Alison Jacques announces representation of the Estate of Bona de Mandiargues (b.1926, Rome; d.2000, Paris).

Bona de Mandiargues is considered a central artist within the Surrealist movement. In recent years, de Mardiargues has been the subject of renewed curatorial interest and international recognition, following her first institutional retrospective at the Nivola Museum in Sardinia (2022). Her work is currently on view at the 60th Venice Biennale ‘Foreigners Everywhere’, curated by Adriano Pedrosa (until 24 November 2024) and ‘Surréalisme’ at Centre Pompidou, Paris (until 13 January 2025).

De Mandiargues lived in Italy, before moving to Paris in 1947. Aged 6, her family moved from the Italian countryside to Modena. She described the move from rural surroundings to city life as traumatic, and she began to draw in response to this change in her environment. De Mandiargues went on to study at Accademia di Belle Arti, Venice, where her uncle, the poet and artist Filippo de Pisis (1896-1956) became her mentor. In Venice, she was introduced to influences she carried with her throughout her career; from the early Christian mosaics of Ravenna, the late medieval and early Renaissance painting from the Sienese and Ferrarese schools, to the Surrealists including Giorgio de Chirico.

Alison Jacques will present a solo exhibition of Bona de Mandiargues' work in 2025.

artwork: Bona de Mandiargues, Senza titolo, 1980 © Estate of Bona de Mandiargues