Luciano Pistoi

Luciano Pistoi (1927–1995), art critic, dealer, journalist and publisher, promoter and organizer of cultural events. One of the most prominent figures in the postwar Italian art world.

Luciano Pistoi worked in Torino, Rome and Volpaia, near Siena, places in which he presented emerging and well known international and Italian artists, often against the stream and with unusual approach and combination of works and artists, involving critics of different generations and trends. He come from a family of Tuscan origins, arrived in Torino very young and in the early 50s' worked as an art critic for the newspaper L'Unità. In 1957 he opened his first gallery called Galleria Notizie with an exhibition of works by Wols and where he will present artists such as Jean Fautrier, Jackson Pollock, Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana, Jean Dubuffet, George Mathieu, Norman Bluhm, Mark Tobey, Spazzapan, Imai, Antoni Tàpies, Accardi, Pinot Gallizio, Cy Twombly, Asger Jorn, Shiraga, Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Riopelle, Sam Francis, Louise Nevelson, Salvatore Scarpitta, Fausto Melotti, Carla Accardi, Mario Merz and other protagonists of the international art world. He worked with the most important international art dealers such as Arne Glimcher, Beyeler, Paul Maenz, Sprovieri, Plinio De Martiis, Gasparo del Corso, Tazzoli, Alexander Jolas, and many others He organized extraordinary exhibitions like the first European appearance of the Japanese group Gutai and the exhibition "Arte Nuova" (New Art) both organized in 1959 in collaboration with the French critic Michel Tapié. Luciano Pistoi also worked at length with the most active art critics of the period: from Enrico Crispolti to carla Lonzi, from Maurizio Fagiolo to Giuliano Briganti From the early 60s' Pistoi start getting interested in new expressions, with a particular attention to the work of young artists like the Italians Piero Manzoni, Pino Pascali, Giulio Paolini and Luciano Fabro, and the international ones like Christo, without abandoning the rediscovery and rereadings of the protagonists of the European avantgardes - Francis Picabia, René Magritte, Fernand Léger, Yves Tanguy among many others. An opening to confrontation which inspired also his roman years, with the discovery of the Transavangarde artists, and the experience he started in Tuscany at castello di Volpaia where he organized every year an exhibition that occupied an entire medieval town.