From the Venice Biennale to his first American sojourn (1956-1959)

The Fifties were the season of Bueno's "pipes". The human figure, which disappeared from his "official" production on the morrow of his "Pittori Moderni della Realtà", was replaced by objects with a metaphysical significance - clay pipes, in fact, which Antonio and Xavier used to smoke when they were students in Geneva; and then broken egg-shells, paint-brushes and pencils. In these paintings he sought to create, to find an interesting compromise between abstract and figurative art. Some particularly bare landscapes of the same period seem to indicate a similar intention. These were the kind of paintings the artist presented to the public at Turin's "La Bussola" gallery in 1953 (his first truly important personal exhibition, the catalogue presented by Edoardo Sanguineti) and then at the 1956 edition of the Venice Biennale.

Naturally this kind of painting was not easy to sell; even less so in Florence where the prevailing provincial tradition made understanding of an operation of this kind impossible a priori. Bueno was rewarded for his wide-ranging and feverish activity by the approval of his friends and the connections he made during that period, some of which proved decisive in time. His work won the appreciation of personalities of the calibre of Argan, Sanguineti, Praz, Quasimodo, and abroad, of foreigners like Albert Camus, Lucien Goldman and Jorge Guillèn. Significantly, it was Florence that failed him. Within the Florentine artistic ambit, in reality, Bueno made only one true friend: Silvio Loffredo. He always remembered this man's "gaiety, bouffonnerie" which helped him feel like a boy again.

Antonio Bueno's "neo-metaphysical" painting was very well received at the XXVIII Venice Biennale in 1956. Bueno, who had not been presented by any critic, succeeded in passing the selection committee's examination and bringing his work to the exhibition; this was the last time, in fact, that artists who were not officially invited to the venue were allowed to exhibit. His true success, however, came from outside of Italy: it was in New York that his career took a decisive turn. In 1958 the artist succeeded, thanks to the patronage of Rome's "L'Obelisco" gallery (with which he had a contract) , in taking a trip to the United States to hold a personal exhibition at the Manhattan "Sagittarius Gallery". Here he presented a series of paintings featuring his "pipes" all of which sold almost immediately; the critics too spoke of him in rather flattering terms.

Bueno was contacted by two other New York galleries, the "World House Gallery" and the "Contemporaries"; possibilities of making particularly profitable contacts, of staying longer in the States, even of making it his permanent home emerged. But he did not know how to take advantage of the opportunity. A few months later, in fact, he preferred to return to Europe, lured by the prospect of holding a personal exhibition in Paris where he was to be presented by Albert Camus. The project was postponed due to some hitches and then was dropped definitively when (a few months later) Camus was killed in a car accident.

The beneficial echo of his New York successes reached Florence and, on his return, Bueno discovered that his work had undergone a sudden and unexpected re-evaluation. The "pipes" , which nobody had wanted before, were now in great demand; orders poured in from all sides. Up until then, of his official post-"Realtà" works he had succeeded in selling only three in the whole of Florence, not one more: if it is true, as Degas used to say, that to encourage art one must discourage artists, then it must be said that the Florentine environment of the time was one of the most propitious to be had. On his return from the United States, Bueno's painting met with a brief period of favour, such as to permit the artist (who was able to purchase his very first car, a second-hand "Fiat Six Hundred") to set his finances in order. However the period was short-lived ; in fact, almost immediately, he himself decided to put an end to it.

Bueno, almost frightened or troubled by the public's sudden appreciation, closed his "neo-metaphysical" parenthesis and decided to change genre radically. He evidently feared being conditioned by the market, losing himself in the repetitiveness of commercial production. Rather idealistically , therefore, he sacrificed his incipient fortune to the preservation of his creative independence. This was not the first instance of Bueno's "second thoughts", and to tell the truth, it was not to be his last. Several times during the course of his career he felt the need to renew himself, to begin all over again, disappointing, with nonchalance, expectations, requests, the latest trends; and, in reality, it was this constant tendency of his to look ahead that allowed him to grasp many illuminating anticipations. Certainly, this attitude caused critics and friends to lose their bearings; and his obstinate "irregularity" cost him exclusion and diffidence.

From 1959, therefore, Bueno (despite the vigorous opposition of his wife Evelina) stopped painting still lives and metaphysical subjects. To avoid temptation, he even destroyed his big collection of pipes, and, using the fragments, he painted a final picture entitled , significantly, "Il cimitero delle pipe" [ The Pipe Cemetery]. Thus a new and lengthy, even daring and anticipatory period of experimentation began; the experiments were carried out no longer in isolation and privately, but in collaboration with Florentine and other Italian artists.