Volf Roitman

Biography

Volf Roitman (1930 -)

Painter, sculptor, architect, Volf Roitman, sometimes referred as a Renaissance man, was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, of Russian/Romanian parents. He grew up in Argentina where he received a degree in architecture while co-editing a cult poetry magazine, and at age twenty, moved to Paris where, with Carmelo Arden Quin, founder of the Latin American art movement MADI, instantly morphed into a painter while helping to relaunch MADI, first in France and eventually across four continents. Still changing countries and cultures – he has lived in Spain, the U.K., Ireland, and presently outside of Tampa, Florida – and although presently distanced from the MADI movement official conservative views, he remains always faithful to its concepts of ludic invention and whimsical humor within the boundaries of colorful geometric abstraction. “Roitman is considered one of the great MADI creators. His disposition for aesthetic playfulness illustrates the very essence of the movement. Forms, colors, invention and imagination blend in a superabundance that alerts us to the existence of exceptional creation… …His sculptures - lamps, torches of the imagination – serve to corroborate the sense of liberty that runs through all of Madi creation"... (Documentarte, IberCaja, Zaragoza, Spain, September 2001).

Most recently, Roitman started to produce very large transformable wall hangings called Madi banners on silk, metal, and some of them applied on transparent surfaces glowing as stained glass windows. He has also taken his work to totally new dimensions by covering ordinary buildings, such as the Wood Building in Marshall, Texas (under construction), and the Madi Museum in Dallas with his vividly color, three-dimension panels, thus creating giant Madi “sculpture” pieces. Of the latter building, LA Weekly critic Peter Frank wrote, “The building … marks a landmark in recent history of art … Not since the Museum of non-Objective Art in New York morphed into the Guggenheim Museum more than half a century ago has there been anything like this in North America.”

Youth Years

In 1949, Roitman joined a group that had formed around Juan Jacobo Bajarlía’s “Contemporánea”, the only publication then defending avant-garde art in Argentina. After obtaining a first-level degree in architecture, and while working on various projects in and around Buenos Aires, Roitman decided to concentrate on painting and writing. With Raúl Gustavo Aguirre, he became co-director of the revue “Poesía Buenos Aires”, which, during the ‘50s, was the most important, if not the only, magazine in Argentina diffusing modern French poetry, and where Roitman published his own poems and essays on André Breton and Vicente Huidobro.

Early Years in Paris (1951-58)

In 1951, Roitman moved to Paris where he met the founder of the MADI movement, the Uruguayan master painter Carmelo Arden Quin. Following Roitman’s proposal, both artists created the MADI Research and Study Center (for experimental art), which functioned through the fifties in Arden Quin’s Montparnasse studio, an open workshop and research facility which significantly influenced the work of numerous European and North and South American artists then studying and working in the confines of the School of Paris. The Center promoted (1) non-figurative works with irregularly-shaped forms in flat, sharply defined colors; (2) the systemization of articulated, transformable and mechanized sculpture; and (3) an interdisciplinary approach to the arts first promoted by the Futurists but systemized, starting in the forties, by MADI and by other groups such as Fluxus. In the field of MADI sculpture, massive structures are replaced by a dynamic relationship between the lines and planes of solid forms and the openings with which these forms are pierced. Space thus becomes an integral and equally important part of the work MADI has proved itself to be the longest-running, continuously active art movement in the world. The entity which Arden Quin and Roitman formed in 1951 eventually evolved into MADI International,that today comprises some sixty artists working on four continents.

“Roitman navigated through the Parisian avant-garde scene of cafes, studios and galleries where he drew his main inspiration during those years from the Belgian master George Vantongerloo. Also, inspiring his research it could be add “the shock of having seen at the Paris Museum of Modern Art, Malevich’s 1915 seminal work Le Carré Blanc sur Fond Blanc. Already plunged into the worlds of Celtic myths, alchemy, and Zen Buddhism, Roitman believed that somewhere in this pale world of absent color, he might discover the absolute. From the beginning, his personal style involved a predominant use of circles, a complete break with Mondrian’s sacrosanct straight linear structures and his orthogonal rigidity, a heresy for which he, like Vantorgeloo would often be signaled out and, on occasion, rebucked.” (Shelley Goodman’s “When Art Jumped Out of its Cage,” a biography of Arden Quin,published by the MADI Museum of Dallas, 2004, where also it can be found an abondant documentation on Volf Roitman).

Roger Neyrat , a French artist and a veteran of MADI in the 50’s, still remembers: “I held this work (a Roitman’s painting, called “The Lost Triangle” -1953) above myself, ready to make it circulate among the few dozens of people assisting at my reading at Claude Dorval Gallery (1995)…It’s the most beautiful MADI work, repeated Carmelo several times. We haven’t ever gone so far in our abstract works!” Roger Neyrat pursues: “But beginning in 1956, Roitman initiated a series of more complex compositions where the design became more dynamic, the curves more playful and dancing. Two years later, in New York, this process led to his series of “Memories of Balanchine” (1958-1960), real MADI ballets…A pure joy and an example for new generations. There is so much of joyful emotion on these works, a rare gift even with the great abstract masters. Roitman has gone even further!”

During this period, Roitman’s paintings were exhibited at the following venues:

Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Paris: 1952 – 53 – 54 – 55 -56.Galerie Suzanne Michel, Paris, February 1953Cercle Paul Valéry, La Sorbonne, Paris, June 15, 1953.Galerie de l’Odéon, Paris february 1954.Galerie Cimaise, in the show « 14 Abstract Artistes », Paris, January 1955acquis les bases solides de l’évolution picturale qui se manifestait alors. In November, 1955, Volf Roitman’s exhibition at the Galérie de Beaune in Paris constituted the first solo show by a MADI artist in Europe. Galerie Denise René, Paris, a group show in April 1956.

From 1961 to 1982, Roitman consecrated himeself mainly to litterature and other creative activities. See further below "The Renaissance Man"

The Var – Barcelona – 1979 - 1998

In 1979, although retaining his near Paris residence until 1984, Roitman starts progressively to live most of the year in Montauroux, a picturesque village in the Var, behind the French Riviera.

In 1982, Roitman produced his first 3-dimensional collages.

The same year, from Feb. 12 to March 10, the Espace Donguy, Paris, presented Mouvances Madi, Lieu 5, a group of artists which included works by Roitman, together with A.Q. Nunez, Neyrat, Alocco, Asis, Belleudy, Blaine, Bory, Chubac, Fejer, Monticelli, Vardánega. This exhibition marked the beginning of Roitman’s return to the visual arts, even though he was also still writing and working in the film business. Since then, Roitman's work has been featured in over 100 MADI group and one-man shows, gallery and museum exhibitions, art fairs and auctions on four continents. Among the most important shows and events:

Nov 4 – 30, 1984: Exhibition of Arte Madi, 1946-1984, Attualita de un Movimento, variation on the de la Salle show in Oct., held at Il Salotto Gallerie d’Arte, Como, Italy. Manifesto called Perchè Arte Madi written by Salvador Presta and signed by A.Q., Presta, de la Salle, Roitman and Esposito.

April 1991: Inauguration of Arte Concreto Invención, Arte Madi, an important historical book and retrospective organized by Miklos von Bartha at the Haus für Konstructive und Konkrete Kunst in Zurich, Switzerland. Madi historical artists in show are Arden Quin, Volf Roitman, Juan Bay, Martín Blaszko, Gyula Kosice, and Rhod Rothfuss. April 1991: Inauguration of Arte Concreto Invención, Arte Madi, an important historical book and retrospective organized by Miklos von Bartha at the Haus für Konstructive und Konkrete Kunst in Zurich, Switzerland. Madi historical artists in show are Arden Quin, Volf Roitman, Juan Bay, Martín Blaszko, Gyula Kosice, and Rhod Rothfuss.

April 1992 : Abstraction Geometrique show at the Galerie de la Salle, St-Paul-de-Vence. Participants are Arden Quin, Bolivar, Chubac, Demarco, Garcia-Rossi, Lapeyrère, Melé, Poirot-Matsuda, Faucon, Belleudy, Caporicci, Desserprit, Le Cousin, Nemours, Presta, Blaszko, Caral, Decq, Girodon, Jonquière, Leppien, Piemonti, Sobrino, and Roitman, who is now working full-time on his paper collages and starting to apply the same three-dimensional principles of his collages to his first metal work, reliefs and sculpture pieces. From this period on, he will again show his work on a regular basis with the Madistes.

In 1992 , Roitman became both head of Communication and Archivist for the MADI Movement. He holded this charge until 2005.

April 1993 : One-man show of Roitman’s recent decoupages and his historical pieces from the fifties inaugurated at the St. Charles de Rose Gallery in Paris, and from Mai 7 to June 5 at the Helios Gallery in Calais, France. From June 10 to September 15, 1993: Roitman is one of the most active organizers of a Madi show organized from at the Chateau St-Cirq-Lapopie (Lot), France, a space formerly devoted to André Breton and the Surrealists, with 40 Madi artists participating. Painting, sculpture and poetic acts.

April 9, 1994: Inauguration of the one-man show Volf Roitman, Obras Madi at Centro de Arte La Rectoria, St-Pere-de-Vilamajor (Greater Barcelona), Spain, curated by Josep Plandiura. A room at the show is devoted to an introduction of the Madi concept to the Spanish public, and it was here that Roitman first showed his Proteus sculptures – cardboard decoupages encased in molded plastic *frames and suspended from large metal stands.

1995:

June 8 – July, 1995: In duo with Carmelo Arden Quin: 44 Ans Après, exhib. at Claude Dorval Gallery, Paris. Show commemorates meeting in Paris, 44 years earlier, of Arden Quin and Roitman and their founding of the Madi Research and Study Center in Arden Quin’s Montparnasse studio. A conference, attended by Tomás Maldonado, founder of the Argentine movement, Asociación Arte Concreto-Invención, and a former member of Madi Argentina, is given by Roger Neyrat and Volf Roitman in the Dorval gallery on June 18th.

Oct. 6: Inauguration of Continuidad Madi show at the Centoira Gallery in Buenos Aires together with works by A.Q., Blaszko, Bolivar, Laperèyre.

Oct. 30 – Dec. 30: Madi, Anterioridad y Continuidad MADI exhib. at Museo Torres-García, Montevideo, Uruguay. Historical and recent works with Arden Quin and Bolivar.

1996:

March 7 – April 3: Madi Internacional, 50 Ans Despuès, a groundbreaking international exhib. curated by Cesar Lopez-Osornio and shown at the Centro de Exposiciónes y Congresos of the Ibercaja Bank in Zaragoza, Spain. Roitman, writes the historical section of the catalogue and the Madi chronology, and he shows his works with 56 Madi artists from France, Belgium, Italy, Hungary, Spain, Japan, Argentina, Venezuela, United States and Uruguay included in this show, which officially introduces Madi art in Spain.

March 28 – May 10: Inauguration of Madi: Dopo Il Rettancolo show at Arte Struktura Gallery in Milan focused on the works of 3 Madi artists: Arden Quin, Presta and Roitman. September 20, at the Albuquerque Museum, Roitman gave a conference in which he introduced his philosophy of Madi-Ludico architecture, the ideas for which grew out of his works with 3-dimensional collages and laser-cut sculpture: “Strictly polygonal design of asymmetric façades …geometric forms with sharply defined colors and contours, tri-dimensional surfaces, a clearly “ludico” (playful) spirit…the same basic computer program can produce an almost inexhaustible series of different exterior panels. This system provides us with the means to overthrow the tyranny of the module which has, with few exceptions, ruled architecture from the time of ancient Egypt…” The same day,in the same city, he inaugurated a solo show at the Arte Struktura Gallery . In October, 1996, Roitman obtained a commission to design and build a model for his project of a Madi-Ludico building designated for a site in downtown Dallas.

1997:

June 30 to Oct. 20: “Arte Madi,” vast retrospective curated by Maria-Lluisa Borràs for Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, with 300-page catalogue in Spanish and English chronicling Madi history from its origins to the movement’s present activities on 4 continents. Historical works by Roitman from the fifties and 2 contemporary sculpture pieces. In addition, an entire room at the Reina Sofía is devoted to a Roitman architectural model – his vision of a Madi building “where constant interplays of light and shadow situated the edifice in a chimerical constructivist category … a game of spatial echoes”. Extracts of Roitman “Manifesto in favor of a Madi-Ludico Architecture” were published in the 300 page catalogue

Sept 26 to Oct. 31: Hors Cadre, exhibit of the works of Arden Quin and Volf Roitman, curated by Roberto Vignola for the Galerie Alexandre Mottier in Geneva.Da Madi à Madi, vast retrospective held at the Civica Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Gallarate (Greater Milan), Italy, curated by Emma Zanella Manara and Anna Canali and featuring works of 44 artists working today in Madi International and a historical section spotlighting the works of Arden Quin, Blaszko, Presta and Roitman. This Milan contemporary museum has since opened a new wing designed to display its permanent collection of Madi works.

Between Florida and West Cork (1998- )

Since 1998, Roitman works out of studios in Tampa, Florida and West Cork, Ireland. In November 1999, he presented a solo show at the Sarasota Visual Art Center, about which the renowned art critic Marcia Corbino wrote: “The Sarasota Visual Art center has mounted a Madi festival which may earn the Arts Center a niche in the history of 20th century art.” One month later, Roitman unveiled a large metal wall relief commisioned by the Palmer Foundation of Houston, for the north wall of the Sarasota Center. Roitman originated and helped to organize the first North American exhibition exclusively devoted to MADI: “Outside the Box: Eleven International Madi Artists Featuring Carmelo Arden Quin and Volf Roitman From the Masterson and Lenherr Collections,” shown at the Polk Museum in Lakeland, Florida from August to October 2001 and at the Gulf Coast Museum in Largo,Florida, from November to January, 2002.

From Nov 9, 2002 to January 5, 2003 “Heart and Mind – The Art of Volf Roitman,” featured at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, Saint-Petersburg College, Tarpon Springs, Florida.Starting in January 2002 , he created the entrance facades of the MADI Museum and was named its Artistic Director. The Museum and Gallery in the Uptown quarter of Dallas was inaugurated February 22, 2003.The building’s two principal facades were completely transformed by two-store high sculptural works specially created by Roitman during a fifteen-month period – asymmetrical pieces of the bright colors, drenched in ludic or whimsical cuts and folds and bolted to a mirrored background. This lightning bolt transformation of a pedestrian office building into a sculptural work is considered by Roitman to be the culmination of his own life devoted entirely to the arts. For the Museum’s opening exhibition, a cornucopia of Roitman works was also on show – a mechanized moving tower, an explanatory mechanized sculpture entitled “What Is Madi?”, a wall of metal and Plexiglas “portholes,” his abstract and stylized version of “the Movies,” and other important pieces. Roitman also designed the museum’s interior, including the transformation of an interior wall of the building’s great hall into a unique sculptural piece of color and metal decoupages.

Roitman was also the Artistic Director from the inauguration until the mid 2005. From July 9 to August 20, 2006, The Leepa-Rattner Museum, Tarpon Springs, Florida, presented “The Moving MADI World of Volf Roitman” (The Roitman Gallery provides the real playground” (Lennie Bennet in the Saint Petersburg Times of July 9, 2006.)

The Renaissance Man

Theatre, Litterature and Movies

“As both an artist and a man, Uruguayan-born,Argentine-educated, and Parisian-nurtured Volf Roitman is as difficult to seize as a woodland faun; as impossible to define as the multi-faceted, constantly changing kinetic sculptures".

Since his childhood, Roitman was attracted by the arts. Child-actor, he played in radio theater and recited poems for the benefit of the Allies during the Second World War. From 1946 to 1950, was member of theatre groups “Tinglado” and “La Cima.”Roitman began his professional life prosaically enough as a Buenos Aires architectural student. With degree in hand, however, he quickly morphed into a poet, acting as the co-editor of a cutting-edge magazine called Poesía Buenos Aires. Still only 21 and sponsored by the French Embassy in Buenos Aires, he next found himself on a liner bound for France. Architecture, poetry and theater were cast to the ocean winds. Once in Paris, he decided, he would perfect his French at the Sorbonne and become a novelist as famous as Sartre or Camus, with the vitriol of Alfred Jarry thrown in for good measure. Fate in the form of fellow Uruguayan Carmelo Arden Quin would decide otherwise. Although master painter Arden Quin was 18 years older than his newest protégé, the duo soon functioned as complementary pieces of an avant-garde puzzle. Starting at the end of the 60s, MADI zigzagged in and out of Roitman’s life; on occasion, he wrote the prefaces for Arden Quin shows and mulled over the idea of making collages. Mostly, however, he returned to writing – turning out plays, novels and satirical political pamphlets. His childhood and teen’s love for the theatre stroked again and he wrote from 1956 to 1958 two experimental plays: CESQUETUCROY and THE PROFESSOR OMNIUM. About these works, André Breton, wrote ”As much on the dramatic as the poetic level, your creation has made me discover a spring of utter beauty, one which id both wonderfully enveloped and ‘effervescently new.’”During a three-year stint in the United States, from 1958 to the end of 1960 he and his first wife Rita Parr formed the Ion Theatre Group. At the Orpheum Theater in New York, in October 1960, Roitman produced the prelude to his quirky MADI play THASWACHUTHINK! His New York paintings, including the series of Memory of Balanchine, the last visual works he produced until 1982, were shown in the hall of the theater.

(Certain scenes of play THASWACHUTHINK were staged once more , by Diana Forgioni, at the Leepa Rattner Museum in July of 2006.)

All the above, added to his relentless skewing of the politically correct should have been enough for Roitman? Hardly.”

Following his return to Paris, at the end of 1960, and until 1970, Roitman supported his artistic activities by forming a company specialized in model-making and design and installation of booths. He built for the 20th Century film “The Longest Day” three models reproducing the Normandy’s beaches and villages where took place the Eisenhower’s Army invasion, and later, some of the largest (up to 55 square meters) architectural projects of this period.

In 1962, under the pseudonym Alvar Dazil, published the novel “The Liquid Wall”, dealing with the plight of European refugees in South America after World War.The same year, Roitman and Arden Quin launched “Ailleurs” (8 issues until 1966) a French revue which published the latest in experimental art; and in the seventies, he also became involved in Parisian avant-garde film and literature.

In 1969, under the pseudonym Guillaume Roux, wrote the play “Blue Like An Orange,” a prize-winner in the 1969 Enghien (France) Dramatic Art Competition.

In 1972, again under the pseudonym Guillaume Roux, published the novel “The Amerloques” (The Yanks), a story of expatriate Americans in Paris, Presses de la Cité, Paris.From 1970 to 1982, together with his second wife Shelley Goodman, he was director of their film company Sheltrie Productions. An eclectic cinematographic career (productions of short films, script writing, introduction into France of films from Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Iran, Kuwait, etc, distribution; owner of a 2-screen art house in the Beaubourg section of Paris)

1981: Publish “Don Quichotte and Sancho Pança in Feudal Country”, a pamphlet that became famous in the cinema profession, where Roitman denounced the abuses of the monopolistic cinema system of distribution circuits:“A Pamphlet signed Roitman… tells the conflict between the two enemy brothers of the cinema : those who believe at movies and those who believe at movies houses as a fairy tale. Fairy tales are gentle, even when they are very mean.” (Le Film Français, Sept. 11 1981) “this pamphlet full of indignation but lively and precise is damning …it seems is under study of the Commission of the Cinema Reform (Serge Daney, Liberation Oct. 2, 1981) “Roitman ends firmly: The strength must come from the movies and not from the owners of movie circuits theaters.” (The Nouvel Observateur, Oct. 19,1981)Roitman succeeded to indict the 4 big French Circuits of Cinema Theaters “because abuse of dominating position”:“February 8, four enraged men left Judge Jean-Louis Delahaye office … four men who are used to make their own law in the French Cinema…one’s imagine a posthumous Inspector Closeau, delighted to have caught all these big shots…”(Serge Daney, Liberation Feb, 14, 1983)But Judge Jean-Louis Delahaye was promoted a week before the pleading should take place. The new judge dismissed the plaint. And the expected cinema reform ended by the nomination of a commission to protect the independent cinema presided… by the main owners of the big cinema monopoles.

In 1985, under the pseudonym Dupond Dupont, he publish another pamphlet: “D’Où Vient la M…” ( From Where the Sh…is Coming.) Roitman, invoking illustrious examples as Rabelais, uses the entire word. “This humanist opposed to all racism and to all intolerance , who knows perfectly the cinema profession, crunchs acidly the government action in this field…” (Infra-Red Irony by Renaud Matignon, in Le Figaro, Nov. 6 1985.)Using the pseudonym Shelley V. Ashley, collaborated with Shelley Goodman on various novels. Among them “The Oriole’s Nest”, an erotic tale (1987) and “ The Peacocks”, a philosophical thriller (1989) Editions Balland, France, and translated in Spanish, the first by Martinez-Roca and the second by Planeta, in Barcelona (Spain.)

