Fausto Melotti

Sculptor and printmaker; born in Rovereto, trained in Milan. Melotti developed a passionate interest in music from an early age. When his family moved to Florence during the First World War, he studied the piano and the organ, paying particular attention to counterpoint and harmony before he enrolled at the University of Pisa in 1918 to follow courses in physics and mathematics. After the war Melotti settled in Milan, where in 1923 he shared a concert with the future rationalist architect Gino Pollini. Melotti developed an interest in sculpture while working for a degree in electronic engineering at the Milan Polytechnic. After initially attending the Accademia Albertina in Turin, he returned to Milan to study with Adolfo Wildt at the Accademia di Brera. One of his fellow students was Lucio Fontana, with whom he became a lifelong friend. Music, however, remained a vital fact in Melotti's art throughout his career and he regarded Mozart and Bach as just as much his masters as the sculptors Pietro Canonica and Wildt.

Melotti's first exhibition was held at the Galleria del Milione, Milan, in 1935. In 1951 Melotti was awarded the Grand Prix at the Milan Triennale. Solo exhibitions were held at the Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund (1971), the Marlborough Gallery, Zurich (1973), the Palazzo Reale, Milan (1979) and the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome (1983). After his death in 1986 his work was exhibited worldwide, including the Kodama Gallery, Osaka (1990) and Paolo Baldacci Gallery, New York (1994). Most recently the Museum of Contemporary Art at Grand Hornu, Belgium, organised a major retrospective (2004). In 2013, the exhibition Klee-Melotti was held at the Museo d'Arte Lugano. Shortly after his death in 1986, Melotti was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale.