Enrico Donati: Prima Materia

ENRICO DONATI Prima Materia

Weinstein Gallery requests the pleasure of your company on the occasion of the opening of

Enrico Donati Prima Materia

and the release of the new monograph, Enrico Donati, by Dawn Ades with contributions by Ann Temkin, Marie Mauzé, and Cynthia Albertson, published by Skira Rizzoli.

20 February – 9 April, 2016

WEI NST EI N G ALLERY Opposite:

Roi d’éclair 1945 Oil on canvas 30 x 40 inches

444 Clementina Street San Francisco, CA 94103 415-362-8151

Donati in his New York City studio, early 1950s, with Katsina dolls on the windowsill behind him.

Photograph by Hans Namuth

Exhibition Events PANEL DISCUSSION 20 February at 4:00 PM

Featuring our distinguished and esteemed guests­— Surrealist curator and scholar, Dawn Ades, anthropologist Marie Mauzé, and Museum of Modern Art conservator, Cynthia Albertson.

The discussion will be moderated by the curator, poet and filmmaker, Colin Browne.

OPENING VERNISSAGE

20 February at 6:00–8:00 PM Champagne and hors d’oeuvres reception

SUNDAY SALON SERIES 21 February at 1:00 PM Surrealism and Ethnography

A lecture and discussion with Marie Mauzé and noted specialist of historical Native American art, Donald Ellis Kindly RSVP for each event rsvp@weinstein.com or 415-362-8151

Panelist Biographies

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Dawn Ades is a Fellow of the British Academy, a former

Marie Mauzé, PhD is a senior researcher in anthropology

trustee of the Tate, Professor of the History of Art at the Royal Academy and was awarded a CBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in 2013 for her services to art history. She has been responsible for some of the most important international exhibitions over the past thirty years, including Dada and Surrealism Reviewed, Art in Latin America and Francis Bacon. Most recently she organized the highly successful exhibition to celebrate the centenary of Salvador Dalí at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice and Philadelphia Museum of Art (2004), The Colour of my Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art at the Vancouver Art Gallery (2011), and was Associate Curator for Manifesta 9 (2012). She has published standard works on photomontage, Dada, Surrealism, women artists and Mexican muralists. Dawn is the lead author on the new monograph Enrico Donati and joins us from London.

and a member of the Laboratoire d’anthropologie sociale (CNRS) in Paris. She has conducted fieldwork in British Columbia with the Kwakwaka’wakw since 1980 and has visited several other First Nations’ communities including the Nuu-chah-nulth and Nuxalk. In addition to numerous articles in French and English, she is the author of Les Fils de Wakai. Une histoire des Lekwiltoq, co-publisher with Marine Degli of Arts premiers, editor of Present is Past: Some Uses of Tradition in Native Societies, and coeditor with Michael Harkin and Sergei Kan of Coming to Shore: Northwest Coast Ethnology, Traditions, and Visions.

Most recently she contributed to the edition of Claude Lévi-Strauss’s Oeuvres. Her areas of study and expertise include Northwest Coast ethnology, the anthropology of art and aesthetics, material cultural studies, the history of collecting and museums, and representations of indigenous societies. She is currently working on the anthropology of the native and Western gazes on Northwest Coast masks. Dr. Mauzé joins us from Paris.

Donati’s fist-face in tree stump, c. 1947.

Photograph by Hans Namuth

Colin Browne (Moderator), is a writer, curator, documentary filmmaker and film historian working in British Columbia. He was co-founder of the Kootenay School of Writing and the Praxis Screenwriter’s Workshop and serves on several boards, including the Vancouver International Film Festival, the Audio-Visual Heritage Association of BC and The Capilano Review. He is Professor Emeritus in the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University where he taught film production, film studies and critical writing. His most recent book, The Hatch, was published by Talonbooks in 2015. He was involved in the restoration of Edward Curtis’ feature film In the Land of the Head Hunters, shot on Vancouver Island in 1913–1914. His most recent projects include a study of Charles Edenshaw and a catalogue essay, “Scavengers of Paradise,” which was published by the Vancouver Art Gallery during its 2011 exhibition on Surrealism and explores the Surrealist romance with the ceremonial art of the Northwest Coast and Alaska. He currently is a guest curator at the Vancouver Art Gallery for the exhibition opening in 2016, I had an interesting French Artist to see me this summer: Emily Carr and Wolfgang Paalen in British Columbia.

