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Valerio Adami

"The drawing was the discipline of my life. "

  2. Artists & stock
  3. Valerio Adami
  4. Biography

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+ Stamp

Stamp by Valerio Adami

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The publication of a postal stamp is often a homage paid by a nation to a place, an event, a remarkable cause or a character which count. The painters and other artists do not escape from this rule. Some are however "forgotten" of postal art. Here, gathered below (French or foreign), emitted stamps (206) or simple studies of stamp (224) in homage to the artists represented on our website. The first French stamp was emitted in 1849, England preceded us by ten years. There is often a share of voyage in this small form of shape paper. The stamp circulates, sails, flies away, it makes dream, then dream a little. M.C.

When the stamp is really emitted, the artist name is preceded of an asterisk (*). It is certain that we do not know each stamp emitted for such or such artist; do not hesitate with us to make known them!

Discover all the stamps

Notes of biography

Valerio Adami was born in 1935 in Bologna. He trains at the Atelier of Felice Carena and meets Oskar Kokoschka in Venice. He then settles in Milan where he takes drawing classes (1954) at the Fine Arts Academy in Brera (Achille Funi's workshop). His first canvases are tinged by expressionnism and loaded by his memories of Italy in ruins in 1945. For the Salon de Mai in Paris in 1952, he meets with Matta and Wifredo Lam, who will become his closer friends.
Valerio Adami's paintings are very graphic and offer shapes, image parts, figures but the formal dislocation, and the unpredictable combinations are mainly due to both cubisme et and Matta's work and are meant to disturb our look. During the sixties, he becomes the main leader of the New figuration, taking part in « Figuration narrative dans l’art contemporain » (1965), « Bande dessinée et figuration narrative » (1967) and is the subject of a large retrospective in 1970 (ARC).
In 1966, Valerio Adami definitely sets his formal system : a dark thick line surrounds objects and characters treated as flat tints of pure color and without shadows. His paintings precede studies of drawings extremely precise (surrealist influence). This style will make him famous. Fom the late eighties, the artist creates mural paintings for many public buildings. His first individual is organized in 1957 in Milan. It will be the first of a long list with Adami being present in the most biggest international exhibitions. His graphic work is supported by the Maeght Gallery (Paris).
Open to interpretation, rich of many cultural references, Adami's work tarouses lots of commentaries from philosophers (Jacques Derrida, Jean-François Lyotard, Gilles Deleuze), art historians (Hubert Damisch, Marc Le Bot) and writers (Italo Calvino, Octavio Paz, Antonio Tabucchi). From 1986 he himself publishes several books about his own work like « Les Règles du montage : Sinopie » (1989) or « Dessiner : les gommes et les crayons » (2002).
Always a traveller, he moves from place to place, changing studios. Living in Paris and Italy, he spent several months in Ostende (1969), New York (from 1971), Mexico and Los Angeles (1975), Monte Carlo (where he settles in 1981), Meina (Italy). He undertakes long journeys to Mexico (1969, 1981), India (1977, 1982), Scandinavian countries (1988). Today the artist shares his time between Paris, Monaco, Italy and India.

Artists on display

The art and the artists display: proclamations, galleries, museums, personal or collective exhibitions. On walls or in shop windows, wise or rebels, posters warn, argue, show. Some were specially conceived by an artist for such or such event, other, colder, have only the letter.

Some were created in lithographic technic, most are simple offset reproductions. They are many those who like collecting these rectangles of paper, monochrome or in games of colours, in matt paper or brilliant, with many words or almost dumb.

We are happy also to be able to greet, by this pages, mythical galleries as those of Denise René, Louis Carré, Claude Bernard, Berheim Jeune, Maeght, Pierre Loeb and others.

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Complete work(s)

Complete work(s)
Non réalisé à ce jour. All the complete works

Bibliographic track and more

To read about the artist :
  • « Adami », H. Damish et H. Martin, Ed. Maeght Paris, 1974
  • « Valerio Adami, Essai sur le formalisme critique », Marc Le Bot, Ed. Galilée, 1
  • « Adami », Jean- François Lyotard, coll. Repères, Ed. Maeght-Lelong, Paris, 1983
  • « Adami », collectif, cat. d'expo., Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1986
  • « Adami en Puisaye - La ligne narrative », O. Paz, Ed. R. et L. Dutrou, 2003
  • « Valerio Adami - Opere 2003-2005 », A. Tabucchi et autres, Ed. G. Biasutti, 2006
  • « Valerio Adami - Jusqu'ici », cat. d'expo., ed. Galerie Daniel Templon, 2007
  • « Figuration narrative », col., Ed. Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris, 2008
  • « Valerio Adami : Portraits littéraires », P. Bonnefis, Ed. Galilée, 2010
  • « Valerio Adami : Tableaux de lecture », cat. d'expo., Silvana Ed., 2011
To read from the artist :
  • «  Dessiner : les gommes et les crayons », Valario Adami, Ed. Galilée, 2002
  • « Sinopia », Maeght Ed., 2006
Website :
No website dedicated to the artist.

More :
+ Stamp

Stamp by Valerio Adami

Pic

The publication of a postal stamp is often a homage paid by a nation to a place, an event, a remarkable cause or a character which count. The painters and other artists do not escape from this rule. Some are however "forgotten" of postal art. Here, gathered below (French or foreign), emitted stamps (206) or simple studies of stamp (224) in homage to the artists represented on our website. The first French stamp was emitted in 1849, England preceded us by ten years. There is often a share of voyage in this small form of shape paper. The stamp circulates, sails, flies away, it makes dream, then dream a little. M.C.

When the stamp is really emitted, the artist name is preceded of an asterisk (*). It is certain that we do not know each stamp emitted for such or such artist; do not hesitate with us to make known them!

Discover all the stamps


Art movements

+ NEW FIGURATION / 1960-1980 / Gilles Aillaud, Christian Babou, John Christoforou, Leonardo Cremonini, François Jousselin, Maryan S. Maryan, Bernard Recalcati, Gérard Tisserand, etc.
+ NARRATIVE FIGURATION / 1965-1975 / Gilles Aillaud, Sergio Birga, Leonardo Cremonini, Gerard Guyomard, Öyvind Fahlström, Ivan Messac, Antonio Recalcati, Peter Saul, etc.
 All art movements

See & discover

Beyond works currently in stock, it seemed to me useful to combine business with pleasure by letting you discover others works by artists in my gallery. These artworks, now sold or removed from our website, have been in our stock in the past.

These pages will undoubtedly make it possible for some of you to associate an image with its title or the other way round, for others it will be a good time to discover more on such and such artist. For the sake of confidentiality – the pieces being no longer available – we won't display neither their numbering or their price. For whatever reason, make sure to visit this amazing art database with to date 6441 online works just for your pleasure! Michelle Champetier

See & discover