Ermanno Leinardi Biography
1933 Ermanno Leinardi was born on 8 June in Pontedera, in the province of Pisa, to Sardinian parents. Numerous transfers due to his father's military career. 1961 First personal exhibition in Cagliari with presentation by Mauro Manca. The abstract-geometric works arouse a strong critical reaction among supporters of figurative art. 1965 Participates in the IX Quadrennial of Art in Rome with three monotypes. He met Antonio Calderara on the occasion of an exhibition shared by the two artists, at the Galleria La Cornice in Cremona. The idea of forming a group to popularize abstract art and counteract the criticism of this type of painting from the Sardinian environment began to take root. He meets Tonino Casula with whom he will form the Transactional Group. 1966 He founded the Transactional Group together with Tonino Casula, Ugo Ugo and Italo Utzeri. In March in Cagliari, in the Galleria degli Amici del libro, presented by Corrado Maltese, the four artists launch the Manifesto of the "Transactional Criterion in the arts of vision". In September Casula read the Manifesto of the Transactional Group during the XV International Conference of Critical Artists and Art Scholars held in Rimini, Verucchio. Among those present were Corrado Maltese, Pierre Restany, Umberto Apollonio, Gillo Dorfles, Bruno Zevi, Italo Mussa, Alberto Cirese. 1978 Participates in the Grands et jeunes d'aujourd'hui exhibition in Paris, and in the Comparaison exhibition. Participates in the collective held at the Castello di Fiano Romano, with Renato Fascetti, Achille Pace, Pasquale Santoro and Giuseppe Uncini. Together with the first three and Giulio Turcato he exhibited at the Castello Svevo in Termoli. Commissioned by the Municipality of Termoli, he created a play structure for the municipal park, composed of large colored "Os". He was awarded the Castello Svevo prize. 1979 He holds many personal and collective exhibitions in Italian cities, Paris and Switzerland. On the occasion of the exhibition at the Club 44 gallery in Chaux-de-Fonds, Michel Seuphor holds a conference on the theme of the repetition of the geometric sign in contemporary art. With the French Marisa Eloy, Philippe Morisson and Tuan he participates in the exhibition “Spazio ambiguo” at the Palazzo dei Priori in Perugia. At the Pinacoteca Comunale of Macerata he created an anthological exhibition presented by Guido Montana. He builds a large atelier in Calasetta, Sardinia, where he works on large dimensions. He returns to dedicating himself to oil painting on canvas. The "spatial ambiguities" are now entrusted more to the plans constructed with color rather than to geometric signs. 1980 He creates a box set of fifteen screenprints published by Elle C with a poem by Emilio Villa. The box set was presented at the Pau bookshop in Rome by the poet Carla Vasio. 1981 He holds a solo exhibition at the Lopes Gallery in Zurich and takes part in a collective exhibition in Paris. 1982 Participates in the “Arte in Sardegna Oggi” exhibition in Olbia. The production of large oil and watercolor works continues; the search for transparency effects is also evident in graphic production. He exhibited watercolors in a group show with Fausto Melotti, André Ewrard and Peter Stein at the Lopes Gallery in Zurich. He won the 1983 Sassoferrato Prize. On the occasion of his solo show at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland he achieved great success by exhibiting 84 works and painted a large oil canvas, entitled Scrambled Shadow. 1984 He holds personal exhibitions in Hamburg and Frankfurt. For Lufthansa he created some color serigraphs, published and printed by the Meissner Gallery in Hamburg. The publisher De Cristofaro publishes “Stories of shapes and fish”, with contributions from Aurelie Nemours and Filiberto Menna. 1985 There are numerous personal exhibitions in Italy and abroad. 1986 Participates in the collective L'Art Construit in Paris at the Franka Berndt Gallery. He holds a solo show at Studio Leopardi in Genoa. 1987 Starts collaboration with the Il Salice publishing house in Locarno. Participates in the Grands et jeunes d'aujourd'hui exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris. 1988 He holds personal exhibitions in Paris and Liège. 