RENATA BOERO

The Museo del Novecento opens Milan Art Week with "Kromo-Kronos", the solo show of Renata Boero. The exhibition, curated by Anna Daneri and Iolanda Ratti, proposes a critical new look at the work of the artist - active on the international scene since the 1960s - by relating her historical production with the most recent creations.

"Kromo-Kronos" opens with an almost never-before displayed selection of "Cromoprogrammi", works on canvas made by experimenting with the interaction of natural pigments and organic elements, produced between the 1960s and the 1970s. In these works, which find their own perfection in the monumentality and process on a large scale, it is possible to observe the conjunction between two fundamental aspects of Renata Boero's research: manual skill and materials. It is time and memory that guide the interaction of the materials with colour once the canvas is immersed in the infusion obtained by boiling herbs, roots and pigments. The folded material, like the pages of a book, absorbs the colour and allows the lines to imprint, creating a drawing and rhythm within the chromatic tale. Starting with the historic "Cromoprogrammi", the exhibition follows the development of the work by Renata Boero through the "Germinazioni", "Fiori di Carta" and the most recent "Ctoniografie" series, the latter being self-generated "chromograms" in the absence of the artist - who triggers the process of transformation by burying them in the earth. The most recent works on exhibit demonstrate the circularity in the work of the artist and a surprising consistency in her exploration. The exhibition is completed by an ample documentary apparatus and prompts the public to enter into an intimate and personal space - that of the research - which is evoked through archival materials such as tools, photographs, correspondence and books.

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Renata Boero (Genoa, 1936). Once completed her studies in humanities between Turin and Switzerland, she began to exhibit in 1959 at the Rome Quadriennale, where she returned in 2986 and 1999. At the end of the 1960s she began her exploration of natural elements, which she then translated into her well-known series entitled "Cromoprogrammi" and "Germinazioni", a research that is still active. Her works were presented for the first time in 1970 by Jacques Lepage in Toulose, then at the Galleria Martano in Turin, at the ICC in Antwerp, at the Biennale of Sao Paolo in Brazil, at the Venice Biennale in 1982 (where she returned in 1993, 2008 and 2009), and at the National History Museum of Belarus in Minsk. In 2012 she held a series of conferences and solo exhibitions in Argentina, at the University of Tucuman, Cordoba and at the Salta Museum. Her intense exhibition activity continued in public and private spaces, in Italy and abroad, alongside her teaching commitment at NABA and at the Brera Academy in Milan and in Bergamo with Mario Cresci. She lives and works in Milan and Genoa.