Lino Mannocci (1945-2021) was an Italian painter.

He was born in Viareggio, Italy, and moved to London in 1968. Between 1971 and 1976 he studied at Camberwell College of Arts and as a postgraduate at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Since 1976, Mannocci has returned annually to a little Italian hamlet in the hills between Lucca and Viareggio. In the early 1980s, he was a co-founder of the movement La Metacosa and was closely involved in all the group's exhibitions and activities.

His first museum exhibition was in 1984 at the Hack-Museum in Ludwigshafen, Germany. In 1988 Yale University Press published Mannocci's Catalogue Raisonne of the Graphic Works of Claude Lorrain. During the 1990s he exhibited his work in San Francisco, New York, London, Milan, Florence and Bergamo.

In 2004, his recent paintings were included in the exhibition curated by Philippe Daverio at the Spazio Oberdan in Milan called Fenomenologia della Metacosa – 7 artisti nel 1979 a Milano e 25 anni dopo. In 2005 he had a one-person show entitled Let there be smoke at the Museo H. Christian Andersen in Rome, which also travelled to Delhi and Mumbai in India, in 2006. In 2007, he curated an exhibition at the Galleria Ceribelli in Bergamo called Gli amici pittori di Londra, a homage to painting and friendship. On the occasion of his exhibition in 2010 of monotypes at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, Clouds and Myths, Mannocci curated an exhibition on the theme of the Annunciation, The Angel and the Virgin: A Brief History of the Annunciation.

The Cartiere Vannucci in Milan exhibited his paintings in 2012. In October, he exhibited his work in New York at Jill Newhouse Gallery. He had an exhibition at Galleria San Fedele in Milan, E l’angelo partì da lei, in 2014. In the following year, 2015, he presented a solo exhibition of recent works at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna di Palazzo Pitti in Florence. In May, an invitation to commemorate the 800th centenary of the Magna Carta at Temple Church, London, resulted in a show of monotypes on parchment. In June, he exhibited a group of treated postcards at London’s Estorick Collection, Shaping the Image which concerned the main protagonists of the Futurists movement. In October, he had a one-person exhibition Stanze, at Galleria Ceribelli in Bergamo, Italy. In 2017, Mannocci participated in the Shared Sacred Sites project showing work in the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece. The following year the exhibition travelled to The Graduate Centre CUNY, New York. In July 2019, he curated an exhibition of Gino Severini’s work at the Museo 900, Florence and in September, he had a solo show of works relating to the theme of the wedding of Gino Severini and Jeanne Fort in 1913. The exhibition was accompanied by the catalogue, Lapis-Lievi (2019) containing numerous critical contributions. In December Mannocci exhibited a number of works in the Galleria Ceribelli in Bergamo on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Metacosa.

Collections

Mannocci's work is in the collections of the British Museum in London, Altonaer Museum in Hamburg, W. Hack Museum in Ludwigshafen, Musée Jenisch in Vevey, Mead Art Museum in Amherst, Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, and Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Palazzo Pitti, Florence.

Publications

In 1988, he wrote the catalogue raisonné of the graphic work of Claude Lorrain for Yale University Press. On the occasion of the 2007 exhibition, Gli amici pittori di Londra, he wrote the accompanying catalogue, published by Lubrina Editore, Bergamo. In 2008, following a visit to New Delhi and Mumbai, he wrote Madre India, Padre Barbiere, a text on the experience of the journey and personal memories, alongside photographs of Indian barbers, for Skira Imprint. In 2010, he curated and wrote the catalogue for the exhibition, The Angel and the Virgin: A Brief History of the Annunciation at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Also in 2010, as part of the catalogue for the exhibition, Another Country at the Estorick Collection in London, he wrote an essay, ‘De Chirico, Carra and the Metaphysical Years’. In 2019, Mannocci wrote Scene da un matrimonio fuțurista: Gino Severini sposa Jeanne Fort a Parigi nel 1913, published by affinità elettive, Ancona.

