Claudio Olivieri (1934 - 2019) "inatteso" 1987

Claudio Olivieri was born in Rome in 1934.
In 1953, he moved to Milan, where he attended the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, graduating in Painting.

The beginnings of his artistic career fall within the sphere of Informal Art, as well as the gestural and sign-based painting of the 1950s and early 1960s.
In 1960, he held his first solo exhibition at the Salone Annunciata in Milan.

He took part in major international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale in 1966, 1980, 1986, and 1990 (the latter featuring a solo room), and Documenta 6 in Kassel in 1977.

From 1993 to 2011, he served as Professor of Visual Arts and Painting at the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (NABA) in Milan.

He is regarded as one of the leading figures of Analytical Painting, a movement that emerged in Italy in the late 1960s.
At the core of his work lies the idea that color is not merely a visual element but an autonomous entity capable of “revealing truth.”

Olivieri gradually abandoned gestural marks and traditional brushwork in favor of more subtle techniques — sprayed pigment, glazes, and layered fields of color. Through this process, his painting acquired a more ethereal, almost atmospheric quality.

His works are held in major Italian museums of modern art, including the Museo del Novecento and the Gallerie d’Italia in Milan, as well as the GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin.