TORONI, NIELE
1937 Muralto bei Locarno

Title: Abdrücke eines Pinsels Nr. 50, wiederholt in regelmäßigen Abständen von 30 cm.
Date: 1990.
Technique: Acrylic on canvas.
Measurement: 100 x 100cm.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.


Provenance:
- Barbara Weiss Collection, Berlin
- Kasper König Collection, Berlin

Exhibitions:
- Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin 1999
- König Galerie, Berlin 2019

Swiss artist Niele Toroni's extraordinary work has long been recognised beyond the borders of Europe. When Toroni moved to Paris at the age of 23 to pursue his career as a painter, he joined forces with Daniel Buren, Oliver Mosset and Michel Parmentier. The group - baptised by art critics with the acronym 'BMPT' - only existed for a short time and was defined by its radical rejection of any artistic ideology, which also runs like a common thread through Toroni's later work.

Painting in its purest form
Toroni's oeuvre consists of works in which the artist leaves the marks of a No. 50 brush at regular intervals of 30 cm. Since 1967, Toroni has repeated this painting process on a wide variety of surfaces, applying his brushstrokes not only to canvases but often also directly to the surrounding wall, as in the Museum Ludwig. The schematic repetition of the brushstrokes structures and rhythmises the space and thus actively incorporates it into Toroni's works. The surroundings and the canvas are thus not just mere image carriers, but are symbiotically linked. The aim behind this method lies in the liberation of painting from any subjective expression. This simple design reveals itself as a multi-layered concept. The viewer is confronted with a painting that can be experienced in its purest form, without any narrative or symbolic meaning.

Kasper König and Niele Toroni
It is probably precisely this conceptual depth in Toroni's work that made a lasting impression on Kasper König and led to a decades-long dialogue between them. Toroni participated with his works in the exhibitions curated by Kasper König, 'Westkunst' in Cologne in 1981 and 'Der zerbrochene Spiegel' in Vienna in 1993. When König honoured Toroni with a solo exhibition in 1988 at the Portikus exhibition venue attached to the Städelschule in Frankfurt, he gave the interior an installation-like effect with his typical patterns. The Berlin gallery owner Barbara Weiss, König's third wife, also dedicated solo exhibitions to Toroni. The work 'Impressions of a Brush No. 50' from 1990 was exhibited at the exhibition 'What Beauty Is, I Know Not' curated by Kasper König at the KÖNIG GALERIE in Berlin in 2019.