Italian artist Fausto Melotti Colletto ceramic vase at Italian art and furniture gallery Casati Gallery

Fausto Melotti

Italian artist, designer and sculptor

“Sometimes dimensions are enough to make people believe that a small work is a great work”

Fausto Melotti

Fausto Melotti (born June 8, 1901, Rovereto, Italy–died June 22, 1986, Milan) was a seminal Italian post-war ceramicist, sculptor, painter, and poet, and is considered a key contributor in establishing European Modernism. He studied physics and mathematics at the University of Pisa and continued his education at Politecnico di Milano, where he graduated with a degree in electrical engineering in 1924. As he was graduating, and unsatisfied with a technical degree, Melotti attended the Casa d’Arte of Fortunato De Pero, in Rovereto, to study piano and sculpture with the famed arts professor and opera composer Pietro Canonica. His early training in mathematics and physics and his interest in music shaped his artistic career combining a palpable appreciation for rigor with a joyful use aesthetic poetry and vibrance.

Fausto Melotti’s Introduction To Ceramics

In 1928, Fausto Melotti enrolled to study sculpture at the Accademia di Brera in Milan, under the guidance of the symbolist sculptor Adolfo Wildt, where he met and established a strong friendship with artist Lucio Fontana. In 1929, he started his 20-year-long collaboration at Richard-Ginori’s ceramic shop and realized numerous ceramics designed by its then artistic director and life-long friend Gio Ponti.

In 1935, Fausto Melotti joined Abstraction-Création movement which championed the work of non-figurative artists, and had his first solo exhibition as an artist, at the Galleria del Milione in Milan, which consisted of several abstract sculptures. This exhibition brought him attention of the press and patrons in France and Switzerland, but not in Milan. That same year, he participated in the VI Triennale di Milano (Milan Triennial) with 12 sculptures in an installation for the Sala della Coerenza, designed by the Milanese architecture and design shop Studio BBPR (Banfi, Belgiojoso, Peressuti, Rogers).

Migration To A More Figurative Style

During most of World War II Melotti lived in Rome, but after a 1943 bomb raid on Milan destroyed his Milanese studio, he decided to renovate it and to install a muffle kiln. At this point, Melotti initiated a 15-year prolific period in which he created numerous ceramic and terra-cotta sculptures moving away from pure abstraction and using a more expressive language.

During the late 1940s, Melotti further developed his characteristic refined technique, and became highly successful. In 1944, he created his first Teatrini, highly expressive and seemingly fragile brass-and-stainless-steel sculptures combining abstract and figurative language that represent miniature “theaters,” a format and theme that he would continue to explore for many years in parallel to his ceramic sculptures.

Main Awards and Recognitions During Fausto Melotti’s life

He was awarded the Grand Prix at the IX Triennale di Milano in 1951 and the gold medals in Munich and Prague. Around this time is when he re-started his professional collaboration with Gio Ponti, with whom he worked on two large projects for the Villa Planchart in Caracas (1956) and the Villa Nemazee in Teheran (1960). In 1967, he gained further fame when he exhibited highly stylized and thinly formed ceramic sculptures at the Galleria Toninelli in Milan, which ignited a period of frequent exhibitions in Italy and abroad. By this time, Melotti was already recognized as a pivotal figure in modern and contemporary sculpture by critics and artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, and Alexander Calder, among others.

In 1974, Melotti published his book Linee, which included many of his writings and poems and awarded him the Diano Marina Prize in 1975. In 1979, he participated in an anthological exhibition at the Palazzo Reale in Milan, and in 1981, he participated in a similar exhibition at Forte di Belvedere in Florence. Melotti died June 22, 1986 and the same year the 42nd Venice Biennale awarded him the Golden Lion.

For more information on Fausto Melotti, please visit:

Domus Magazine published a beautiful article about Melotti’s life: Melotti the Magician

Fundazione Fausto Melotti

Last updated: November 7, 2020

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Important Museum And Other Institutional Solo Exhibitions Since Fausto Melotti's Death

2019

  • Consulate General of Italy in New York. Fausto Melotti: Works from the Olnick Spanu Collection. New York, NY.January – March 2019
  • Estorick Collection. Fausto Melotti: Counterpoint. London, U.K.

2017

  • Fondazione Tito Balestra Onlus – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Castello Malatestiano di Longiano. Fausto Melotti e Roma 1937 – 1985. Longiano. Italy.

2015

  • Nouveau Musée National de Monaco. Fausto Melotti. Monaco.

2013

  • Museo d’Arte. Klee – Melotti. Lugano, Switzerland.

2012

  • Madre Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina. Melotti. Napoli, Italy.

