Gino de Dominicis

Gino de Dominicis (* 1947 in Ancona, Italy, † November 29, 1998 in Rome) was a controversial and mystified representative of the Italian art of the 1960s to the 1980s. He has performed as a painter, sculptor, philosopher and architect. His art has echoes of Arte Povera, transavangard and also belongs to the concept art, but actually can be in their complete independence hardly a movement or group to assign.

Life and work

Gino de Dominicis studied at the Art Institute in Ancona in Edgardo Mannucci. He had his first solo exhibition in Rome, the Galleria L' Attico in 1969.

He spent some time on traveling before he settled down in 1969 in Rome. The work of the De Dominicis can be divided into two creative periods divide: the first between the late 1960s and the late 1970s, belongs in the broadest sense of Conceptual Art, and the second period between the early 1980s and 1998, the year of his death, heard of figurative painting.

De Dominicis had a first appearance at the Venice Biennale in 1972 with a young man with Down syndrome, which he used as an element of his art. Gino de Dominicis was a participant in Documenta 5 in Kassel, also in 1972 in the Department of Individual Mythologies: Overview - Performances - Activities - Changes and video, and at the Documenta 7 in 1982 represented as an artist. He was still several participants of the Venice Biennale.

Gino de Dominicis lived a varied life, he was regarded as an extravagant dandy and at the same time as geheimniskrämischer hermit. He was so famous in Italy, that he influenced a whole generation of Italian artists. He refused further details about his life and his works reveal.

His work, which consists of numerous paintings, drawings and installations, became deeply involved with existential themes such as life, death and immortality. His entire artistic work was a struggle against the passage of time.

Literature and sources

• Exhibition catalog: documentation fifth survey of reality - imagery today; Catalog (as folders ) Volume 1: (material); Volume 2: ( list of exhibits ); Kassel in 1972
• Documenta Archive (ed. ); Resubmission d5 - A survey of the archive to the documenta, 1972; Kassel / Ostfildern 2001, ISBN 3-7757-1121- X
• Catalog: documenta 7 in Kassel; Vol 1: ( Visual biographies of artists ); Vol 2: ( Current work of the artist); Kassel 1982 ISBN 3-920453-02-6