Bruno Munari was born in Milan, Italy in 1907 and was died in 1998.
He began his career at an early age during the second wave of Italian Futurists, exhibiting his work for the first time in 1927 at Galleria Pesaro, Milan. Simultaneously he pursued activities as an art-director, curator, and illustrator. In the years following, he progressively moved away from the influence of Futurism, developing an extremely personal and singular project over the course of 60 years. In 1930, he produced the Aerial Machine, from which came his Macchine Inutili (Useless Machines), anticipating his interest in the deconstruction of the traditional work of art.
His work is included in Post Zang Tumb Tuuum. Art Life Politics: Italia 1918–1943, curated by Germano Celant at Fondazione Prada, Milan (2019); Other recent exhibitions include Museum of Modern Art, Hayama, Japan (2018); Museo Ettore Fico, Turin (2017); and the Estorick Collection of Italian Modern Art, London, (2012).
Munari exhibited extensively throughout his lifetime, participating in major international exhibitions that include Documenta 3, Kassel (1964) and Documenta 4, Kassel (1968), besides the participation in nine editions of the Venice Biennale.
In 1955, he had a two-person exhibition with Alvin Lustig at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and in 1966, he had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and another solo exhibition at the Howard Wise Gallery, New York. His work has also been exhibited at institutions that include the Museum Fridericianum, Kassel; Hayward Art Gallery, London; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.
Munari’s works are held in the permanent collections of metropolitan museum of art, new york; moma – the museum of modern art, new york; the brooklyn museum, new york; the merill-berman collection, new york; the smithsonian cooper-hewitt national design museum, new york; the j. paul getty museum, los angeles; the toledo museum of art, Toledo; the museo del novecento, milan; gallerie d’italia, milan; triennale design museum, milan; fondazione vodoz-bruno danese, milan; the centre pompidou, Paris; the british museum, London; the moderna musset, stockholm; galleria nazionale d’arte moderna, rome; galleria civica, modena; mart – museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di trento e rovereto, rovereto; maga – museo d’arte di gallarate, gallarate; museion, bolzano; museo novecento, florence; macba – museo de arte contemporaneo, buenos aires; and the keio university art center, tokyo.
Ognuno vede ciò che sa (Everyone sees what they know), 2018-19, solo show at Kaufmann Repetto milan
Works: 1930 – 1996, 2018, solo show at Kaufmann Repetto New York in collaboration with Andrew kreps gallery
Bruno murari (B.1907 Milan – 1998 milan).
Upcoming group exhibitions
2024
Co/respondences, Brazil and Abroad II, Nara Roesler Gallery, New York
Sistemi Semplici, Lia Rumma, Milano
Selected solo exhibitions
2024
Bruno Munari. Tutto Fondazione Magnani-Rocca, Parma
Bruno Munari. La leggerezza dell’arte, Acqui Terme
Bruno Munari “El Artista”, Museo de Art Contemporaneo Atchungarry, Uruguay
Fondazione Magnani Rocca, Parma
2023
Bruno Munari. La leggerezza dell’arte, Art House, Eataly Verona
2022
Bruno Munari: The Child Within, Center for Italian Modern Art, New York
MACA – MUSEO DE ARTE CONTEMPORáNEO DE ALICANTE
Fundación Juan March, Madrid
2020
Munari. In movimento, Centro Trevi, Munari
2019
Bruno Munari: a mudança é a única constante no universo, Museu da Casa Brasilera, São Paulo
2018
Ognuno vede ciò che sa (Everyone sees what they know), kaufmann repetto, Milan
Bruno Munari. I Colori della Luce, Fondazione PLART, Naples
Bruno Munari: conservare lo spirito dell’infanzia (Bruno Munari: Keeping the Childhood Spirit), travelling exhibition: Museum of Modern Art, Hayama; Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art; Iwate Museum of Art; Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Bruno Munari. Works: 1939 – 1996, Andrew Kreps Gallery and kaufmann repetto, New York
2017
Munari Aria | Terra (Munari Air | Earth), Fondazione Palazzo Preto rio, Cittadella, Padua
Bruno Munari. Total Artist, Museo Ettore Fico, Turin
2014
Munari politecnico (Polytechnic Munari), Museo del 900, Milan
2012
Pensare confonde le idee (Thinking only confuses ideas), Galleria dell’Incisione, Brescia
Bruno Munari. My Futurist Past, Estorick Collection of Italian Modern Art, London
2009
Les livres de Bruno Munari (The Books of Bruno Munari), Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
2008
Bruno Munari, Museo dell’Ara Pacis, Rome
Bruno Munari: il disegno, il design (Bruno Munari: drawings, design), Salone delle Scuderie in Pilotta, Parma
2007
Bruno Munari. 70 anni di libri (Bruno Munari: 70 years of books), Centro Luigi Pecci, Prato
Bruno Munari: da cosa nasce cosa (Bruno Munari: one thing leads to another), travelling exhibition: Itabashi Art Museum, Tokyo; The Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, Japan; Kariya City, Japan
Bruno Munari, Rotonda della Besana, Milan
Munari Archeologico (Archeological Munari), Museo Archeologico, Bologna
2004
Tinguely e Munari. Opere in azione (Tinguely and Munari. Works in movement), Centro Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CAMeC, La Spezia
Bruno Munari, Italian Institue of Culture, San Francisco
2003
Bruno Munari, Italian Institue of Culture, Los Angeles
2002
Bruno Munari. Playful Master of Nonsense. Design From Italy, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul
1997
Bruno Munari, Valente Arte Contemporanea, Finale Ligure
1995
Bruno Munari, Museum fur Gestaltung, Zurich
1992
Xerografie originali, Albisola Marina, Savona
1988
Bruno Munari. Works 1933 – 1988, Jerusalem Museum, Jerusalem
1988
Xerografie originali, Galleria Sincron, Brescia
