Enrico Donati (February 19, 1909 – April 25, 2008) was an Italian-American

Surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

painter and sculptor.

Life and work

Enrico Donati studied economics at the Università degli Studi,

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the capit ...

, and in 1934 moved to the USA, where he attended the

New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...

and the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

. His first one-man shows were in New York in 1942, at the New School for Social Research and the Passedoit Gallery. At this stage he was clearly drawn to

Surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

. This was reinforced by meeting

André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...

and coming into contact with

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

and the other European Surrealists in New York at the time. A typical work of this period, ''St Elmo’s Fire'' (1944; New York,

MoMA Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; Ang ...

), contains strange organic formations suggestive of underwater life. Donati was one of the organizers of the Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme held in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in the summer of 1947, to which he contributed a painting and two sculptures. In the late 1940s he responded to the crisis in

by going through a Constructivist phase, from which he developed a

calligraphic Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as ...

style and drew onto melted tar, or diluted

paint Paint is any pigmented liquid, liquefiable, or solid mastic composition that, after application to a substrate in a thin layer, converts to a solid film. It is most commonly used to protect, color, or provide texture. Paint can be made in many ...

with

turpentine Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthene, terebinthine and (colloquially) turps) is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Mainly used as a special ...

. He also became associated with

Spatialism Spatialism ( it, Spazialismo) is an art movement founded by Argentine-Italian artist Lucio Fontana in Milan in 1947 in which he proposed to synthesize colour, sound, space, movement, and time into a new type of art. The main ideas of the movement ...

, founded by

Lucio Fontana Lucio Fontana (; 19 February 1899 – 7 September 1968) was an Argentine-Italian painter, sculptor and theorist. He is mostly known as the founder of Spatialism. Early life Born in Rosario, to Italian immigrant parents, he was t ...

. Thus began his long fascination with surface and texture, including mixing paint with dust, that culminated in the 1950s in his ''Moonscapes,'' a series that has similarities with the work of

Dubuffet Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet (31 July 1901 – 12 May 1985) was a French Painting, painter and sculpture, sculptor. His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so-called "low art" and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what ...

. The fossil became a major theme for Donati through the 1960s, and he gave new importance to color in his Fossil works, for example in ''Red Yellow Fossil'' (1964;

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, Hills Col., see Selz, p. 19). In 1961, he was given a major retrospective at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and frequently exhibited at group shows in the USA and elsewhere. He held a number of important teaching and advisory posts, including Visiting Lecturer at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

(1962–1972).

Death

Considered by some in the art world to be one of the last of the

Surrealists Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

, Enrico Donati died in his home in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

on April 25, 2008, aged 99. Donati's health had been failing since involved, as a passenger, in a taxi accident in July, 2007. He eventually succumbed to complications sustained from his injuries.

Museums and collections

The Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of the ...

, New York *

Guggenheim Museum The Guggenheim Museums are a group of museums in different parts of the world established (or proposed to be established) by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Museums in this group include: Locations Americas * The Solomon R. Guggenhei ...

, New York *

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

, New York *

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

, Missouri * Museum of Fine Art of Houston, Texas *

Boca Raton Museum of Art Founded by artists, the Boca Raton Museum of Art was established in 1950 as the Art Guild of Boca Raton. The organization has grown to encompass an Art School, Guild, Store, and Museum with permanent collections of contemporary art, photography, ...

, Florida *

Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (french: Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They include six museums: the Oldmasters Muse ...

, Belgium *Museum of International Center of Aesthetic Research, Turin *

Albright-Knox Art Gallery The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum at 1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, in Delaware Park. the museum's Elmwood Avenue campus is temporarily closed for construction. It hosted e ...

, New York *The

Detroit Institute of Art The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation and expansion project complete ...

, Michigan *

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Art Gallery, Michigan *

Baltimore Museum of Art The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is an art museum that was founded in 1914. The BMA's collection of 95,000 objects encompasses more than 1,000 works by Henri Matisse anchored by the Cone Collection of ...

, Maryland·Newark Museum Association, New Jersey *Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome *Mitchener Foundation, Pennsylvania *

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, Massachusetts * The Rockefeller Institute, New York *

Johns Hopkins Hospital The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. It was founded in 1889 using money from a bequest of over $7 million (1873 mo ...

, Maryland *

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

, Connecticut *

Washington Gallery of Modern Art The Washington Gallery of Modern Art was a short-lived gallery promoting contemporary art near Dupont Circle in Washington, DC, United States, during the 1960s. The gallery remained open for seven years, opening in October 1961 and closing in Septe ...

, Washington D.C. *

Tougaloo College Tougaloo College is a private historically black college in the Tougaloo area of Jackson, Mississippi. It is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It was originally established in 1869 by New Yo ...

, Mississippi *

Israel Museum The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...

, Israel *University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley *

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

*Museum of Fine Arts, Florida *

Tacoma Art Museum The Tacoma Art Museum (TAM) is an art museum in Tacoma, Washington, United States. It focuses primarily on the art and artists from the Pacific Northwest and broader western region of the U.S. Founded in 1935, the museum has strong roots in the c ...

