Bice Lazzari

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biography

Born at the turn of the twentieth century in Venice, Italy, Bice Lazzari (1900-1981) first studied music at a conservatory before enrolling in courses at the Academy of Fine Arts, where she studied still-life drawing and decorative art. After moving to Rome in 1935, she worked in the applied arts (textiles, decorative panels), which provided her with the opportunity to study and experiment with abstract and geometric designs, thus planting the seeds for the development of her future compositional language. After returning to painting in the 1950s and dedicating herself to geometric abstraction, the 1960s and 1970s signal the culmination of the artist’s signature style, one in which seemingly simple colors and marks are used to create linear rhythms and lyrical compositions, allowing her works to come alive as visual symphonies. Turning to acrylic paint in the final decade of her practice, Lazzari’s abstract style became more minimal and hard-edge and her visual vocabulary was reduced to groupings of straight lines against a monochromatic foundation of color, usually white/cream, black, red or yellow.

selected exhibitions

Bice Lazzari is currently the subject of a major exhibition at Palazzo Citterio / Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, which will travel afterwards to GNAMC Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Rome. A forthcoming catalogue raisonné will be published in 2026, curated by Antonella Soldaini with texts by Cecilia Alemani and Emily Braun. Lazzari was recently the subject of a solo exhibitions at kaufmann repetto Milan (2025); Estorick Collection, London (2022); Museo del Novecento, Florence (2019); National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington (2013); MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rome (2011); Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna Ca’ Pesaro, Venezia (2005); Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (2002).

public collections

Her work is included in the collections of Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Alessandria; Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna, Cagliari; Museo Novecento, Firenze; Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Ferrara; Pinacoteca Comunare, Macerata; Pinacoteca di Brera, Milano; Museo del Novecento, Milano; Galleria Civica, Modena; Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Parma; Museo Nazionale, Pisa; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Musei Vaticani, Rome; Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea; Rome; Museo d’Arte Contemporanea MACRO, Rome; Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna Ca’ Pesaro; Venice; Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington; The Philips Collection, Washington.

shows at Kaufmann Repetto

Bice Lazzari: un espandersi ai margini di labili confini. selected works 1950-1975, 2025, solo show at kaufmann repetto milan

Bice Lazzari: The Mark & The Measure. Selected Works from 1939-1981, 2023, solo show at kaufmann repetto new york

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Born in Venice, Italy in 1900. Died in 1981 in Rome, Italy.

 

Selected solo exhibitions

2025
I linguaggi del tempo, Palazzo Citterio, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
Un espandersi ai margini dei labili confini, selected works 1950-1975, kaufmann repetto, Milan

2023
Bice Lazzari, kaufmann repetto, New York

2022
Bice Lazzari: Modernist Pioneer, Richard Saltoun Gallery, Rome
Bice Lazzari, Ca’ Pesaro, Venice
Bice Lazzari: Modernist Pioneer, Estorick Collection, London

2019
Bice Lazzari: La Poetica del Segno, Museo del Novecento, Florence

2018
Bice Lazzari. The Poetry of Mark-Making, The Phillips Collection, Washington
Bice Lazzari, S|2 Gallery, London
Bice Lazzari, Richard Saltoun Gallery, Frieze, New York

2013
Bice Lazzari: Signature Line, National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), Washington

2011
The Equilibrium of Space, MACRO | Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Rome, Rome
Bice Lazzari. Script and Space, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice

2005
Bice Lazzari. Antologica 1925-1980, Galleria Arte Centro, Milan

2004
Bice Lazzari, The dawn of abstractism, Galleria Edieuropa, Rome

2002
Bice Lazzari, Themes and Variations, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice From Futurism to Abstraction, Museo del Corso

2000
Bice Lazzari, Matter, sign, measure. From Venice to Rome. Bice Lazzari a hundred years from her birth, Museo Laboratorio d’Arte Contemporanea, The Sapienza University of Rome
Bice Lazzari, Opere dal 1925 al 1981. Omaggio nel centenario della nascita, Galleria Edieuropa, Rome

