Eugenio Carmi

Untitled Italian abstract 20th century acrylic on canvas

1984

Eugenio Carmi was born in 1920 in Genoa, Italy. At age fifteen he began painting lessons, which came to a halt during the Second World War during which he graduated with a degree in chemistry from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. In 1946, Carmi was living in Italy and became a student of the painter Felice Casorati, whose work remained an inspiration for his own in the next decade. In the late 1950s, Carmi was tasked with promoting Cornigliano Steelworks and used steel and iron to create contemporary art to enhance the company’s image. This led to his first solo exhibition in 1958 at the Galleria Numero in Florence, where he presented enamel paintings on steel. During the 1960s and 1970s, Carmi focused on creating work inspired by the combination of industry and culture, leading to lithographs on tin plates and linking kinetic and audiovisual art. It was in the 1970s that he developed his signature geometric style, a contrast from the Art Informel style of the previous decades. He often used mathematical laws such as the Pythagoras theorem to create his precise geometric shapes, a nod to his training at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.