Gli Amici Pittori di Londra

Gli Amici Pittori di Londra (My Painter Friends in London) was the title given to an exhibition of work by Mannocci and his British artist friends held in 2007 at the Galleria Ceribelli in Bergamo, Italy. The artists – both past and present – share between them various degrees of contact based on friendship and example, as well as occasional links through galleries and exhibitions in London and elsewhere. The success of the initial exhibition has generated other shows by the group over subsequent years. In 2008, Genius Loci at the Galleria Ceribelli, 2010, Another Country, at the Estorick Collection, London, and in 2015, saw Vital Signs, at Clifford Chance, London, which also travelled to the Fondazione Bottari Lattes, in Monforte d'Alba and the Museo della Grafica in Pisa, Italy. In 2017, Gli Amici Pittori di Londra showed together once more in May at the Galleria Ceribelli. For the occasion, celebrating the tenth anniversary, the catalogue included a text by Catherine Lampert.

List of Selected Exhibitions:

Solo Exhibitions:

1981 Galleria Ghelfi, Vicenza

1982 Galleria “32”, Milan

1984 Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen

1986 Curwen Gallery, London

1988 Poetry of Place Bury St. Edmunds Art Gallery

1990 Studio Steffanoni, Milan

1992 P. Iannetti Gallery, San Francisco

1995 Galleria La Subbia, Pietrasanta

1997 The Eagle Gallery, London

1997 Julie Saul Gallery, New York

1999 Storie di Mare, Art First, London

1999 Lino Mannocci: stories from the sea, Italian Institute of Culture, London

2000 Galleria Il Bisonte, Florence

2001 Bonfires and Other Stories, Art First, London

2004 Galleria Ceribelli, Bergamo

2005 Let There Be Smoke, Museo Hans Christian Andersen, Rome (Catalogue essay pdf)

2005 Cloud Paintings, Art First, London

2006 Let There Be Smoke, Gallery Nature Morte, New Delhi

2006 Let There Be Smoke, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai

2009 Lino Mannocci: Sea, Sky, Smoke, Mead Art Museum, Amherst. U.S.A.

2010 Lino Mannocci: Sea, Sky, Smoke, New York Studio School. U.S.A.

2010 Clouds and Myths: Monotypes by Lino Mannocci, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (Catalogue essay pdf)

2012 Lino Mannocci: L’Umile e il Sublime, Cartiere Vannucci, Milano. Lubrina Editore, Bergamo (Catalogue pdf)

2012 Jill Newhouse Gallery, New York (Catalogue pdf)

2014 “E l’angelo partì da Lei” Annunciazione | Lino Mannocci, Galleria San Fedele, Milano (Catalogue pdf)

2015 Lino Mannocci: Recent Works, Palazzo Pitti, Saloncino delle Statue, Firenze (Catalogue pdf)

2015 Lino Mannocci Stanze, Galleria Ceribelli, Bergamo (Catalogue pdf)

2015 Lino Mannocci: Shaping the Image, Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London (Catalogue pdf)

2015 Monotypes Relating to the Magna Carta, Temple Church, London.

2016 Typologies: Monotypes, North House Gallery, Manningtree. (Catalogue pdf)

2016 L'angelo E La Vergine: Breve Storia dell'iconografia dell'annunciazione, curated by Lino Mannocci, Galleria Ceribelli, Bergamo. (Catalogue pdf in Italian)

Gli Amici Pittori di Londra Group shows:

2007 Gli Amici Pittori di Londra (My Painter Friends in London), Galleria Ceribelli, Bergamo, Italy.

2008 Genius Loci, Galleria Ceribelli, Bergamo.

2010 Another Country, Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London.

2015 Vital Signs, Clifford Chance, London, and Fondazione Bottari Lattes, Monforte d'Alba, Italy.

2016 Vital Signs, Museo della Grafica, Palazzo Lanfranchi, Pisa, Italy.