Baldo Diodato was born in Naples, Italy, in 1938, where he studied at the School of Fine Arts and
then continued his education at the Albertina Academy in Turin. His artistic work is mostly
influenced over the years by pop art, minimal art, performing arts and conceptual art.
His works are characterized by the environment of the places where he lives: we can therefore find
the liveliness of the Baroque Naples, the frenzy of a walk in New York, and the eternal classical
nature of ancient Rome mixed into an alchemical set of an unmistakable tone. Diodato began
creating his works in the early Sixties when both pop and Neapolitan cultures were to be found, for
example, in Still life by mail, where his ironic and unscrupulously experimental predisposition
became his signature style.
The strong desire to discover, live and experience, took the artist to New York in 1966. From his
Greenwich Village studio, looking out of a square shaped window and seeing the never-ending
movement of passersby, he decided to capture their footsteps leaving a trace in time of their path.
The first street performances appeared, like the J.F.K. Square in Philadelphia, where, similar to the
window, a square shaped 6x6 metre canvas, is transformed into a stage with living sculptures.
Diodato's works hence became the result of a partnership of we the creative, that replaced me the
artist. The geometry of a square, present in almost all his works, had already been used in his
primary characteristics, essential, minimal, with the slender structures of the Two cubes exhibited at
the Modern Art Agency, by Lucio Amelio, in Naples, in 1967.
In 1992 the artist transfers to Rome and passes from canvas to aluminium. This gives a new
meaning to his art without breaking anything with the past, but rather, starting from the cobblestone,
a unique symbol of Rome, connects to the anchor of the Pompeii mosaics and again to the square
shape of the window in New York. His versatility leads him once again to experiment: it is with
casting that he transforms the paths on canvas into new sculptures, a metallic revelation of the
pavements of Rome, the sign of time on the cobblestones that the artist and public model with
steady blows of a hammer. Canvas, copper and aluminum continue to be included in the artistic
research of Baldo Diodato, they are his tools to capture and impress the movement of people, their
steps, and their emotional involvement.
Events at Rome Art Week
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Vernissage Monday 23 Oct 2023 | 17:00-19:30
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Vernissage Monday 24 Oct 2022 | 17:30-20:30
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