Gianfranco Barruccello, the Italian painter, sculptor, performer, writer, politician, and farmer, who after the earthquake donated his work “Virtue in Need” to Skopje and MSU, died at the age of 98 in Rome on January 10, 2023. His idiosyncratic work, which in many ways precedes post-modernism and relational aesthetics, does not belong to any of the aesthetic canons or contemporary mainstreams, developing his interdisciplinary approach in the complex mapping of the gap between verbal and visual language. Friendship with Marcel Duchamp, whom he considered his true heir, as well as his collaboration and creative and conceptual closeness with Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco, J.F. Lyotard and Nani Belestrini, and his participation in the tumultuous political events of the 1960s alongside the philosophers Guattari, Alain Joffre, and J.J. Lebel, up to his rural eco-farm in the 1970s near Rome, make the rich and exciting life path of Gianfranco Barrucello. For a more detailed biography of the artist visit the link: fondazionebaruchello.com
Gianfranco Baruchello, Virtue in Need, 1963, mixed media on canvas, 190×200 cm. Paintings collection of MSU Skopje