, Washington * St. Paul Art Center, Minnesota *The Lowe Museum,

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

, Florida *High Museum of Art, Georgia *

Doane University Doane University is a private university in Crete, Nebraska. It has additional campuses in Lincoln and Omaha, as well as online programs. History Doane College was founded on July 11, 1872, by Thomas Doane, chief civil engineer for the Burlingt ...

, Nebraska *Seattle Art Museum, Washington *Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, C

*

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

, New York *

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

, Pennsylvania *

Minnesota Museum of American Art The Minnesota Museum of American Art ("The M") is an American art museum located in the Pioneer and Endicott Buildings, Historic Pioneer Endicott building in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The museum holds more than 5,000 artworks that showcase the unique ...

, Minnesota *The

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was des ...

, Washington D.C. *Museum of Art, Florida *

Orlando Museum of Art Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...

, Florida *

Housatonic Community College Housatonic Community College (HCC) is a public community college in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It part of the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities system. HCC grants associate degrees and also has certificate programs. Campus Lafayette Hall ...

, Connecticut *Arturo Schwarz Surrealist Foundation, Italy *

Gallerie di Piazza Scala The Gallerie d'Italia - Milano is a modern and contemporary museum in Milan, Italy. Located in Piazza della Scala in the Palazzo Brentani and the Palazzo Anguissola, it hosts 195 artworks from the collections of Fondazione Cariplo with a strong ...

, Milan, Italy
magma bianco

Selected solo exhibitions

*2007, The Surreal World of Enrico Donati, de Young Museum, San Francisco *2006, Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco, California (Retrospective : 130 Selected works from the Artist's Personal Collection 1942 - 2001) *2004, 2005 Gallerie Les yeux fertiles, Paris *2000-04 Galerie Yoramgil, West Hollywood, California *1998 Galerie Yoramgil, West Hollywood, California (retrospective) *1997 Boca Raton Museum (retrospective) *1995-97 Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York *1995-97 Horwitch Gallery, Scottsdale *1986, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993 Louis Newman Galleries, Beverly Hills *1989 Galerie Zabriskie, Paris *1987 Zabriskie Gallery, New York *1985 Georges Fall, Paris *1994, 1990 Carone Gallery, Fort Lauderdale *1984, 1986, 1987 Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer, New York·1980 Grand Palais, FIAC, Paris *1980

Palm Springs Desert Museum The Palm Springs Art Museum (formerly the Palm Springs Desert Museum) was founded in 1938, and is a regional art, natural science and performing arts institution for Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley, in Riverside County, California, United St ...

, Palm Springs *1979 Osuna Gallery, Washington D.C. *1979 Phillips Collection, Washington D.C. *1950 Galleria del Milione, Milan·1950 Obelisco, Rome *1950 Paul Rosenberg Gallery, New York *1947 Galerie Drouant Gallery, Paris *1947, 1958 Syracuse University, New York *1945-47, 1949 Durand Ruel, New York *1944, 1959 Chicago Arts Club, Chicago *1944 G. Place Gallery, Washington D.C. *1942, 1944 Passedoit Gallery, New York *1979 Norton Gallery, Palm Beach *1978 Wildenstien Art Center, Houston *1978 Davenport Municipal Art Gallery, Iowa *1978 Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga *1977 Fairweather Hardin Gallery, Chicago *1977 Tennessee Fine Arts Center, Nashville *1977 Chrysler Museum, Norfolk *1977, 1979, 1982 Ankrum Gallery, Los Angeles *1977 Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul *1965 Obelisk Gallery, Washington D.C. *1964 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge *1964, 1966 J.L. Hudson Gallery, Detroit *1962, 1963, 1966, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1980, 1982 Staempfli Gallery, New York *1962 Neue Gallery, Munich *1961 Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels *1954, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1960 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York *1953 Naviglio, Milan *1952, 1953 Cavallino, Venice *1952

Alexander Iolas Alexander Iolas (March 26, 1908 – June 8, 1987) was an Egyptian-born Greek-American art gallerist and an significant collector of modern art works, who advanced the careers of René Magritte and many other artists. He established the modern mode ...

Gallery, New York

Selected group exhibitions

*2005 Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona and Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilboa, Spain *2005

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

, New York, and

Phoenix Art Museum The Phoenix Art Museum is the largest museum for visual art in the southwest United States. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum is . It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,000 works of ...

, Arizona *2002 Kouros Gallery, New York *2002

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

, Pennsylvania *2001-02

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, London and

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, New York *2001

Portland Art Museum The Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, United States, was founded in 1892, making it one of the oldest art museums on the West Coast and seventh oldest in the US. Upon completion of the most recent renovations, the Portland Art Museum becam ...

, Oregon *2001 Cultural Center Bank of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro *1999-2004 Galerie Yoramgil, West Hollywood, California *2000 Musees de Strasbourg *1999 Musee National Centro de Arte Reina Solia, Madrid *1998 Bruce Museum, Connecticut·1997 Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida *1995

Nassau County Museum of Art The Nassau County Museum of Art (NCMA) is located east of New York City on the former Frick "Clayton" Estate, a property in Roslyn Harbor in the heart of Long Island’s Gold Coast. The main museum building, named in honor of art collectors a ...

