Emilio Isgro' Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Emilio Isgrò (Barcelona Pozzo di Gotto, 6 October 1937) is an Italian artist and writer, known for the artistic language of "erasure". In 1956 he made his debut with the collection of poems Fiere del Sud (Arturo Schwarz Editore). Read the full biography

Emilio Isgro' Biography

Emilio Isgrò (Barcelona Pozzo di Gotto, 6 October 1937) is an Italian artist and writer, known for the artistic language of "erasure". In 1956 he made his debut with the collection of poems Fiere del Sud (Arturo Schwarz Editore). In 1964 he made the first erasures on encyclopedias and books, contributing to the birth and development of visual poetry and conceptual art. Isgrò has lived and worked in Milan since 1965, except from 1960 to 1967, years in which he lived in Venice as head of the cultural pages of the Gazzettino. In 1966, on the occasion of his solo exhibition at the Galleria Il Traghetto in Venice, he published Declaration 1, in which he specified his conception of poetry as a "general art of the sign". He publishes the book of poems The Age of Gymnastics (Mondadori). In 1972 he participated in the Venice Biennale, where he was again present in 1978, 1986 and 1993. He exhibited with other artists at the Contemporanea exhibition (1973), curated by Achille Bonito Oliva and set up in the underground car park of Villa Borghese in Rome. The following year, The Adventurous Life of Emilio Isgrò was published in the testimonies of statesmen, writers, artists, parliamentarians, actors, relatives, family members, friends, anonymous citizens (Il Antichiere), nominated for the Strega Prize. In 1976 he held the first anthological exhibition of his works at the Communication Study and Archive Center in Parma. In 1977 he was awarded first prize at the XIV Art Biennial of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In the same year he published the novel Marta de Rogatiis Johnson with Feltrinelli. In 1979 he presented Chopin, an installation-score for 15 pianos, at the Rotonda della Besana in Milan. In 1982, he represents Gibella del Martirio and San Rocco reads the list of miracles and horrors in Gibellina. From the following year and for three consecutive seasons he represented the Orestea di Gibellina, a Sicilian trilogy, at the International Festival of Orestiadi. In 1985 the Teatro alla Scala commissioned him to create the multimedia installation La vigil di Bach, created in the Milanese church of San Carpoforo. In 1986 he presented the installation L'ora italiana at the Civic Archaeological Museum of Bologna, in memory of the victims of the massacre at the Bologna railway station on 2 August 1980. In 1989 he published the novel Polifemo (Mondadori), at the same time developing a new Erasure theory (Fonte d'Abisso Gallery). In 1992 he participated in the exhibition The Artist and the Book in XX Century Italy, organized by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. In 1994 he was present at the exhibition The Italian artists' books of the twentieth century at the Guggenheim collection in Venice. He publishes the novel L'asta delle ceneri (Camunia) and returns to poetry with the collection Oratorio dei ladri (Mondadori). In 1998 he donated the sculpture Orange Seed to his hometown. In 2001, he held the anthology Emilio Isgrò 1964-2000 in the Santa Maria dello Spasimo complex in Palermo. The "cycle of insects" begins with The Bees of the Torah. In 2002 he published the book of poems Brindisi all'amico infame (Aragno), finalist in the Strega Prize and winner of the San Pellegrino Prize. In 2004 he created an installation entitled The Our Father of the Ants as part of the event "Le Opere ei Giorni", held in the Certosa di San Lorenzo di Padula from 18 to 20 June 2004, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva. With the title Cancellation and other solutions (Skira), in 2007 it collected in a volume the writings published in newspapers and magazines as a critical-theoretical set of creative activity. The following year the Luigi Peccidi Prato Center for Contemporary Art created the anthology I declare to be Emilio Isgrò curated by Marco Bazzini. In 2008 and 2013 he participated with a work in BAU. In 2009 he exhibited at the Stelline in Milan. The following year the exhibition Disobbedisco was held in Marsala. Landing in Marsala and other Sicilies. At the same time, Var ve yok opens at the Taksim Sanat Galerisi in Istanbul while the fourteen Ottoman Codes are exhibited at the Boghossian Foundation in Brussels. In May 2011 he proposed the installation L'Italia che dorme at the Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, for the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, a work created the previous year for the exhibition The Canceled Constitution - Representation of a crime, curated by Marco Bazzini at the Boxart art gallery in Verona. The work Cancellation of public debt is inaugurated at Bocconi University in Milan. In 2012, the works I Dichiaro di non essere Emilio Isgrò (1971) and The adventurous life of Emilio Isgrò were restaged in Milan, at Palazzo Reale, in the testimonies of statesmen, artists, writers, parliamentarians, actors, relatives, family members, friends , anonymous citizens (1972); as well as L'ora italiana (1985-1986) at the Gallerie d'Italia. In June 2013, the anthological exhibition entitled Model Italy (2013-1964) was held at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, curated by Angelinandreina Rorro. The same year saw the release of the collection of unpublished essays "How to defend yourself from art and rain" edited by Beatrice Benedetti (Maretti Editore). In 2014 his self-portrait I declare that I am not Emilio Isgrò entered the Uffizi Gallery. In Milan his Grande erasure for Giovanni Testori is placed in Piazza Gino Valle, in the new Portello district. In 2015 he created the Seme dell'Altissimo, a 7 meter high marble sculpture, placed inside the Milan Expo. The following year, a project was organized in Milan in his honor and was carried out in three locations: a personal exhibition at Palazzo Reale, the exhibition of his deletion of the portrait of Alessandro Manzoni at the Gallerie d'Italia and thirty-five volumes of the Promessi Sposi deleted for twenty-five readers and ten plague patients at Casa di Manzoni. In 2017 Emilio Isgrò exhibited in London at the Tornabuoni Gallery. It is a retrospective, which began in Milan and then moved to Paris, which opens with the cancellation of 24 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica (a 1969 work). The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog published by Forma Edizioni and edited by Marco Bazzini. In 2018 Isgrò inaugurates the monumental work Monument to Hell, created specifically for the IULM University of Milan. In April he exhibited in Belgium at the MDZ Art Gallery, in a double solo show in which he was the protagonist together with Christo.