Biography

Franco Bonetti was born in Florence in 1958.

He moved to Reggio Emilia in 1968 and studied at the Institute of Arte "G. Chierici". In 1977 he went to Marche where he studied etching with Silvano Silvani. In 1979 he entered Teatro Municipale in Reggio Emilia where he had the opportunity to collaborate with famous directors and designers: Sandro Sequi, Luca Ronconi, Rouben Ter-Arutunian, Kuetoslau Bubenik, Pierre Simonini, Pier Luigi Pizzi and Wolf Seigfried Wagner. In this period he became interested in stage designing. In 1982 and 1984, for the Minimo Theatre, he designed sets and costumes for  "Scheletro d'amore" and "Barbara dei Bassi" by Ludovico Parenti. Also in 84 and 85 he collaborated with the staging of "La pazzia Senile" and "La saviezza giovenile" by Adriano Banchieri at Teatro Municipale directed by Ivo Guerra and "Altri Libertini" from the book by Pier Vittorio Tondelli (Directed by Gianfranco Zanetti).

In the meantime he met Primo Conti, in 1984 collaborated with Aligi Sassu on a portfolio of etchings entitled "Tra mito e fantasia". In 1987 e 1988 together with artists from Genoa presented an exhibition at Teatro Municipale and Teatro dell'Opera di Genoa entitled "Magia del teatro". In the same year he began working on a cycle of paintings and etchings  on the works of the poet Torquato Tasso entitled "Tassesca", which he presented in Ferrara and Genoa. In 1989 designed the sets and costumes for the play "La luna di Plauto" by the company "La Quinta del Sordo". In 1991 in Reggio Emilia and Genoa presented the exhibition "Tra il chiarore degli eventi" and in 1992 "Jacopone" for the comune of Todi, followed by "Fragmenta" in 1993 for Reggio Emilia and the museum of Modern Art Abano Terme. In the same period was asked to exhibit again "Tassesca" under the auspices of the council of minister in Naples. The next year at the Grand Hotel Des Bains in Riccione presented Riviere/Reveries. In may on 1996 at "The O'Keefe center", Toronto exhibited "The wine and the roses" inspired by William Shakespeare. The exhibition was a fund raiser for the national ballet of Canada and the introduction in the catalogue was written by Glen Tetley. In September of the same year he designed the sets and costumes for the play "Edipo nei dialoghi con Leucò" by Cesare Pavese. The play was presented for the Autumn festival in Vicenza at Teatro Olimpico and directed by Orlando Forioso. The scetches were subsequently shown under the title "Dialoghi con Pavese" in the Chiosto di San Domenico in Cagliari. In 1987 again in Torino exhibited "Against All flags" and in 1998 "Il Tour del Grand Tour" presented by Lucio Cabutti. In the same year was commissioned to paint two large Alter canvases for the new church, S. Giovanni in Bosco, in Reggio Emilia: also at this time the Modern Art Museum in Bologna acquired  a work. In 1998 he prepared the Exhibition "La carne, la morte il Principe" that was shown in Modena, Reggio Emilia and in the following year Turin. In 1999 presented an anthology  tracing a thousand years of literature from Dante to Bassani. The year ended with an exibition in Bologna Animula, Vagula, Blandula inspired by "Adriano's memories" written by Marguerite Yourcenar. In 2000, for the Credit Suisse, Lugano, he presented the Romanzo dei Finzi-Contini inspired by the novel of Giorgio Bassani. In 2003 for Maguerite Yourcenar's birth centenary the Ministero per i Beni e le Attivita' Culturali asked him to show the exibition "Segrete Memorie" in the archaeological site of Villa Adriana in Tivoli. The catalogue of the exibition was published by Acatos and  International Publishing in three languages.