MILAN.- MASSIMODECARLO is deeply saddened by the passing of artist and dear friend Gianfranco Baruchello.
It is with great sorrow that we share the news of the passing of Gianfranco Baruchello, a pioneering visionary artist whose lifelong career has made an indelible mark on the art world globally.
Gianfrancos practice was as striking as intellectually stimulating. He had the unique, vital ability to combine the poetic and philosophical, the high and the low, the street and the library, the industrial and the intellectual. Praised for his unique, boundary-pushing approach, Gianfranco experimented relentlessly with an infinite variety of mediums ranging from painting to sculpture, video, performance, and installation. In his works Baruchello dismantled the safest and most predictable joints and links to adventure into the uncertain, into the possible, into the pleasure of thinking, through an ars combinatoria which does not exclude the different, nor the insignificant. In the last decades we had the fortune to experience and learn from the complexity of his mind and practice, something that will not only will remain dear to our hearts, but also to our brains forever.
Regarded by mentor Marcel Duchamp as his heir, Gianfranco was a key figure in the art movements and socio-political changes of the past century, and a precious friend to countless influential historical figures, artists, and intellectuals. Baruchello was an anti-master, an always curious and humble human being, who cared about young fellow artists, students, and thinkers: his legacy travels well beyond the incredible quality of his works, and will remain as a fundamental milestone of the XX and XXI Century.
Born in Livorno in 1924, Baruchello was active until his last days, with the same pungent and challenging spirit that guided him through his whole life. From literature and philosophy to science and technology, his ability to draw inspiration from an incredibly wide range of sources, prompted him to create art that was both personal and universal. The breadth and generosity of his all-encompassing life spanning career remain as a precious, timeless testament to the greatness of his heart.
We feel honored and blessed to have had the chance to talk, work, and walk alongside him: he will be deeply missed. Our warmest condolences go to his wife, and President of the Baruchello Foundation, Carla Subrizi, to his friends and family, and to his close ones.
Goodbye Baruch.