Valerio Adami. Pittore di Idee

Indeed, his painting critically engages with its time, and if in the 1960s it lives a first season of notoriety within the pop art movement, already by the early 1970s it detaches from it, accentuating its so-called "literary" vocation, rich in both visual and word-related citations, increasingly present in his work until including him among the major exponents of that French "Figuration narrative" with which, once again, he identifies only partially.

Behind images of immediate readability, a deeper narrative is implied: Adami's works are populated with sophisticated visual metaphors and encompass philosophical, literary, and mythological concepts, representing in his work the evolution of Western thought.

The founding myths of European culture, its authors, their stories become the almost exclusive subjects of his work, without forgetting certain exotic narratives that still belong to the Western worldview: it is this concentration of attentions that over the years will make him deeply engage with some of the greatest intellectuals and writers of the 20th century, such as Octavio Paz, Italo Calvino, Jacques Derrida, Luciano Berio, Antonio Tabucchi, and Jean-François Lyotard.

Although Adami is known for the vivid chromaticism of his narratives, it is the drawing that is the true key to understanding, the starting point of each of his paintings, the center of his artistic thinking, the "nulla dies sine linea," because it allows a full comprehension of the relationship between idea, subject, narration, and word, which then explodes in the painting. A "Painter of Ideas," as the subtitle of the exhibition states, showing in the works how one can be both an artist and an intellectual.

The exhibition is also an opportunity to introduce the work of the Valerio Adami Archive, established in 2021 within the family, which aims to enhance, preserve, promote, and protect Valerio Adami's work, conducting research on everything related to the Master's work and life.

The exhibition also includes the documentary "The Painter of Poems," produced by Artery Film, directed by Matteo Mavero, featuring Valerio Adami himself and his philosopher and artist friends. Focusing on the artist's most introspective part, the docufilm illustrates Adami's work and life intertwined with the events of some of the most influential intellectuals of the 20th century.

The exhibition is also accompanied by a bilingual Italian and English catalog published by Skira.

"Valerio Adami. Painter of Ideas" is realized thanks to the Marconi Foundation and in collaboration with Galerie Templon and Dep Art Gallery.

The exhibition sponsor is The Macallan, whose collaboration with Valerio Adami dates back to 1993 when the artist designed the label for a historic 1926 vintage whisky, an absolute auction record in 2023.