Tommaso Calabro Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition Remo Bianco / Raymond Hains from December 14, 2021, to February 26, 2022. Remo Bianco (1922–1988) and Raymond Hains (1926–2005) were two protagonists of the artistic scene of the second half of the twentieth century, in between Italy and France. They were both polyhedric artists, hardly fitting into any categorization: Hains, usually linked to the Nouveau Réalisme, moved away from it after signing its Manifesto; Bianco, originally close to Spatialism, was an inventive creator of experimental series of works. Bianco and Hains dedicated their life to the appropriation of an ever-changing reality, reimagining with intelligence and innovation the languages of their restless research.

Although Bianco and Hains never really worked in collaboration, they were linked by a friendship that started at the beginning of the 1960s and lasted until the end of their life. In the 1950s, Bianco’s work started to show correspondences with the French Nouveau Réalistes, something that did not go unnoticed to Hains. When writing in the catalogue of Bianco’s 1964 solo exhibition at the Venice Galleria del Cavallino, Hains was the first one to notice affinities between the artist’s Tableaux dorés and Yves Klein (1928-1962)’s gold paintings, as well as between his Sacchettini and the work of Arman (1928-2005). In his brief text, Hains also praised Bianco’s Living paintings, which he “wished I had done myself.” A photograph from 1974 shows the two artists together, dining at a restaurant in Milan. In the same year, Bianco turned the photo into one of his Appropriations, titling it Appropriation of Raymond Hains, by adding one of his signature flags-tableau doré in between his friend’s index finger and thumb. The work, which is illustrated in the catalogue of the exhibition Drapeaux–Bandiere at the Galerie Lara Vincy (June-July 1987), is flanked by a 1972 text where Hains, signing himself as the “abstract cicisbeo of the critic,” defines his friend as “an abstract painter (…), an old member of the new araldism.” A few years later, in 1975, Hains created the work Omaggio a Remo Bianco, an homage to his friend consisting of two fence panels reminiscent of the artist’s famous Palissades.

In Bianco’ s memoirs, which the artist wrote at the end of his life, are several references to Hains. Bianco defines his friend as “a great painter of our time, a discoverer of the art of analogy and formal concretizations,” as well as “one of the most extraordinary people in my life.” The artist presents himself as one of Hains’ “pupils,” influenced by his “formal and linguistic discourse, as well as by his
multifaceted imagination and endless creativity.” Similarly to Hains, Bianco does not conceive the aesthetic act as creation ex novo, but as appropriation of objects, people, situations, and facts from the real world. In his memoirs, he recalls the episode when he tried to make Hains enter one of his Talking pictures, secretly recording his voice during one of Hains’ visits to his studio in Milan.

The exhibition at Tommaso Calabro Gallery stages an unprecedented dialogue between Bianco and Hains, unveiling affinities and correspondences in their oeuvre. The selection brings together works from the 1960s and 1970s – the moment when the two fully experienced their friendship and were both exhibiting in Italy and France – with Appropriation of Raymond Hains (1974) opening the
exhibition path. The show presents pieces from both Bianco’s and Hains’ most iconic series, such as the former’s Tableaux dorés – paintings in one or two colors overlapped with a grid of gold leaf tesserae – and the latter’s famous Matches – mural, three-dimensional matchbooks. Bianco’s Sacchettini (Little Bags) – panels or canvases hung with plastic bags filled with everyday objects – and one of his plexiglass 3Ds will be on view next to Hains’ Affiches Lacérées, sculptures, and two large plexiglass reliefs based on the distortion of the catalogue’s covers of the country pavilions at the 1964 Venice Biennale. The dialogue between these works will reveal how both artists’ creative process was based on the appropriation of fragments from reality: Bianco from his everyday life and personal experience; Hains from the urban landscape and the realm of language. 

Remo Bianco / Raymond Hains

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