SIMONETTA JUNG               

Simonetta Jung (Palermo 1917 - Brussels 2005)
​Member of the "Movimento Arte Concreta - Gruppo Spaziale"
"I feel that freedom is the greatest and at the same time the most terrible gift that has been bestowed upon the human being" 
Simonetta Jung

FORME-LUCE (LIGHT FORMS) : 1950-1955

"Forma-Luce no 17" 1953
​Collection Arthur Wiesenberger, New York

Milan, 1954. Lucio Fontana visits a Jung exhibition at Galleria Schettini and calls her art "Arte Spaziale - Spatial Art".

Gina Lollobrigida visiting a Jung exhibition in Rome, 1954

Ingrid Bergman visiting the artist's solo exhibition at Galleria Schneider, Rome 1954

Solo Exhibition at Duveen-Graham Gallery, Madison Avenue, New York, 1955

"Futurist Composition" 1958, oil on canvas, 55 x 70 cm
Exhibited and sold at Sotheby's London "Women artists", march 2022

IDEA MATERIA & TENSIONI FORMATIVE : 1958-1972
Abstract Expressionism
"Mon évolution artistique est caractérisée par 2 phases qui se suivent comme le jour suit l'aube. Selon Platon le monde des idées précède celui de la Création terrestre. Mes Forme-Luce et mes T. F. représentent les moments avant et après la Création".   

Milano, 1961 with the painting "Idea Materia no 19 - The Beginning" ordered by President and Mrs JF Kennedy for the White House

"Idea materia" 1961, oil on canvas, 90 x 150 cm (Sold)
​Private collection, Switzerland

"Tensione Formativa" 1966, oil on canvas, 60 x 90 cm (Sold)
Illustration in "S. Jung" by Vittorio Del Gaizo, Editalia-Roma, 1968
Exhibited at Galerie Veranneman Brussels, 1970

One can well speak of lava pouring down the mountainside in describing a texture thick and dense and yet so fluid,
all waves and streamlets, imbued with an energy that tends to go beyond the edges of the canvas.  Vittorio del Gaizo

"Tensione Formativa" 1968, oil on canvas (Sold)

"Tensione Formativa"​ 1969, oil on canvas (Sold)

Exhibition at Galerie Veranneman, Brussels 1970
​The artist and Maurits Naessens, President of Banque de Paris & des Pays-Bas Belgium

HOMO NOVUS : 1972-1979
"At every great turning point in history, a "new man" has appeared featuring certain special
characteristics which are the result of the changes occured".   Simonetta Jung

"Homo Novus no 15" 1974, acrylic on canvas, 75 x 110 cm
Exhibited at Galleria Nuovo Sagittario, Milan 1976 & Unesco house Paris, 1984
​Available, call 02 539.23.09 or mail group2gallerybrussels@gmail.com

"Homo Novus no 16" 1974, acrylic on canvas, 75 x 110 cm
​Exhibited at Galleria Nuovo Sagittario Milano, 1976
​Available

"Homo Novus 20"​ 1974, acrylic on canvas, 80 x 100 cm
Available

"Homo Novus no 57" 1976, acrylic on canvas, 50 x 60 cm
​Available

"Homo Novus" 1976, Acrylic on canvas (Sold)

"Homo Novus no 61" 1976, acrylic on canvas, 70 x 80 cm
Available

"Homo Novus no 77" 1977, acrylic on canvas, 150 x 107 cm
​Available

Philippe Roberts-Jones, the artist & Serge Goyens de Heusch at Galerie Armorial Brussels, 1979

ELOUNTHA : 1979-1982
Jung paints this cycle on the back of her canvases

"Elountha no 12" 1980, mixed media on canvas (sold)
Private collection, Switzerland

"Elountha no 20" 1980, mixed media on canvas, 108 x 90 cm
​Exhibited at the Unesco house in Paris, 1984
​Available

"Elountha no 21" 1980, mixed media on canvas, 152 x 118 cm
The Elountha (a village in Crete) series are painted on the back of each canvas
​Available

"Elountha 25" 1980, mixed media on canvas, 72 x 92 cm
​Available

ANTHROPOSCOPY : 1982-1984
"This cycle of paintings reflects at the same time a physical and psychological exploration of mankind"

"Anthroposcopy" 1983, mixed media on canvas, 52 x 72 cm
​Exhibited at the Unesco house in Paris, 1984
​Available

Opening of the S. Jung exhibition at Group 2 Gallery in 1996 under the patronage of italian Ambassador Francesco  Corrias

Jeannine Lenaerts, Brussels Region Minister President Charles Picqué & Simonetta Jung at Group 2 Gallery, 1996

Simonetta Jung was born in Palermo, Sicily, in 1917. Her father came from Trieste and her mother, Jeannette Duquesne, was a British subject and a member of  an old french family descending from the Marquis Duquesne, Admiral of the french fleet of Louis XIV. The family had gone into exile in England during the reign of Napoleon III. During her studies her favorite subjects were Art History, Philosophy and, above all, Science. Later she took a particular interest in the memoirs of Einstein, who foresaw the possibility that, through the intuition of artists, abstract art would be able to express complex and hard to perceive interstellary relations. With her so called "Forme-Luce" (1949-1956) paintings she held her first personal exhibition in 1954 in Milano, where she met Lucio Fontana, who called her paintings “spatial art”. She became a member of the Movimento Arte Concreta – Gruppo Spaziale. In 1955 she held solo exhibitions in Florence, Venice, Rome and in the famous Duveen-Graham Gallery in Madison Ave, New York. Her work entered into important american collections and museums. Jung creates a second cycle, called "Tensioni Formative" (1958-1971), closely related to abstract expressionism and Cobra. The artist states that the “Forme-Luce” and “Tensioni Formative” series represent the moments “before” and “after” the creation of earth respectively, hereby referring to the theories of Plato. In 1961 Jung paints "Idea Materia no 19 - The Beginning" for the White House after the election of JFK. After moving to San Francisco, the artist starts a new cycle of works entitled "Homo Novus" (1972-1979), symbolizing the human being turning into a robot. By the end of the seventies, she again altered her style, starting the "Elountha” series inspired by the fishing village in Eastern Crete. Although her work has been crystallized in various distinct periods, they are in fact organically linked by a slow natural evolution. Works of Simonetta Jung are found in European and American private collections and museums : Columbia University, NY, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, Stanford University Museum, CA, Brandeis University Museum, MA, The White House, Washington D.C., Nelson-Atkins Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Notre Dame Museum of Art, Southbend (Indiana), Providence College, Massachusets, New Museum, Tel-Aviv etc...
A fine book about Simonetta Jung by art historian Serge Goyens de Heusch was published in 1981.
Main solo exhibitions at Galleria Schettini, Milano, Galleria del Cavallino, Venice and at Galleria Schneider, Roma (1954), Duveen-Graham Gallery, New York (1955), Galerie Veranneman Brussels (1970), Wiles Gallery, San Francisco (1971), Galleria Nuovo Sagittario, Milano (1976), Galerie Armorial (Serge Goyens de Heusch) Brussels (1979), Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas Antwerp (1980), Unesco House Paris (1984), Group 2 Gallery Brussels (1996).

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