Abstract:
Gastone Novelli was born in Vienna on August 1, 1925. He received a classical education in Rome, where he had moved with his family, and became involved in the Italian resistance movement in 1943. He was arrested and then freed the following year. In 1945 he moved to Florence and earned a degree in political science. After the war he started painting and producing graphic works that were greatly influenced by the Neo-Constructivist theories of Max Bill, who he had met while staying in Zurich in 1947. In 1950 he moved to Brazil and devoted himself to the applied arts, teaching, and research into Geometrical Abstraction. In 1951 and 1953 he participated in the São Paulo Bienal. In December 1954 he went back to Rome and met Corrado Cagli and Achille Perilli; the following year he exhibited at the Galleria La Cassapanca and Studio B24.
In 1959 he exhibited in the Galleria l’Ariete in Milan and participated in many groups shows in Italy and abroad. In 1960 he had a solo exhibition at the Galleria La Tartaruga in Rome and took part in the show Crack at the Galleria Il Canale in Venice. The following year he returned to Paris once again, where he met Geroges Bataille, Samuel Beckett, Pierre Klossowski, and Claude Simon, and had a private show at the Galerie du Fleuve.
In 1962 his work was shown at the Alan Gallery in New York, and he spent some time travelling in Greece.