Cynthia Albertson is a conservator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and has published and lectured on the materials and methods of Claes Oldenburg, Piet Mondrian and Diego Rivera. In addition to her current essay in Enrico Donati, she has contributed to Diego Rivera: Murals for the Museum of Modern Art, Mondrian en het kubisme: Paris 1912-1914, and The Public Face of Conservation. She is on the steering committee for the Alliance for Response NYC and is an Associate Member of the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. Ms. Albertson joins us from New York City.

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Enrico Donati: Prima Materia

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t is our distinct honor to present ENRICO DONATI­—Prima Materia. This exhibition coincides with the release of the new monograph Enrico Donati from Skira Rizzoli Publications and follows the artist’s transformation from the newest recruit of Surrealism to an innovator of textural abstraction at the birth of the New York School.

From as early as the 1940s, Enrico Donati was intensely interested in the art of alchemy and its potential influence on the creative imagination. For the alchemist, the art of transforming ordinary raw materials into something precious begins with the prima materia, or “first matter,” which is the primal enigma from which all life emerges and eventually returns to. This exhibition includes 50 paintings and sculptures from the first three decades of Donati’s magnum opus and examines the reoccurring theme of death, birth, and rebirth while exploring the artist’s diverse sources of prima materia, from mythology, archaeology and ethnography to science, alchemy and mysticism. Additionally, the exhibition is highlighted by a collection of rare ethnographic objects including two Yup’ik masks from Donati’s own important tribal arts collection.

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We would like to thank our esteemed guests, Dawn Ades, Marie Mauzé, and Cynthia Albertson, for their important contributions to the scholarship on Donati and their participation in our panel discussion. We are additionally indebted to Colin Browne for his enthusiastic embrace of moderation.

We would also like to extend our deepest gratitude to the respected dealer and specialist in 18th and 19th century Northwest Coast and Eskimo art, Donald Ellis, for his superb curation of the ethnographic art in this exhibition. Finally, we would like to thank Kathy Hill for her generous assistance and Mrs. Adele Donati for her unfailing support.

It was our greatest honor to personally know Enrico Donati and call him our friend. Enrico’s artistic career is one of the very few real-life examples of the shift in the art world from Surrealism in Paris to Abstract Expressionism in mid-century New York. It is our hope the exhibition and this recent scholarship will provide viewers an opportunity to rediscover this artist and consider these paintings and sculptures, not just for their importance as works of art, but for their significance in the context of the historical period in which they were created.

Opposite:

Emotion con moto 1943 Oil on canvas 22 x 28 inches

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Select Works from the Exhibition

Le Corpuscule et la citĂŠ c. 1940s Oil on canvas 26 x 44 inches

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Araignée c. 1944–45 Oil on canvas 30 x 40 inches

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Rivières, Crépuscule c. 1943 Oil on canvas 30 x 40 inches

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La Ronde des lutins 1945 Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches

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15

Composition 1945 Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches

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Untitled 1945 Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches

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Le Manomètre du saug 1948 Oil and ink on canvas 20 x 24 inches

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Anometer 1948 Oil on canvas 40 x 50 inches

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Composition Grey and White Lines 1953 Mixed media on canvas 30 x 37 inches

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Gudea Priest of Akkad 1957–58 Mixed media on canvas 72 x 50 inches

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Time Exposure 1957 Mixed media on canvas 72 x 60 inches

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Selected Exhibitions SOLO EXHIBITIONS 1942 Passedoit Gallery, New York 1943 New School for Social Research, New York 1944 The Arts Club of Chicago, Illinois

G. Place Gallery, Washington, D.C. Passedoit Gallery, New York 1945 Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York 1946 Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York 1947 Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York

Galerie Drouant-David, Paris

Gallery Studio, Chicago, Illinois

Krouse College, Syracuse University,

New York 1949 Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York

A. Weil, Paris 1950 Galleria Corso Vittorio Emanuele II,

Milan, Italy

Galleria del Milione, Milan, Italy Paul Rosenberg Gallery, New York

Galleria dell’Obelisco, Rome, Italy 1952 Alexandre Iolas Gallery, New York

Galleria d’arte del Cavallino, Venice, Italy

Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, Italy 1953 Galleria d’arte del Cavallino, Venice, Italy 1954 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York 1955 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York 1956 Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, Italy 1957 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York 1958 Lowe Art Gallery, Syracuse University,

New York 1959 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York 1960 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York

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1961 Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium 1962 Neue Galerie im Kunstlerhaus,

Munich, Germany

Staempfli Gallery, New York 1963 Staempfli Gallery, New York 1964 J.L. Hudson Gallery, Detroit, Michigan

