Gina Pane Biography
Gina Pane (1939 - 1990) was born in 1939 in Biarritz, France, and spent much of her life working between Milan and Paris, where she died in 1990. She trained at the École Beaux-Arts in Paris and was was associated with Edmee Larnaudie's Atelier d'Art Sacré [Studio for Sacred Arts] from 1961 to 1963. From the 1970s onwards, Pane became a defining figure of the international Body Art movement with her "actions", a series of highly choreographed events in which the artist undergoes intense physical and mental tests, exemplified by works such as Azione Sentimentale (1973), Action Psyché (1973/74) and The Conditioning (1973), during which he lay on a bed of metal suspended over lit candles. Pane stopped performing completely in the early 1980s and began working in the fields of sculpture, installation, and painting until his death. Her final series Partitions (1980-89), inspired by the lives of martyrs, led her to re-examine the representation of the body throughout the history of the visual arts, particularly in relation to the mystical and religious iconography of the Renaissance. In 2007, Pane's work was included in the groundbreaking exhibition 'WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution' at MOCA, Los Angeles, USA, cementing her historic contribution as a leading feminist artist. The artist participated in 'Documenta 6' in Kassel in 1977 and has held solo exhibitions in major museums around the world. More recently, his work has been exhibited in major exhibitions such as Gina Pane', Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Leon, Spain (2016); 'Gina Pane' at MART | Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto, Trento, Italy (2012); It's Gina Pane. Terre - artiste - ciel', Center Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (2005). Pane's work is exhibited in public collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Center Georges Pompidou, and the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, among others.
