Fabio Rieti

Fabio Rieti (1925-2020) is a painter, muralist, mosaicist, and artist of narrative Figuration of Italian origin, naturalized American and then French. Born in Rome in a family of intellectuals – his father is the composer Vittorio Rieti –, he leaves Italy with his family following fascist racial laws and settles in New York in 1940. He pursued artistic training with the painter Corrado Cagli, whose influence has remained a lasting mark on his approach to drawing, color, and composition.

After several years between the United States and Italy, Fabio Rieti permanently settles in Paris in 1957. He quickly joins the French art scene and draws close to artists of narrative Figuration, notably Gilles Aillaud, Eduardo Arroyo, Antonio Recalcati, Gérard Fromanger, and Francis Biras. His pictorial work is distinguished by a sensitive representation of the city, urban landscapes, architectures, interiors, and scenes of daily life. Through a subtle palette and a silent narration, he develops a painting where memory, observation, and poetry constantly dialogue.

In parallel with his easel work, Fabio Rieti becomes one of the great players in public art in France. In collaboration with the architect Émile Aillaud, he conceives vast programs of monumental frescoes, mosaics, trompe-l'œil, and colored interventions integrated into architecture. His works mark several emblematic urban ensembles, notably La Grande Borne in Grigny (1967-1971), La Noé in Chanteloup-les-Vignes, Les Courtillières in Pantin and Bobigny, the Pablo Picasso city in Nanterre, or several walls painted in Paris and the provinces. This reflection on color in public space constitutes an essential part of his artistic legacy.

His work is regularly exhibited in galleries and international institutions. Among his main exhibitions are the solo exhibitions at the Banfer Gallery in New York (1963), the Galleria Ottantotto in Rome (1963), the Maison de la Culture in Amiens (1972), the Galerie de l'Union des Peintres de Moscou (1974), the Galerie Detais in Paris (2015), as well as several posthumous exhibitions organized by the Galerie Sabine Bayasli, including the 2024 tribute. He also participates in major exhibitions such as The Obsessive Image 1960-1968 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London (1968), Prospect 68 at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (1968), Mythologies quotidiennes 2 at the Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris (1977), Pignons sur rues at the Hôtel de Ville de Paris (1983), L'éloge de la couleur at the Musée La Piscine de Roubaix (2020), as well as several exhibitions dedicated to narrative Figuration.

In 1965, Fabio Rieti participated with Gilles Aillaud, Eduardo Arroyo, Antonio Recalcati, Gérard Fromanger, and Francis Biras in the collective work Vivre et laisser mourir ou la Fin tragique de Marcel Duchamp, now housed at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid. In 1969, he created with Gilles Aillaud, Eduardo Arroyo, Francis Biras, and Lucio Fanti the installation La Datcha, which became an emblematic work of narrative Figuration. His work is today preserved in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, the Musée d'Art moderne de Paris, and the Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP). Following an exhibition organized in 2024 at the Galerie Sabine Bayasli, several works from his studio have also joined the collections of the Centre Pompidou, confirming the essential place of Fabio Rieti in the history of contemporary painting and monumental art in France.