Degree of painting. From 1971 he began to participate in various group exhibitions both in Italy and abroad. The meeting with the critic Giorgio Cortenova proves to be decisive and represents an important stage in his research, as do the trips to America in the 80s, which constitute a further moment of strong reflection on "overcoming the 70s". His friendship with Ralph Gibson, an important photographer, made Cotani's interest in photography more explicit, which became a new component of his work. Cotani died in January 2011.