Pietrasanta Painting (P.95.122)

Literature

Caio Fonseca was born in New York City in 1959. He comes from an artistic family in which his father, Gonzalo, is a renowned Uruguyan sculptor and his late brother, Bruno was also an accomplished painter. Always having been drawn to art, Fonseca left his formal education at Brown University for an artistic education in Europe. From 1978 to 1983, he studied in Barcelona, Spain under Augusto Torres, where he focused on the study of figurative painting. He then moved to Pietrasanta, Italy in 1985, where he developed his signature abstract style. After spending two years in Paris, France, he moved back to New York City in 1993. His first solo exhibition was that same year in Soho, Manhattan, at the Charles Cowles Gallery, leading to the purchase of two of his paintings by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He now divides his time between his two studios in Pietrasanta and Manhattan.

Fonseca’s style is known for its lyricism and abstractness. Inspired by classical music, he often uses bold colors that contrast with an off-white or neutral-colored background. His works have been showcased in exhibitions in every region of the United States as well as various areas of Europe. His art has been acquired by prestigious institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, and others.

This piece highlights an off-white background with freeform shapes and lines of bright pink, linked together by light brown lines. These blocks of color showcase Fonseca’s classic style of contrasting bright colors against a neutral background. It represents a signature Pietrasanta composition by the artist.