2011

  • Kunstmuseum Winterthur. Fausto Melotti – Akrobat der Moderne. Winterthur, Germany.
  • Kunsthalle Mannheim. Fausto Melotti Akrobat der Moderne. Mannheim, Germany.

2010

  • Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi. Fausto Melotti graphikós. Florence, Italy.

2008

  • Italian Cultural Institute. Fausto Melotti I Viaggi: la Fantasia non ha confini. New York, NY.

2006

  • Waddington Galleries. Fausto Melotti Sculptures and Works on Paper from 1955 to 1983. London, U.K.

2003

  • Mart – Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto. Fausto Melotti. L’opera in ceramica. Rovereto, Italy.
  • Musée Picasso. Fausto Melotti. L’art du contrepoint. Antibes. France.

2002

  • Compagnia di Belle Arti. Fausto Melotti…ma l’arte è un viaggio. Milan, Italy.

2001

  • Musée Nicolas Sursock. Fausto Melotti Sculptures – Peintures – Plâtres – Céramiques – Incisions. Beirut, Lebanon.

2000

  • Museo della Permanente. Scultura. Milan. Italy.
  • Turkish and Islamic Art Museum. Fausto Melotti. Opere 1950–1984 Sculture–Dipinti–Gessi–Ceramiche–Incisioni. Istanbul, Turkey.
  • Museo del Centro Arredo Cantù. Melotti e la scuola di Cantù. Cantù, Italy.

1999

  • Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art.  Fausto Melotti 1901 – 1986. Nagoya, Japan.

1997

  • Pinacoteca Civica. Fausto Melotti. Teatrini 1931–1985. Como, Italy.

1996

  • Archivio del ‘900. Melotti nella collezione del Mart. Rovereto, Italy.

1995

  • Whanki Museum/Nine Gallery. Fausto Melotti. Seoul, South Korea.
  • Forni Scultura. Fausto Melotti. Opere 1944 – 1986. Sculture, bassorilievi e carte. Bologna, Italy.
  • IVAM Centre Julio Gonzàlez. Fausto Melotti. Valencia, Spain.

1993

  • Istituto d’Arte Fortunato Depero. Fausto Melotti. L’opera incisa. Rovereto, Italy.

1990

  • Museo Cantonale d’Arte. Fausto Melotti. Opere 1934–1984, Lugano, Italy.
  • Palazzo Fortuny. Fausto Melotti. Venice, Italy

1989

  • Galleria Civica Palazzo Todeschini. Melotti. Sculture e disegni. Desenzano del Garda, Italy.

1988

  • Pinacoteca Comunale Galleria d’Arte Moderna Marco Moretti and Chiesa di Sant’Agostino.Fausto Melotti alla stamperia Sciardelli. Civitanova Marche, Italy.

Bibliography On Fausto Melotti's Life And Work

Douglas Fogle

Fausto Melotti

Catalogue Hoser & Wirth

Snoeck

Cologne, Germany (2016)

 

Dario Cimorelli

Fausto Melotti. Trappolando

Silvana Editoriale

Milan (2016)

 

Barbara Casavecchia, Valerie Da Costa (et al)

Fausto Melotti. L’incertezza

Nouveau Musée National de Monaco – Mousse Publishing

Monaco/Milan (2015)

 

Alessandro Toppino

Fausto Melotti. Opere su carta

Arte Edizioni,

Lizea

Alessandria, Italy (2014)

 

Galerie Karsten Greve

Il mondo di Fausto Melotti

Paris (2014)

 

Fausto Melotti, Paul Klee, Paolo Repetto, Dieter Schwarz

Paul Klee and Fausto Melotti: Eine Blume Tritt Auf

Beck and Eggeling

Düsseldorf, Germany (2011)

 

Simona Ciuccio, Nina Gülicher, Ulrike Lorenz, Stefanie Müller, & Dieter Schwarz

Fausto Melotti: Akrobat der Moderne

Richter Verlag

Düsseldorf, Germany (2010)

 

Paulo Repetto

Fausto Melotti: L’angelo Necessario

Lizea

Acqui Terme, Alessandria, Italy (2010)

 

Giorgio Chierici

Fausto Melotti. Disegni e ceramiche. Opere dal 1927 al 1985. Matite, tempere, ceramiche, gessi e terracotta

Edizioni La Scaletta

Polo d’Enza, Italy (2009)

 

Bruno Cora

Fausto Melotti – Consonanze con Castellani, Fabro e Paollini

CAMEC – Centro Arte Moderna e Contemporanea

Gli Ori

Pistoia, Italy (2006)

 

Fausto; Antonella Commellato and Marta Melotti (editors)

Fausto Melotti: L’OPERA in CERAMICA (Fusto Melotti: the Work in Ceramics

Skira Editore

Milano (2003)

 

Wölbert Klaus

Fausto Melotti

Mazzotta

Milano (2000)