Ettore Spalletti was born in Cappelle sul Tavo (Pescara) where he spent his whole life. He began his career when Arte Povera was revolutionizing visual culture in Italy and beyond. Spalletti developed a singular, solitary voice and a resultant body of work that exceeds any movement that circumscribes an artist to regional or ideological boundaries. Spalletti’s formal vocabulary had always melded and balanced painting and sculpture, form and color, interior and exterior space. Each work was the result of a meditative but rigorous process of applying a layer of color at the same time of each day, to capture a specific tone that recalls an hour, a season, and the weather.
In 2014, a major retrospective was presented simultaneously at three Italian museums: the GAM, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, in Turin; at the MAXXI - National Museum of 21st-Century Arts, Rome; and at the MADRE, Donnaregina Museum of Contemporary Art, Naples. This project envisioned a single major exhibition unfolding from the north to the south of Italy, as if the museums were Italy itself and the three cities were the rooms of this museum.
Other notable institutional solo exhibitions include: yu-un, Tokyo, Japan (2024); Magazzino Italian Art, Cold Spring, New York (2023); Galleria Nazionale d'arte moderna e contemporanea, Rome, Italy (2021); Nouveau Musee National d Monaco, Monaco, France (2019); Palazzo Cini, Venice (2015). Other notable solo exhibitions include GNAM – Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome (2010); Académie de France, Villa Medici, Rome (2006); the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (2005); Castello di Rivoli - Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli, Turin (2004); Fundación la Caixa, Madrid (2000); Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg (1998); MUHKA – Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp (1995); and Museum Folkwang, Essen (1982).
Spalletti had participated in the Venice Biennale (1982, 1993, 1995 and 1997) and documenta VII (1982), documenta IX (1992).
In 2010, Spalletti was the recipient of the Terna Prize for Contemporary Art.
Notable permanent installations include: the Salle des departs (1996) for the Hôpital Raymond Poincaré in Garches near Paris; Collection, Landscape, Obayashi Corporation, Tokyo (1998); Necessity of Movement and Contemplation, Yokohama Island Tower, Yokohama (2003); Fountain, Palace of Justice, Pescara (2004); and the Chapel (2016), created in collaboration with architect Patrizia Leonelli Spalletti for the Villa Serena Nursing Home in Città Sant’Angelo, Pescara.