, New York *1995 Galleria d'arte Bergamo, Italy *1994 Hunter College Art Galleries, New York *1992 Isidore Ducasee Fine Arts, New York *1991-92 Miami International, Florida *1991 Musee National Centro de Arte Reina Sophia, Madrid, Spain *1991 Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris, France *1990-91 ART/LA, Los Angeles, California *1990 Riva Yares Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona·Fundacion Cultural Mapfre Vida, Madrid *1989-90 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno *1989 Schim Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany *1989 Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy *1977 Rutgers University Art Gallery, New Brunswick, New Jersey *1977 Nashville Museum, Tennessee *1976 Meredith Long Gallery, Houston, Texas *1976 Ankrum Gallery, Los Angeles, California *1970 University of Texas, Austin *1964 New York World Fair *1964 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts *1964 Whitney Museum, New York *1963 Allentown Art Museum, James A. Michener Foundation, Pennsylvania *1963 Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina *1963 Herron Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana *1962 Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama *1961 Decorative Arts Center, New York *1961 Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, Virginia *1961 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge *1960 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota *1960 University of Colorado, Boulder *1960 Marton May Exhibition, St. Louis, Missouri *1960

Martha Jackson Gallery Martha Jackson (; January 17, 1907 – July 4, 1969) was an American art dealer, gallery owner, and collector. Her New York City based Martha Jackson Gallery, founded in 1953, was groundbreaking in its representation of women and internatio ...

, New York *1960, 1977 Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul *1959 Michigan State University *1959 De Cordova & Dana Museum, Massachusetts *1959

American Federation of Arts The American Federation of Arts (AFA) is a nonprofit organization that creates art exhibitions for presentation in museums around the world, publishes exhibition catalogues, and develops education programs. The organization’s founding in 1909 w ...

, New York *1959

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, Washington, D.C. *1959 Rhode Island School of Design, Providence *1958

Gutai The was a Japanese avant-garde artist group founded in the Hanshin region by young artists under the leadership of the painter Jirō Yoshihara in Ashiya, Japan, in 1954. The group, today one of the most internationally-recognized instances o ...

9, Osaka, Japan *1958, 1962 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts *1958 Inter-American Paintings & Prints Biennial, Mexico City *1959, 1957 Indiana University, Bloomington *1955 Munson-Williams Proctor Institute, Utica, New York *1954-55, 1961 Guggenheim Museum, New York *1953-54 Museum of Modern Art, New York *1953, 1954 University of Nebraska *1953 Biennale, São Paulo *1952 Saarbrücken *1952 Architectural Figurativa, Milan Italy *1952 Galleria del Cavallino, Venice, Italy *1952 Artists Spaziale, Trieste *1952 Premio Gianni, Milan, Italy *1951 Third Tokyo Annual *1951 Ninth Street Annual, New York *1950, 1986 Biennale, Venice, Italy *1948-51, 1953, 1960, 1961 University of Illinois *1947 Pasedot Gallery, New York *1947 Toledo Museum of Art *1947 University of Iowa *1947 Exposition Surrealist, Prague *1946 Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo *1946, 1963 Herron Museum of Art, Indianapolis *1945-47 Bignou Gallery, New York *1945, 1954, 1956, 1958–59, 1961–63, 1964, 1970 Whitney Annual, New York *1945, 1947, 1957 Pennsylvania Art Academy *1945, 1947, 1956, 1960-61 Cocoran Gallery, Washington D.C. *1945, 1954, 1957, 1960 Chicago Art Institute *1945, 1947, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1958, 1961 Carnegie International

Honors

*1954-56, 1963-64 Member of the Jury of Fulbright Scholarship Program *1960, 1961, 1962 Visiting Lecturer at Yale University *1962-72 Member of the Yale University Council for Arts and Architecture *1970, 1972 Chairman National Committee, University Art Museum of California, Berkeley

Notes and references

External links

''New York Times'' obituary for Donati
in

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

Marcus Williamson Marcus Williamson is a British writer, journalist and campaigner. As an obituarist for ''The Independent'' he has written obituaries of more than 300 subjects, including artists, poets, actors and inventors. Campaigns Phorm In 2009 the AIM-l ...

* Finding Aid for Enrico Donati letters received and manuscripts at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession No. 940120. The collection consist of circa 200 letters received from galleries, museums, and artists, four manuscripts, and circa 20 printed items primarily relate to the Surrealist retrospective "Le Surrealisme en 1947" curated by Andrei Breton and Marcel Duchamp and held at the Galerie Maeght in Paris, July–August 1947. {{DEFAULTSORT:Donati, Enrico Abstract painters Art Informel and Tachisme painters 1909 births 2008 deaths Modern painters 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters Abstract expressionist artists American surrealist artists Jewish American artists Jewish painters Italian emigrants to the United States 20th-century Italian Jews 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews 20th-century American male artists

Life and work

Death

Museums and collections

Selected solo exhibitions

Selected group exhibitions

Honors

See also

Notes and references

External links