1993
Bice Lazzari, Per filo e per segno, Galleria Riviere, Milan

1992
Bice Lazzari, Galleria Arte Centro, Milan

1989
Bice Lazzari, Two seasons, Casa del Mantenga, Mantova

1987
Bice Lazzari, Bilder, Zeichnungen 1950-70, Frankfurter Westend Galerie, Frankfurt
Bice Lazzari, Opere dal 1921 al 1981, Palazzo Venezia, Rome

1984
Bice Lazzari, Opere dal 1939 al 1979 (Works from 1939 to 1979), Accademia di Brera, Milan

1982
The ‘30s of Bice Lazzari, Galleria Arte Centro, Milan

1981
Bice Lazzari, Centro Comunale di Cultura, Venice

1980
Bice Lazzari, Galleria Weber, Turin Bice Lazzari, Galleria Civica, Modena

1979
Bice Lazzari, from 1925 to date, Museo di Milano, Milan Bice Lazzari, Galleria Weber, Turin

1970
Bice Lazzari, Paintings, tempera and drawings, 1925-1970, Palazzo Sturm, Bassano del Grappa

1969
Bice Lazzari, Fondazione Querini-Stampalia, Venice Bice Lazzari, SM 13, Studio of Modern Art, Rome

1964
Bice Lazzari, Galleria il Cancello, Bologna

1959
Bice Lazzari, Galleria la Salita, Rome

1958
Bice Lazzari, Galleria del Cavallino, Venice Bice Lazzari, Galleria la Salita, Rome

1954
Schneider Gallery, Rome

1951
Roman Gallery La Cassapanca, Rome

 

Selected group exhibitions

2023
Action, Gesture, Paint, Whitechapel Gallery, London
Beyond Form: Lines of Abstraction 1950-1970, Turner Contemporary, London

2021
Women in Abstraction. Another History of Abstraction in the 20th Century, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France / Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao

2020
Silent Revolutions: Italian Drawings from the Twentieth Century, Menil Drawing Institute, Houston

2019
Italy at Frieze, Italian Embassy, London
White Views, Italian Cultural Institute, London, UK Black and White, M&L Fine Art, London

2005
Still life in 20th century Italy, Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art, Luxembourg
Filoluce da Balla a Boetti, da Fontana a Flavin, Museo della Permanente, Milan

2004
From Balla to the trans-Avant-Garde, a hundred years of Italian Art at the Farnesina in occasion of the MIART, organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Milan’s Triennial, Milan
Artist’s gold, jewellery in Italian art 1900-2004, Museo del Corso, Rome
Italian female artists in the twentieth century, Galleria d’Arte Moderna di
Palazzo Pitti, Lucca
Still life in 20th Century Italy, Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London
Liquid geometries. Four female artists in the story of Felicita Bevilaqua
la Masa, Assessorato alla Cultura, Venice

2003
Kandinksy and the abstract adventure, organised by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Villa Manin, Passariano
Artemisia’s cards, Mole Vanvitelliana, Ancona
Fiamma Vigo e Numero. Una vita per l’Arte, Archivio di Stato, Florence

2000
Artemisia. Dialoghi in casa d’Arte, Museo Gipsoteca di Canova, Possagno

1995
Art and Power. Europe under the dictators 1930-1945, Hayward Gallery, London

1993
Venice and the Biennial. The course of taste, Ca’ Pesaro, Venice

1991
Masters of Modernity from the Collections of Ca’ Pesaro, Instituto di Cultura Santa Maria delle Grazie, Mestre

1985
Generation 1st decade, III International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Palazzo Vescovile, Rieti

1983
The informal in Italy, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna
Italian drawing in between the two wars, Galleria Civica, Modena
The sign of painting and sculpture, Palazzo della Permanente, Milan

1981
Anfra hälften av avantgardet 1910-1940, it is the Swedish presentation of the exhibition L’altrà metà dell’Avanguardia, Stockholm

1980
The other half of the 1910-1940 Avant-garde. Female painters and sculptors in the movements of the historical Avant-gardes, curated by Lea Vergine, Palazzo Reale, Milano / Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome

1968
VI Roman Biennial, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy

1963
IV Rome and Latium’s Figurative Arts Review, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome
Castello Svevo, VIII National Painting Prize, Palazzo del Comune Termoli

1961
Exhibition of the Association des Peintres et Amateurs d’Art de Tunisie, Tunisi

1959
VII Rome’s National Quadriennal of Art, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome

1957
XI International Triennal Exposition of Decorative and Modern Industrial Arts and Modern Architecture, Palazzo dell’arte, Milan

1956
VI Graziano Prize 1956, Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, Italy / Galleria del Cavallino, Venice, / Galleria Selecta, Rome, Italy

1954
National Exhbition of Abstract Art, Circolo Aristico, Macerata
X International Triennal Exposition of Decorative and Modern Industrial
Arts and Modern Architecture, Palazzo dell’arte, Milan

1951
IX International Triennal Exposition of Decorative and Modern Industrial
Arts and Modern Architecture, Palazzo dell’arte, Milan
IV Rome’s National Quadriennal of Art, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome

1950
XXV International Biennial Art Exposition, Giardini di Castello, Venice

1949
Exhibition of Italian painting, organised by the Union of Italian Women, Florence, Italy

1943
Barcelona International Exhibition, Barcelona

1940
VII International Triennal Exposition of Decorative and Modern Industrial
Arts and Modern Architecture, Palazzo dell’Arte, Milan

1936
VI International Triennal Exposition of Decorative and Modern Industrial Arts and Modern Architecture, Palazzo dell’arte, Milan
National Exhibition of Technical Instruction, Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome

1934
IV Exhibition “National Market of Artisanship”, Florence
XIX International Biennial Art Exposition, Giardini di Castello, Venice

1933
V International Triennal Exposition of Decorative and Modern Industrial
Arts and Modern Architecture, Palazzo dell’Arte, Milan

1931
Exhibition of Italian Modern Art glass, ceramic and lacework, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
The Netherlands International Exhibition of Modern Christian Sacred Art, Padua

1930
IV International Triennal Exposition of Decorative and Modern Industrial Arts, Villa Reale, Monza

1927
XVIII Exhibition of the Opera Bevilaqua La Masa, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Lido of Venice
III International Biennial of Decorative Arts, Villa Reale, Monza

1925
National Exposition of Brera (Biennal Exposition of Belle Arti), Palazzo della Permanente, Milan

 

Selected public collections

Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Alessandria
Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna, Cagliari
Museo Novecento, Firenze
Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea GAMC, Ferrara
Pinacoteca Comunale, Macerata
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milano
Museo del Novecento, Milano
Galleria Civica, Modena
Galleria d’Arte MOderna, Parma
Museo Nazionale, Pisa
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Musei Vaticani, Rome
Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome
Museo d’Arte Contemporanea MACRO, Rome
Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna Ca’ Pesaro, Venice
Peggy Guggenheim Collecton, Venice
The National Museum of Women in the Arts – NMWA, Washington DC
The Philips Collection, Washington DC

 

awards

1976
Il Centauro d’Oro

1968
Purchase prize for the work Bianco e Nero (Black and White)

1963
Banco di Napoli’s “purchase prize”

1950
Prize winner for La Vanità (The Vanity) in the Venice pavilion, Italy

1948
First prize in ENAPI competition for Decorative Art’s models

corriere della sera, 2025

il giornale dell’arte, 2025

dart magazine, 2023

the new european, 2022

the guardian, 2022

financial times, 2022

the new york times, 2019

artforum, 2018

Bice Lazzari: Modernist Pioneer, 2022
Estorick Foundation

Bice Lazzari: the poetics of the signs, 2020
Edizioni Polistampa

Bice Lazzari. L’emozione astratta, 2005
Mazzotta

Figure dallo sfondo, 1988
Palazzo diamanti, ferrara

Bice Lazzari. Opere dal 1921 al 1981, 1987
Bonsignori Editore Srl

Bice Lazzari. Opere 1925-1981, 1984
Electa

Bice Lazzari, 1974
vanni scheiwiller arte centro