Artist

Vittore Frattini was born in Varese in 1937. Previous to his studies in art he visited his father’s sculpting workshop regularly. In 1959 he received his High School Diploma in fine art from the Brera Academy in Milan, and started preparing his first solo shows soon after; the exhibitions were to take place at the Exhibition Centre at the Casino in Sanremo and at the Grand Palais of the Champs Elysées at the Paris “Salon”. Between 1964-1968 he exhibited in Washington and New York, and was invited to participate at the Engraving Biennale in Venice. Thereafter, in early 1969 he began to organize solo and group exhibitions in Zurich, Geneva, Tokyo, Milan, Urbino, Bologna. This was followed by an invitation to exhibit at the “Orangerie” in Berlin and the “Italian Artists” exhibition at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. Subsequently (1990), he participated at exhibitions in London, Capri, and Florence. Eleven years later, whilst exhibiting at the Adamar Fine Arts in Miami in 2001 he completed the sculpture ”A Homage to Giovanni Borghi”, which he built in stainless steel and which can be found on the square close to the football stadium in Varese. The following year, in 2002, Frattini was commissioned to create another sculpture, the “Grande V”, again made of stainless steel, which was to be placed at the Malpensa airport of Milan. Validating Frattini’s artwork, the first impression is one of absoluteness, of something definite. The sculptures’ impact on the viewer is alienating, tempting the gaze to travel to the infinite. For example: routes made up of bends and cross-bends, or spirals which go down to the centre of the object whereas the object’s centre remains unobtainable/intangible. The sculptures elude the observer as they appear to be concealed behind coloured traces left by a jet engine. Furthermore, none of the sculptures has a fixed viewpoint where the viewer’s eye can rest on, because the smallest movement is enough to change everything.