Arturo Vermi. Diary of happiness

This personal exhibition is about Arturo Vermi (1928-1988), an artist from Bergamo who lived for many years in the Brianza area of Lecco, and was an undisputed animator of Milanese and Brianza artistic circles from the late 1950s to the 1980s. Through the 60 works on display, ranging from his youthful years to his latest productions, we can see all phases of his artistic research. While presenting examples of all the major cycles he created, the exhibition pays special attention to a particular aspect of the master’s research: the affinity of his research with the contemporary minimalist trends in Europe at the beginning of the 1960s; trends that in some cases Vermi was able to anticipate, making him an interesting precursor. The exhibition benefits from the participation and collaboration of the Arturo Vermi Association and Archive and from loans from important private collections as well as from the artist’s family.

Simona Bartolena, curator of the exhibition, writes. ‘Like contemporary icons, Vermi’s works suggest spiritual and transcendental readings, while remaining firmly grounded. The deep connection with Nature, with a universe that is always and everywhere human, makes the artist’s works, even the most essential and conceptual, emotionally involving. Every sign traced by Vermi is generated by an extraordinary ability to remain light, to want and know how to be happy. A happiness that is never selfishness, but, on the contrary, generously spends itself for others and infects them, teaching them to fly above contingencies. And it is precisely happiness that becomes, in the 1970s, the theme of choice in the artist’s research (and the true aim of his existence)’.

‘Let us stop feeling guilty about being happy, let us be guilty about not being happy!’ Arturo Vermi