Walter Guadagnini
Walter Guadagnini was born in Cavalese (TN) in 1961. He graduated in Modern Literature from the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy at the University of Bologna in 1985, with a thesis on the History of Contemporary Art.
He lives and works in Bologna, where he has held a chair in Contemporary Art History at the Academy of Fine Arts since 1992. Since 2011 he has held the chair of History of Photography.
From 1995 to 2005 he directed the Galleria Civica of Modena, where he realized and curated among others the exhibitions “Pop Art UK – 1956-1968,” “Pop Art Italy – 1958-1968,” “Allen Jones,” “Peter Phillips,” “Mel Ramos,” Allan D’Arcangelo,” “Domenico Gnoli.”
From 1995 to 2003 directed the international event “Modena for Photography”
President from 2004 to 2015 of the Scientific Commission of the “UniCredit and Art” project.
Since 2016 he is Director of CAMERA – Italian Center for Photography in Turin, where he curates among others the exhibitions “Magnum’s Italy”, “Arrivano i Paparazzi” (with F.Zanot), “Camera Pop – Photography in the Pop Art of Warhol, Schifano & Co”, “Wo-Man Ray”, “The Bertero Collection”, “Paolo Ventura”.
From 2015 to 2017 he is part of the Scientific Committee of the Festival “Fotografia Europea” in Reggio Emilia, with Elio Grazioli and Diane Dufour.
Since 2018 he has been Artistic Director of the “Fotografia Europea” Festival of Reggio Emilia. Since 2021 he is joined by Diane Dufour and Tim Clark and since 2022 by Tim Clark and Luce Lebart.
Since 2021 he has been a member of the Scientific Committee of the Alinari Foundation for Photography in Florence.
In 2007 he curated the exhibition ” Pop Art! 1956-1968″ at the Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome.
In 2007 he is Commissaire Unique for the Italian section within “Paris Photo”
In 2008 he curates (together with Francesco Zanot) “Faces -Ritratti nella fotografia del XX secolo” at Fondazione Ragghianti, Lucca
In 2009 curates the exhibition “Past Present Future – Highlights from the UniCredit Group Collection” at Kunstforum, Vienna (then Palazzo della Ragione, Verona, and Yapi Kredi Cultural Center, Istanbul, 2010)
In 2011 he curated the exhibitions “Things are queer” at the MARTa Museum in Herford and “People and the City” at the Winzavod Centre for Contemporary Art in Moscow (then COCA, Torun, 2012)
In 2013 he curated the exhibition “Andy Warhol – An American History” at Palazzo Blu in Pisa (with C.Ceppi Zevi).
In 2013 he curated the group exhibitions “Unstable Territories – Boundaries and Identity in Contemporary Art” at CCC Strozzina in Florence (with F.Nori) and “The Great Magic” at MAMbo in Bologna (with G.Maraniello).
In 2014, he curated the exhibition “Facts and Fictions” at MAMM in Moscow.
In 2015, he curates “Questa è guerra !” at the Palazzo del Monte di Pietà in Padua.
In the same year he curates the exhibition “Gabriele Basilico – I listen to your heart, city” at UniCredit Pavillion in Milan.
In 2016 he curates “Italia Pop – Art in the boom years” at the Magnani Rocca Foundation in Mamiano di Traversetolo.
In 2018 he curates “Roy Lichtenstein and American Pop Art” at the Magnani Rocca Foundation in Mamiano di Traversetolo.
In 2021 he curates “The Families of Man” at the Regional Archaeological Museum of Aosta (with E.Grazioli).
In 2021 he curates “Being Human” at the Chiostri di San Domenico in Forlì.
In 2022 he curates “Paolo Pellegrin” at the Gallerie d’Italia in Turin.
In 2022 he curates “Photographs!” at Villa Bardini and Forte di Belvedere in Florence (with E.Sesti).
In 2022 he curates “Lucio Fontana – Self-Portrait. Works 1931-1967” at the Magnani Rocca Foundation in Mamiano di Traversetolo (with G.Marcone and S.Roffi)
In 2022 he curates “Anton Corbijn” at the E.Art.h. Foundation in Verona.
In 2023 he curates “Man Ray – Works 1912 – 1975” at Palazzo Ducale in Genoa (with G. Pazzola).
In 2000 he published the volume “Photography” for the publisher Zanichelli, Bologna.
In 2004 he edited the volume “Domenico Gnoli – Letters and writings” for Abscondita Editore, Milan.
In 2007 he published the volume “100 – Photography in one hundred images” for Motta Editore, Milan
In 2010 he published “A history of photography of the 20th and 21st centuries” for Zanichelli publisher, Bologna
In 2015 he published “Tales from the darkroom,” Skira, Milan.
He is editor of the publishing project “la Fotografia”, in 4 volumes (“Le origini, 1839-1890”, “Una nuova visione del mondo, 1891-1940”, “Dalla stampa al museo, 1941-1980”, “L’età contemporanea 1981-2013”) published from 2011 to 2014 by Skira publishing house, Italian and English editions.
In 2022 he published “Photography. 200 years of history and images,” Edizioni di Gallerie d’Italia/Skira, Milan
He collaborated from 1995 to 2003 as an art critic with the newspaper “La Repubblica.”
From 2006 to 2021 he was responsible for the photography section of “Il Giornale dell’Arte.”
From 2008 to 2009 he was co-director of the magazine “FMR – Bianca”.