Hayden Gallery, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 1965 Obelisk Gallery, Washington, D.C. 1966 Staempfli Gallery, New York

J.L. Hudson Gallery, Detroit, Michigan 1968 Staempfli Gallery, New York 1970 Staempfli Gallery, New York 1972 Staempfli Gallery, New York 1974 Staempfli Gallery, New York 1976 Staempfli Gallery, New York 1977 Ankrum Gallery, Los Angeles, California

Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul

The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia

Fairweather Hardin Gallery, Chicago, Illinois

Tennessee Fine Arts Center, Nashville 1978 Davenport Municipal Art Gallery, Iowa

Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga,

Tennessee

Wildenstein Art Center, Houston, Texas 1979 Ankrum Gallery, Los Angeles, California

Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach,

Florida

Osuna Gallery, Washington, D.C.

The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. 1980 Palm Springs Desert Museum, California

International Art Fair, Grand Palais,

FIAC, Paris 1982 Ankrum Gallery, Los Angeles, California 1984 Carone Gallery, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery,

New York 1985 Georges Fall, Paris 1986 Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery,

New York Louis Newman Gallery, Beverly Hills 1987 Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery,

New York

Zabriskie Gallery, New York 1989 Galerie Zabriskie, Paris Louis Newman Gallery, Beverly Hills 1990 Carone Gallery, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 1991 Louis Newman Gallery, Beverly Hills 1992 Carone Gallery, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 1994 Carone Gallery, Fort Lauderdale, Florida Louis Newman Gallery, Beverly Hills 1995 Horwitch Newman Gallery,

Scottsdale, Arizona

Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York 1996 Horwitch Newman Gallery,

Scottsdale, Arizona 1997 Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca

Raton, Florida

Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York 2004 Galerie Les Yeux Fertiles, Paris 2005 Galerie Les Yeux Fertiles, Paris 2006 Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco 2007 Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco

Donati in his studio, 1950s.

Photograph by Hans Namuth

2007

2010 2014

De Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco

GROUP EXHIBITIONS 1945 Whitney Museum of American Art,

New York Bignou Gallery, New York Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia

Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Chicago Art Institute, Illinois

Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1946 Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo,

New York

Herron Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana Bignou Gallery, New York 1947 Exposition Internationale du SurrĂŠalisme,

Galerie Maeght, Paris, France Passedoit Gallery, New York

Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio University of Iowa, Iowa City Exposition Surrealist, Prague Bignou Gallery, New York Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia

Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1948 University of Illinois, Urbana

Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 1949 University of Illinois, Urbana 1950 Biennale, Venice, Italy

Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1951 Third Tokyo Annual, Japan

Ninth Street Annual, New York University of Illinois, Urbana 1952 Saarbrucken, Germany

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Architectural Figurativa, Milan, Italy

Galleria del Cavallino, Venice, Italy

Artists Spaziale, Trieste, Italy Premio Gianni, Milan, Italy

Michel Tapié, Paris

Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Alexandre Iolas Gallery, New York 1953 University of Nebraska, Lincoln Bienal, São Paulo, Brazil

Stable Gallery, New York University of Illinois, Urbana 1953–55 Museum of Modern Art, New York 1954–55 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,

New York 1954 Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California

Stable Gallery, New York

Whitney Museum of American Art,

New York

Chicago Art Institute, Illinois

Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1955 Munson-Williams Proctor Institute, Utica, New York

San Francisco Museum of Art, California 1956 Whitney Museum of American Art,

New York

Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1957 University of Indiana, Bloomington Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia

Chicago Art Institute, Illinois

Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C. 1958 Gutai 9, Osaka, Japan Inter-American Paintings & Prints Biennial,

Mexico City, Mexico

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Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond

Whitney Museum of American Art,

New York 1959 Michigan State University, East Lansing

De Cordova & Dana Museum,

Massachusetts

American Federation of Arts, New York

Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.

Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

Arts Club of Chicago, Illinois University of Indiana, Bloomington

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 1960 Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul

Chicago Art Institute, Illinois 1960 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota University of Colorado, Boulder

Marton May Exhibition, St. Louis, Missouri

Martha Jackson Gallery, New York University of Illinois, Urbana 1961 Decorative Arts Center, New York

Mary Washington College,

Fredericksburg, Virginia

Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

Cambridge

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,

New York

Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana

Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Whitney Museum of American Art,

New York

Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 1962 Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama

Museum of Modern Art, New York

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond 1963 Allentown Art Museum, James A.

