Achille Bonito Oliva
Achille Bonito Oliva (born 1939) is an Italian art critic and historian of contemporary art. Since 1968 he has taught history of contemporary art at La Sapienza, the university of Rome. He has written extensively on contemporary art and contemporary artists.
Achille Bonito Oliva
Danielrothbart · CC BY 4.0
- Name
- Achille Bonito Oliva
- Born
- 1939
- Birthplace
- Caggiano, province of Salerno, Italy
- Occupation
- art critic, art historian
- Known for
- coining the term Transavanguardia
- Nationality
- Kingdom of Italy · Italy
- Fields
- art criticism · art history · poetry
- Education
- University of Naples Federico II
- Honours
- Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres
- Languages
- Italian
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Achille Bonito Oliva (born 1939) is an Italian art critic and historian of contemporary art. Since 1968 he has taught history of contemporary art at La Sapienza, the university of Rome. He has written extensively on contemporary art and contemporary artists.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Achille Bonito Oliva. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q305106 · wikipedia · Achille Bonito Oliva
In this article
Biography
Biography
He originated the term Transavanguardia to describe the new direction taken in the late 1970s by artists such as Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Nicola De Maria and Mimmo Paladino. He has organised or curated numerous contemporary art events and exhibitions; in 1993 he was artistic director of the Biennale di Venezia.
Achille Bonito Oliva studied at University of Naples Federico II. The recorded working language is Italian. The field of work recorded is art criticism, art history and poetry. Places of work recorded in the authority are Rome. Employment is recorded with Sapienza University of Rome. Works named in the authority record are Fathi Hassan (Art catalogue). Work by Achille Bonito Oliva is recorded in the collections of CODA Museum. Distinctions recorded are Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.
Catalogue front cover of “Daniel
Danielrothbart
Catalogue back cover of “Daniel
Danielrothbart
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Achille Bonito Oliva • Born — 1939 • Birthplace — Caggiano, province of Salerno, Italy • Occupation — art critic, art historian • Known for — coining the term Transavanguardia
Life and career
Life and career
Bonito Oliva was born in 1939 in Caggiano, in the province of Salerno, in Campania in southern Italy. He studied law, and then took a degree in letters. He took part in events connected with the avant-garde Gruppo 63 literary movement of the 1960s. From 1968 he taught history of contemporary art at La Sapienza, the university of Rome. He became active as an art critic, as a writer on history of art – with work on Mannerism, the historic Avant-Garde movements, and the Neo-Avantgarde – and as an organiser and curator of contemporary art events and exhibitions. In 1979, in an article in Flash Art, he coined the term Transavanguardia to describe the work of artists such as Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Nicola De Maria and Mimmo Paladino, who – in a manner comparable to that of the Neo-Expressionists and the Neue Wilden – discarded the abstract and conceptual approach of the Neo-Avantgarde and instead returned to figurative painting using the traditional techniques and materials, and at times also the forms and motifs, of the past. Bonito Oliva curated an exhibition of their work at Biennale di Venezia in 1980. He later broadened his definition of the movement to include artists such as Jeff Koons and Julian Schnabel, bringing it closer to the international concept of Postmodernism. He was the artistic director of the Biennale di Venezia of 1993, and has organised or curated numerous contemporary art events and exhibitions.
As author
As editor
As editor
• Autonomia e creatività della critica. Cosenza: Lerici, 1980 • Paul Klee. L'annunciazione del segno. Disegni e acquarelli. Milano: G. Mazzotta, 1982 • Avanguardia/Transavanguardia. Milano: Electa, 1982 • Desideretur. Artisti italiani giovanissimi nel Palazzo della Ragione. Bergamo, settembre-ottobre 1985. Roma: Spazio Skema, 1985 • La transavanguardia italiana. Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Nicola De Maria, Mimmo Paladino. Roma: Drago Arts & Communication, 2003
Identity
Identity
Achille Bonito Oliva is recorded as art critic, art historian, university teacher, journalist and writer.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1939
Achille Bonito Oliva was born in 1939 at Caggiano.
Books
Bonito Oliva has written many books, including monographs on Marina Abramović, Francis Bacon, Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Alighiero Boetti, James Lee Byars, Giorgio de Chirico, Braco Dimitrijević, Marcel Duchamp, Giuseppe Ducrot, Fathi Hassan, Alex Katz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Frida Kahlo, Paul Klee, Nam June Paik, Joan Miró, Pino Pascali, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Mario Schifano, Nancy Spero, Andy Warhol, Wolf Vostell and Robert Wilson.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Achille Bonito Oliva”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q305106: Achille Bonito Oliva
General reference · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Achille Bonito Oliva (1979) The Italian Trans-Avantgarde. Flash Art. (92–93), translation by Michael Moore. Archived 23 February 2019.
- 2.Ian Chilvers and John Glaves-Smith (2015). Transavantgarde. In: A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art, third edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. .
- 3.Gewalttätigkeit als objet trouvé. Retrospektive Wolf Vostell 1958–1974. Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, Berlin, 1974.
- 4.Bonito Oliva, Achille (in Italian). Enciclopedie on line. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed September 2017.
- 5.Transavanguardia (in Italian). Enciclopedie on line. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed January 2021.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
People, houses and institutions
Knowledge graph
People, houses and institutions
Teachers, collaborators, publishers and institutions recorded against this person, each on a stated basis.
Studied at
1- University of Naples Federico IIOrganisation
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 18 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
38,988 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- AchalasimhaAuthor
- Acharya PingalaAuthor
- Acharya SAuthor
- Achille BocchiAuthor
- Achille EssebacAuthor
- Achille Maffre de BaugéAuthor
- Achille MillienAuthor
- Achille TorelliAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Achille Bonito Oliva?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.