Luis Tomasello

LUIS TOMASELLO
[1915-2014, Argentina/France]  

Born to an Italian family in La Plata, a province of Buenos Aires, Luis Tomasello’s first work experience was with his father as a bricklayer, carpenter, and painter. He began taking drawing classes in the evenings as a teenager and attended the Escuela de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón in Buenos Aires from 1932 to 1938. Two years later, he enrolled at the La Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes Ernesto de la Cárcova, where he studied until 1944. In the mid-1940s, young artists in Buenos Aires were challenging representational traditions in art; Tomasello met painters Emilio Pettoruti and Carmelo Arden Quin during this time, two important figures in the Argentine avant-garde.

In 1951, Tomasello traveled to Paris for the first time. He relocated permanently to Paris in 1957, joining a large and dynamic expatriate community of Latin American kinetic artists there.  Many of these artists began making constructivist abstract work and then shifted to kinetic and optical art in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. Tomasello is internationally known for his Atmospheres chromoplastiques, in which he poses white cubes on a white background to engage with the colors of shadows and reflected light. As well as exhibiting extensively internationally, Tomasello has completed numerous large-scale public art commissions in Argentina, France, Mexico, and the United States. His Chromoplastic Mural (2011) is on view at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

Tomasello’s works have been shown in selected exhibitions, including Afterimages: Geometric Abstraction and Perception, Akron Art Museum, Ohio, USA (2021); 12 Latin American Artists Today, Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA (1975); Luis Tomasello: Muestra Antologica, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2009); Luis Tomasello, Rétrospective 1957-1990, Cercle Noroit, Arras, France (1991); Dynamo: A Century of Light and Motion in Art, 1913-2013, Grand Palais, Paris, France (2013); Konsekvens, Hommage a Olle Baertling (1911-1981), Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden (1981); Lumière et mouvement, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France (1967); Tomasello, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France (1976); Retrospective (1957-1972), Musée des Beaux-Arts, Pau, France (1972); Kinetika, Musée du XXe Siècle, Vienna, Austria (1967); Art d’Amérique Latine 1911-1968, Musée National d’Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (1992); Manifeste, Musée National d’Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (1993); Made in France, Musée National d’Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (1996);

2023
Off The Grid: Post-Formal Conceptualism, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
Kinetic Art: Past And Present, Galeria Raquel Arnaud, São Paulo, Brazil
Contrasti: Da Alighiero Boetti a Giuseppe Santomaso, Cortesi Gallery, Lugano, Switzerland
Párizsi Kocka II, Abigail Galéria, Budapest, Hungary

2022
MOUVEMENT | Hommage à Denise René, Centre d’art contemporain Bonisson, Rognes, Aix-en-Provence, France 
Repetitions, The Mayor Gallery, London, UK
Manuel Espinosa & Luis Tomasello, Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, Houston, TX, USA
Light & Darkness, Power Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, Australia
Synergies: Geometric Art, Doral Contemporary Art Museum (DORCAM), Miami, FL, USA

2021    
Glowing Revelations: The Reliefs of Luis Tomasello, Ascaso Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
Afterimages: Geometric Abstraction and Perception, Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH, USA
Group Show: Luis Tomasello, Carlos Medina, and Victor Valera, among others, Ascaso Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
Unframed, Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, Houston, TX, USA

2020
Color into Light, Connecting Currents: Contemporary Art at the Fine Arts Museum Houston in the inaugural installation of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, (MFAH), TX, USA
The Grid in Modern Latin American Art, Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, Houston, TX, USA

2019
Tomasello y Espinosa: Around the Square, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires (MACBA), Argentina

2018
Latin American Works On Paper, The Mayor Gallery, London, UK

2017    
Luis Tomasello, Art Basel, The Mayor Gallery, Basel, Switzerland
Fruits de la passion, Entrepôt 9, Galerie Barnoud, Quétigny, France
Destination Latin America, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY, USA
40th Anniversary, Twentieth Century Art Collection, 1977-2017, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Alicante (MACA), Spain
F11, Galerie Denise René, Espace Marais, Paris, France
Colori, Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Turin, Italy

2014    
Luis Tomasello: Six Decades of Reflection, The Mayor Gallery, London, UK; Borzo Modern & Contemporary Art, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 
Luis Tomasello, Artista de la Luz 1915-2014, Obras de la Colección del MACLA, Museu de Arte Contemporáneo Latinoamericano (MACLA), La Plata, Argentina

2013    
Luis Tomasello: Celebrated Artist, Asaso Gallery, PINTA, London, UK

2012    
Luis Tomasello, Galeria Raquel Arnaud, São Paulo, Brazil 
Luis Tomasello: Structure Visible et Couleur Réfléchie, Ascaso Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
Luis Tomasello: Vibrations de la Couleur, Galerie Argentine, Paris, France

2011    
Luis Tomasello, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA

2010    
Luis Tomasello, The Mayor Gallery, London, UK
Luis Tomasello: La Luce Lavora Per Me, Kanalidarte Galleria d’arte Contemporanea, Brescia, Italy
Luis Tomasello, Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Emilio A. Caraffa, Cordoba, Argentina 
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Rosario (MACRO), Rosario, Argentina 
Luis Tomasello, Artista de la Luz, Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Rosa Galisteo de Rodríguez, Santa Fe, Argentina 
Luis Tomasello and Alicia Penalba, Galería Hoy en el Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina 

2009    
Luis Tomasello: Recent Work, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
Luis Tomasello: Muestra Antologica, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina
James Harris Gallery, Seattle, WA, USA
Luis Tomasello: La Sustancialidad Intrínsica de la Luz, Casa de las Américas, Galería Latinoamericana, Havana, Cuba
James Harris Gallery, Seattle, WA, USA 

2007    
Luis Tomasello, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
Luis Tomasello, Fundación Federico Jorge Klemm, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Academia Nacional de Bellas-Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA

Arithmeum, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

Atelier de Construction Electrique, Charleroi, Belgium

Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF), Paris, France 

Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL, USA

Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg, PA, USA

Casa de las Américas, Havana, Cuba

Celanese Corporation, New York, NY, USA

Centre Georges-Pompidou, Paris, France

Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Paris, France

Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO), Miami, FL, USA

Design Unit, Chicago, IL, USA

Fondo Nacional de las Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain de l’Île-de-France, Le Plateau, France

Fundació Stämpfli, Sitges, Spain 

Fundación César Manrique, Teguise, Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain

Fundación Pettoruti, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands

McCrory Corporation, New York, NY, USA

Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne (MAC/VAL), Vitry-sur Seine, France

Musée d’Art et Industrie, Saint-Etienne, France

Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris, France

Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint-Étienne Métropole, Saint-Étienne, France 

Musée de Grenoble, Grenoble, France 

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Pau, France

Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

Musée Réattu, Arles, France

Museo Bolivar, Caracas, Venezuela

Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Rosario (MACRO), Rosario, Argentina 

Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Latino-Américano (MACLA), La Plata, Argentina