1989 The publisher De Cristofaro publishes a collection of essays on his artistic activity. He participates, among others, in an exhibition at the Calcografia in Rome on the Romero printing house, entitled "The abstract line of Italian engraving", curated by Federica Di Castro. He holds personal exhibitions at the Westend Gallery in Frankfurt and at Monte Granatico in Sant'Antioco, Sardinia; in the latter, entitled "indiscreet exercise", he exhibits large-format oils. From this moment he lives in the Calasetta atelier, traveling almost exclusively for business trips to Switzerland, Germany and for periodic stays in Paris. 1990 With the Il Salice publishing house in Locarno, he creates the portfolio entitled “Happy is he who has seen”, composed of six aquatints and a relief accompanied by a writing by Salvatore Naitza. He participates with several engravings in the exhibition "Civiltà delle machine and the abstract line of Italian engraving", organized by the Calcografia of Rome at the National Gallery of Prague and Bratislava. 1991 He is a teacher of Visual Perception and Pictorial Composition at the Europaishe Akademie fur Bildende Kunst in Trier, Germany, until 1994. He exhibits an exhibition of watercolors at the Galleria Arte Duchamp in Cagliari. He engraves “L'onda” in lithography for the Ietti Engineering Studio in Rome. He created a portfolio of black and white etchings entitled "Four Jokes" at the Upiglio atelier in Milan, accompanied by a writing by Leinardi himself and a critical essay by Maria Grazia Scano. 1992 Sandra Orienti presents a monograph on the artist, published by Scheiwiller in the Modern Italian Art series. He created the portfolio of 8 color serigraphs entitled “Dalla parte del vento”, which was exhibited together with works on canvas at the Epper museum in Ascona. 1993 He is the artistic director of the Associazione Culturale Concreto, an aesthetic information studio, which organizes, among other things, over 40 exhibitions of international artists such as Michel Seuphor, Bice Lazzari, Aurelie Nemours, G. Honneger at the Torre Civica of Calasetta until 2000. He holds numerous solo exhibitions in Germany, Switzerland and Italy. The Margherita Arp Foundation of Locarno purchases one of his works from the 1960s. 1994 He holds a solo show in Paris at the Galerie St. Charles de Rose. He creates four lithographs at the Atelier Silvia Hess Jossen in Lucerne. As part of the Arp collection, one of his works is exhibited at the Kunstverein in Braunschweig and the Kunstverein in Halle in Germany. 1995 Anthological exhibition of graphics at the National Chalcography of Rome, on the occasion of which the Italian State purchased 146 graphic works including serigraphs, lithographs, etchings, aquatints, soft varnish and chalcography. With the patronage of the Ministry for Cultural and Environmental Heritage, the National Institute for Graphics creates the general catalog of the graphic work "Ermanno Leinardi - The graphic work" published by Ilisso Edizioni of Nuoro edited by Federica Di Castro. The exhibition of the Arp collection continues at the Kunstverein in Bremen. He returns to exhibit in Sardinia with a solo show entitled "Around the 80s" presented by Marco Magnani and set up at the Sulis Tower in Alghero. 1996 - 1997 The anthological exhibition of the graphic work is exhibited at the EXMA Museum in Cagliari and at the Palace of the Province of Sassari. 1998 Exhibits personal exhibitions in Venice, Paris and Calasetta. 1999 He holds a solo exhibition in Piacenza. He continues his activity as artistic director of the Concreto Cultural Association, aesthetic information studio. 2000 His passion for the dissemination of abstract and concrete art in Sardinia sees him as a protagonist in the creation of the Civic Museum of Contemporary Art of Calasetta, of which he is artistic director and to which he donated part of his private collection. Here he organizes numerous exhibitions of painting, graphics and photography by Italian and foreign artists. The last period of his life began which saw him engaged almost exclusively in the artistic direction of the Museum. 2003 – 2004 He held seminars on visual perception and the history of art at the Municipal Library of Sant'Antioco 2005 He exhibited a solo exhibition at the Sottopiano Beaux-Arts Gallery in Cagliari 2006 On 17 June he died in Calasetta. 2007 Ermanno Leinardi's first solo show takes place in London – Austin-Desmond Fine Art. The exhibition is visited and reported by the Italian Cultural Institute in London.