Michener Foundation, Pennsylvania

Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina

Herron Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana Yale Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut

Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana

Whitney Museum of American Art,

New York 1964 Pavilion of Fine Arts, New York

World’s Fair

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,

Massachusetts

Whitney Museum of American Art,

New York

Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia University of Nebraska, Lincoln 1965 Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels

Whitney Museum of American Art,

New York 1966 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,

Massachusetts

Whitney Museum of American Art,

New York 1967 Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art,

Ridgefield, Connecticut 1968 University Art Museum, University of

California, Berkeley 1970 University Art Museum, University of

Texas, Austin

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond

Whitney Museum of American Art,

New York

Donati in his studio, 1950s. Photograph by Tony Vaccaro 1976 Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, Texas

Staemplfi Gallery, New York University Art Museum, University of

Texas, Austin 1977 Rutgers University Art Gallery, New Brunswick, New Jersey

Nashville Museum, Tennessee

Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul 1978 Orlando Museum of Art, Florida 1982 Grace Borgenicht Gallery/Terry

Dintenfass Gallery, New York 1986 Biennale, Venice, Italy 1987–88 Fashion Institute of Technology,

New York 1989 Schim Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy

Zabriskie Gallery, New York 1989–90 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Centro

Atlantico-de Arte Moderno, Spain 1990–91 ART/LA, Los Angeles, California 1991 Musée National Centro de Arte Reina

Sofia, Madrid, Spain

Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre

Georges Pompidou, Paris, France 1991–92 Miami International, Florida 1992 Isidore Ducasse Fine Arts, New York 1994 Hunter College Art Galleries, New York 1995 Nassau County Museum of Art, New York

Galleria d’arte Bergamo, Italy 1996 Arte Moderna e Contemporanea,

Venice, Italy

Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton,

New York 1997 Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida

Galleria d’arte Bergamo, Italy Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara 1998 Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut

Galleria d’arte Bergamo, Italy

1998–2000 Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida; Smart Museum of Art, University of

Chicago; Cap Museum of Fine

Arts, Dennis, Massachusetts 1999 Musée National Centro de Arte Reina

Sofia, Madrid, Spain

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,

New York 2000 Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain,

Strasbourg, France 2001 Portland Art Museum, Oregon

Cultural Center Bank of Brazil, Rio de

Janeiro

Zabriskie Gallery, New York 2001–02 Tate Gallery, London and

Metropolitan Museum, New York

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem 2002 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania

Zabriskie Gallery, New York

Galleria d’arte Bergamo, Italy 2005 Centre de Cultura Contemporanea de Barcelona and Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Spain

National Academy of Design, New York

and Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona 2005–06 Portland Art Museum, Oregon 2007 Oklahoma City Museum of Art,

Oklahoma 2008 Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, France 2009 Museum of Modern Art, New York Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania

Galleria d’arte Bergamo, Italy 2009–10 Complesso Monumentale del

Vittoriano, Rome, Italy 2010 Galleria d’arte Bergamo, Italy 2011 Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany

Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada

2011–12 Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco 2013 Blain di Donna, New York 2013–14 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania 2014 Minnesota Museum of American Art,

St. Paul, Minnesota 2014–15 Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York and Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida 2015 Di Donna Galleries, New York 2016 80WSE, New York University, New York

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Selected Public Collections The Museum of Modern Art, New York Whitney Museum of American Art, New York De Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,

Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven Baltimore Museum of Art Philadelphia Museum of Art Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Seattle Art Museum Portland Art Museum National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. High Museum of Art, Atlanta Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels Museum of International Center for Aesthetic Research, Turin Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo Detroit Institute of Arts University of Michigan Art Gallery, Ann Arbor Newark Museum Association Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Milan

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Mitchener Foundation, Allentown, Pennsylvania Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge Rockefeller Institute, New York Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, Mississippi The Israel Museum, Jerusalem Berkeley Art Museum, University of California Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida Tacoma Art Museum St. Paul Art Center, Minnesota The Lowe Museum, University of Miami Doane College, Crete, Nebraska Vassar College, Poughkeepsie Swarthmore College, Philadelphia Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art Neuberger Museum of Art, State University of New York

at Purchase Oklahoma City Art Museum Orlando Museum of Art Arturo Schwarz Surrealist Foundation, Milan Opposite:

Corte d’appello 1945 Oil on canvas 24¾ x 30 inches

Wei nst ei n G allery Front cover: Enrico Donati with Yup’ik mask, c. 1948. Photograph by Tony Vaccaro Back cover: Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) Fossiles d’Enrico 1961 Ink on paper 6½ x 8½ inches