1986
Bruno Munari, Palazzo Reale, Milano
1984
Museo de Arte Moderno Fundaciòn Soto, Bolivia
1972
Design and visual research, Italian Cultural Institute, Copenhagen
1968
Ideas of new functions, Kunstgewerbeschule, Basel
1966
Bruno Munari, Howard Wise Gallery, New York
1960
Polarized Light Projections, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
1955
Two graphic designers: Bruno Munari and Alvin Lustig, Museum Of Modern Art, New York
1954
Proiezioni dirette (Direct Projections), The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Selected group exhibitions
2020
Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Charlotte, North Carolina
Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, curated by Andrea Bellini and Sarah Lombardi, Geneva, Switzerland
2019
Playing Art. Education, Art, and Design, Fundación Juan March, Madrid
2018
Post Zang Tumb Tuuum. Art Life Politics: Italia 1918-1943, Fondazione Prada, Milan
2015
Painting in Italy 1910s-1950s: Futurism, Abstraction, Concrete Art, Sperone Westwater, New York
Fotografia Futurista (Futurist Photography), Galleria Sozzani, Milano
2014
Italian Futurism 1909-1944. Reconstructing Universe, Guggenheim Museum, New York
La Tyrannie des objects (The Tyranny of Objects), Galerie des Galerie, Lafayette Haussmann, Paris
Il design italiano tra autarchia, austerità e autoproduzione (Italian design: autarky, austerity, and self-production), La Triennale di Milano, Milan
Slide Slide Slide, Microscope Gallery, New York
2013
Inside/Outside, Brasilian Pavilion, The Venice Biennale, Venice
TDMS: Grafica Italiana (TDMS: Italian Graphic), La Triennale di Milano, Milan
Dynamo. Un siècle de lumière et de mouvement dans l’art 1013-2013, Grand Palais, Paris
2012
The Small Utopia: Ars Multiplicata, Fondazione Prada, Venice
Programmare l’arte. Olivetti e le avanguardie cinetiche (To Program Art: Olivetti and Kinetic Avant-gardes), Museo del 900, Milan
2008
La parola nell’arte (Words in Art), Mart – Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Rovereto
2007
Il Mondo Italian (Italian World), Mart – Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Rovereto, Trento
1997
Minimalia, MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art PS1, New York
1995
A Century of Artists Books, MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York
1994
The Italian Metamorphosis 1943-1968, Guggenheim Museum, New York
1992
The Artist and the Book in Twentieth Century Italy, MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York
1990
Avanguardia Italianad e entreguerras. Futurismo y Racionalismo, IVAM-Centre Julio Gonzales, Valencia Italiens Moderne. Futurismus und Rationalismus, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel
1989
Arte Italiana: 1900-1945 (Italian Art: 1900-1945), Palazzo Grassi, Venice
1986
Futurismo e futuristi (Futurism and Futurists), Palazzo Grassi, Venice
1983
Programmed and kinetic art 1953 – 1963. The last avant-garde, Palazzo Reale, Milan
1979
Electroworks, International Museum of Photography, George Eastman House, Rochester
1972
The New Domestic Landscape, MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York
1971
Multiples The first decade, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
1969
5 Italians: Bonalumi, Ceroli, Manzoni, Munari, Pistoletto, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
1968
The Machine As Seen At The End Of The Mechanical Age, MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York
1967
Light and Motion Space, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, traveled to Worcester Art Museum, Worcester
1966
Greetings!, MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York Polarized Light, XXXIII Venice Biennale
Munari.Produktie B. Danese, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
1965
Lumiere, mouvement et optique, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, Bruxelles
1964
Art In Motion, Royal College of Arts, London
1962
Arte Programmata (Programmed Art), Olivetti, Milan
1961
Bevaegelse i Kunsten, Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek
1960
Kinetische Kunst, Kunstgewerbemuseum, Zurich
1959
Motion in Vision, Vision in Motion, Hessenhuis, Anversa
1953
Recent Acquisitions 1946 – 1953, Department of Architecture and Design, MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York
1952
XXVI Venice Biennale, Venice
1936
New Painting, XX Venice Biennale, Venice
1934
XIX Venice Biennale, Venice
1930
Italian Futurists, XVII Venice Biennale
1927
Exhibition of 34 futurists, Galleria Pesaro, Milan
Selected public collections
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Merill-Berman Collection, New York; Smithsonian CooperHewitt National Design Museum, New York; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo; Museo del Novecento, Milan; Gallerie d’Italia, Milan; Triennale Design Museum, Milan; Fondazione Vodoz-Bruno Danese, Milan; Centre Pompidou, Paris; The British Museum, London; Moderna Musset, Stockholm; Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome; Galleria Civica, Modena; MART – Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Rovereto; MAGA – Museo d’Arte di Gallarate, Gallarate; Museion, Bolzano; Museo Novecento, Florence; Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato; MACBA – Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Buenos Aires; Keio University Art Center, Tokyo.
prizes
In 1954 he won the Compasso d’oro prize (Golden Compass Award) for the Scimmietta Zizì.
In 1964 he was included in the XV Premio Avezzano Strutture di Visione, Palazzo Torlonia, Avezzano.
Tinguely e Munari. Opere in azione., 2014
Mazzotta
Ricostruzione teorica di un artista, 1996
Association Vodoz et Bruno Danese
The Object Transformed, 1966
moma
Munari Scultore, 1989
Adriano Parise
