This catalog has been created consulting the files written and constantly updated by Vanni’s lifetime partner Frances Gay. In some instances, the artist provided the information that was not in the files, but, given that the source was memory and not documents, there might be some inaccuracies. We welcome any contribution by his collectors to help us correct them.
All critical entries in this Catalogue Raisonné are the result of extensive discussions with the Artist who provided a unique insight to understand his creative process and the evolution of his artistic career. These comments end with Tale of all Tales, the largest painting Vanni ever created. We believe that, although after that opus he created several more outstanding artworks, his creative process was completely established and didn’t need further commentary. The only writing we have included beyond that painting have been what Vanni wrote about some artworks for a show in 2015, recognizable by G. B. Vanni’s name under them.
We have taken the decision, in agreement with the Artist, to include in this catalog a few artworks that were rework on at a later date. The requisite for the inclusion is that they had been titled and exhibited, which proves that Vanni considered them accomplished at that time. We believe that the subsequent change does not imply automatically the lack of validity of the first version, rather that he saw in them the potential for developing new compositions. We believe that to have access to the first version constitutes an important insight of his creative process.
There are some artworks, mainly dating from the fifties and sixties, where there was just a written record to document them. In some other instances we just found a transparency to document an artwork. We hope that we will have the opportunity to reconcile these entries with the contribution of Vanni’s collectors.
Whenever we did not have a title for an artwork, we decided to just write Title Missing in square brackets, because we believe that Untitled has become a title in its own right. In the cases were Vanni attributed successive titles to the same artworks we have used the latest one, documenting the previous ones in the notes.
If you own an artwork by Gian Berto Vanni that you have not found in this catalog please send an high resolution digital image of the work along with title, medium, measurements, and provenance information to ruggero@rvanni.com. We will examine the material and, if we confirm that the work has been created by Gian Berto Vanni, we will include it in the catalog and send you a certificate of autenticity for your records.