Biography in brief.

A summary of Renato Meneghetti's career from 1947 to today — dates, works and essential references.

SECTION 01

1947 — 1969

Origins and training.

Renato Meneghetti was born in Rosà (Vicenza) on 19 March 1947. He began painting as a child under the guidance of Guglielmo Baggio. Between 1962 and 1965 he worked as a barman in Rosà and Bassano to pay for his materials, qualified as a technical draughtsman, made his first wire sculptures («Don Quixote 900», 1963) and held his first solo show — Monotypes — at the C.A.B. of Bassano (1964). In 1968, during military service in Pavia, he completed the «Phagocytes» cycle and was introduced to Lucio Fontana, who dedicated a signed critical essay to him.

SECTION 02

1970 — 1978

Design, architecture, dissent.

He founded DDD Design with Tiziano Zen (furniture and objects such as «Maitresse» and «Cubo»). In 1972 he designed and built the «Luigi Bonfanti» Automobile Museum in Romano d'Ezzelino and opened the MRP advertising agency. In protest against the art market he signed his work «MR il fagocitato», bought back his early works and chose to exhibit only in public venues. In 1977 he closed the «Phagocytes» cycle and moved into the Fortezza dell'Ezzelino, which became his new studio.

SECTION 03

1979 — 1982

Prime Radiografie su tela emulsionata · 1979

The radiographic plate.

In 1979, following a family event, he produced his first works on x-ray plates («Phagocytic astralization»). In the following two years he composed «Insania» at the Centro di Sonologia Computazionale of the University of Padua, work that brought him in 1982 to the Venice Biennale Musica («International Computer Music Conference»). In the same years he began the film «Divergenze Parallele».

SECTION 04

1983 — 2000

«Radiografie 1982-1997», Palazzo Sarcinelli · 1997

Cinema, exhibitions, first monographs.

In 1983 «Divergenze Parallele» was presented at the 40th Venice International Film Festival, De Sica section. In 1997 he exhibited «Radiografie 1982-1997» at Palazzo Sarcinelli in Conegliano (curated by Marco Goldin, Marsilio monograph); the same year he won the top prizes at the II Malta Biennale. In 1999 Vittorio Sgarbi curated the Skira monograph «Meneghetti — Painting and other Arts 1954-1999». In 2000 two major retrospectives: «On the edge of the third millennium» at the Palazzo della Ragione in Padua and «Beyond the eye: x-rays 1979-2000» at the Mole Vanvitelliana in Ancona, curated by Gillo Dorfles.

SECTION 05

2001 — 2011

«Sottopelle — Il Cristo morto del Mantegna in x-ray», 54ª Biennale · 2011

Rome, the Biennales, the Old Masters.

In 2001 a solo show at the San Fedele Centre in Milan. In 2003 Skira published Gillo Dorfles's monograph «Meneghetti. The body as time. The body as place» and the artist took part in the 50th Venice Biennale. In 2006 «Meneghetti in Rome — works 2000-2006», curated by Achille Bonito Oliva, occupied four venues in the city (Palazzo Venezia, Santo Spirito in Sassia, Sala 1, Central State Archive). In 2007 he was made Cavaliere al merito of the Italian Republic. From 2008 he developed the «Old Masters in x-ray» cycle. In 2010 he took part in the 12th Architecture Biennale; in 2011, on Vittorio Sgarbi's invitation, in the 54th Art Biennale with «Sottopelle — The Dead Christ by Mantegna in x-ray» (Tesa 99 of the Arsenale Novissimo).

SECTION 06

2012 — present

«Guardare dentro per vedere oltre», Santa Maria in Monte Santo · 2012

Rome, public collections, recent work.

Between 2012 and 2013 Francesco Buranelli curated «Looking inside to See beyond — the Dead Christ by Mantegna» at Santa Maria in Monte Santo in Rome and exhibitions dedicated to Caravaggio and to John Paul II. In 2016 the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York acquired video-art, monographs and catalogues for the Thomas J. Watson Library. In 2023 works entered the collections of «Quirinale contemporaneo», the Italian Embassy to the Holy See and the Veneto Region. Between 2024 and 2025 he took part in exhibitions in Rialto, Vimercate, Sandrigo and Milan and produced twelve works for the film «Aurora» by Stoev and Boshnakov.

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