Rosanna Bianchi Piccoli

The Triennale exhibition presents a selection of works by Rosanna Bianchi Piccoli, between 1960 and today, in which we perceive a passion and extraordinary command of the medium.

On Rosanna Bianchi Piccoli see also the article published on Domus 998, January 2016.

Rosanna Bianchi Piccoli is a striking woman with sparkling eyes and precise way of speaking. She remembers everything, collects everything; her home is filled with memories of a lifetime and relics from the present that she keeps because, “I have to use that for something,” she says. Books, books and more books, framed photographs, gifts from friends living far away, there are not enough shelves to hold everything.

As a result the living room table is also piled high with all kinds of things, each associated with a different location – temporal, geographical, sentimental – so it’s best not to move them. She has organised and arranged them herself, there is a precise logic – and a precise reasoning – behind every single placement. You can touch, move and look but when you leave, Rosanna puts everything back in its place. Orderly chaos and polished mannerism: nothing is lost inside this charming house that exudes all forms of creativity and silently conveys the idea of girls’ matinees at the Continental and nights spent in the company of some of the most interesting characters on the Milanese cultural scene a few decades back – from Lucio Fontana to Ettore Sottsass, Fernanda Pivano, Carlo Carrà and Mauro Reggiani.

It was a fervent period, around 1943 when Bianchi Piccoli attended the art school in Brera with teacher Guido Ballo and then the academy with Dario Fo. With the war behind them, the atmosphere was electrifying, a mixture of sadness and a desire to move on pervaded the generation of this exceptional ceramicist, trying to cope with the disasters they had lived through. Her background is altogether Milanese but she is also the product of a broader vision, curious and interested in the wider world; she established a relationship with the Sestante that lasted from 1958 to 1973, a prestigious gallery representing names such as Sottsass, Hans von Klier and the Pomodoro brothers as well as painter Bobo Piccoli, whom she met at the age of seventeen – at first she tried to avoid him but all the same he eventually became her husband. “He was also involved with ceramics then” she recalls; “ceramic was all the rage at that time” and there was great exchange with architecture, a lot of work was done with this material not just for interiors but also for designing small objects (she worked with Bega, Marescotti, Menghi and Latis).

A year after she started working with the gallery Sestante in Via della Spiga 3 she held a solo show (in 1959) while 1967 brought the inaugural presentation of her Cosmopiatti in white majolica characterised by the mantric repetition of concentric circles – the gallery invitation for 9 November at 6 pm in 1967 stated “31 Cosmopiatti 31” and below, “you are cordially invited to take part,” framed by clean graphics and simple colours. The basic idea was to create a dialogue between ceramics and contemporary art, create tension, whether it be centrifugal or centripetal – “in my plates I hope there is tension” she says – to convey an abstract as well as vital dynamic.

The inspiration was the circle, the orbit, concentricity and all that could be associated with this concept. The origin of life, communion with its end, from Rudolph Arnheim up to the symbology between Italian Spatialism and International Abstraction (mid 1950s to mid-60s). A good deal of travelling was required to build up this unique personal and professional experience, not only to the much-loved Scandinavian countries and around Europe but also her own country. She visited Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, France, Spain, Switzerland, Holland and Belgium, even going as far as Arabia to refine the techniques she had learned and acquire new ones. Rosanna Bianchi Piccoli looks at reality, assimilates it and translates it, filtered by her own sensitivity. “For me centrality is important, the “power of the centre.” [...] It is a centrality that I believe is also connected with the Bianchi di Compendiario, a style developed at Faenza in the 1540s that then spread across most of Italy and abroad.”

The exhibition that the Triennale has dedicated to her, entitled “Concentricity and Concentration – Cosmopiatti and Sacred Vases” presents a look at the great work of the artist with a selection of works produced between 1960 and today with 60 Cosmopiatti made recently (between 2011 and 2015) and a piece from 1967. In addition to this selection on show is a series of Sacred Vases presented for the first time in bright colours of yellow, orange and turquoise that seek a connection with adjacent circles. In the creations of Rosanna Bianchi Piccoli we perceive a strong anthropological substrate combined with a passion for the material and extraordinary command of the medium itself – she loves to work with it directly “(…) I work with glazed earthenware. Its a technique I use a lot. It is very old. It requires great mastery of the medium. It leaves no margin for error. You need a firm hand and steady heart,” and she has the gift of both, combined with historical references, first-hand emotions from the roots of the cultural and historical past.

Rosanna Bianchi Piccoli

The Triennale exhibition presents a selection of works by Rosanna Bianchi Piccoli, between 1960 and today, in which we perceive a passion and extraordinary command of the medium.

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