Return To Visual Arts

Finally (if there is finality to this story,) the siren song of MADI called again. All of Roitman’s frenzied activity gradually gelled into an enduring passion for a particular style of architectural sculpture where each morsel of his pastexperience found its niche. Starting with a two-dimensional surface and using only a box-cutter and his own dexterity, he arrived at three-dimensionality – complex abstract sculpture pieces formed from a single sheet of paper. On the surface, this cutout and folded work from the early 80s and 90s might seem derivative of Japanese origami, but in reality its complex and whimsical nature is closer to children’s pop-up books of the Victorian era.

The magic of laser cutting soon led to metal sculptures so delicately and intricately delineated that they were often mistaken for the paper collages that had preceded them since ten years before. Roitman’s obsessions with asymmetry and the ludic o whimsical also found their way into MADI new concepts that he kept mastering and lead to his kinetic pieces he showed at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art in 2002 and 2006…rotational towers and mural works, as geometric in form as sea anemones, swaying and grasping to the rhythm of unseen currents while curious organic parts open and close…The spectator has no need to walk around these sculptures; every facet will be revealed as color-drenched undulating forms change with each 360 degree turn the piece.

Roitman’s interests in literature, cinema and politics also came together in his newest Project – large MADI “books” dedicated to The Celebration of Dissent, with Mae Westand Groucho Marx sharing places of honor with other revolutionaries – the serious and the less so.” (Shelley Goodman, “The Moving MADI world of Volf Roitman, 2006.)

Other Exhibits and Events

- In June 1983: Showing of works of Madi group, including those of Roitman, at the Espace Donguy, Paris.

- From Sept. 28 to Oct. 30, 1984: Exhibition Madi Maintenant, Sortie du Rectangle at Galerie de la Salle, St-Paul-de-Vence, France, with other Madi artists.

- In December 1984: Participated in Madi, storia di un movimento, at the Luisella d’Alessandro Arte Contemporanea, Turin, Italy.

- From January 4 to february 2, 1985, Roitman shows his works in another Madi exhibition at the Espace Donguy, Paris.with other 26 Madi artists.

- From 4 to 30 April, 1992: Mouvement Madi shows at Helios Galleries in Calais and in Avignon, France.

- From Nov. 17 to Dec. 31, 1992: Art Construit Actuel, Amerique Latine exhib. at the Gal. St Charles de Rose, Paris including works by Roitman.- IDEM at La Comité d’Enterprise de la Compagnie Française d’Assurance Pour le Commerce Exterieur, La Defense, Paris. - IDEM at Galerie Art Mouvement, Paris

- From Nov 13 to Jan. 9, 1993,participated in Diversités Abstraites exhibition at Galerie G in Besançon, France.

- Summer 1993: Arte Struktura organizes a show of French and Italian Madi artists in Lonato del Garda, Italy.

- Sept. 1 – 15, 1993: Dia+ Logos show at former church of Santa Margherita Nuova, Procida, Italy.

- Sept. 14 – Oct. 12, 1993: Exhib. Mouvement Madi/Carmelo Arden Quin at Gal. De Salle, St-Paul-de-Vence, France. 15 Madi artists.

- Oct. 6 – Dec. 16, 1993: Madi group show at Lycée d’Hotellerie et du Tourisme, St-Quentin-en-Yvelines Greater Paris). Works by 22 Madi artists.

- Dec. - Jan. 1994: Matter, Form and Light show at the Helios Gallery in Calais, France.

- Jan. 14 – 31, 1994: Dia + Logos show at Instituto Romenodi Cultura, Palazzo Correr, Venica, Italy.

- Feb. 3 – March 15, 1994: Costruttivismo, Concretismo, Cinevisualismo Internazionale show, augmented by works of new artists, presented again at Arte Struktura Gallery, Milan.

- April 8 – May 10, 1994: Dia + Logos exhib. presented at the Museum of Collections, Bucharest, Romania, together with show 99 Idees per l’Arte – l’Arte Costruische l’Europa, both events organized by Anna Cannali.

- July 12 – 30, 1994: Participated in the MaDI En Perspective group show at the Claude Dorval Gallery, Paris.

- In July 1994, Roitman gave a presentation of both the Madi Movement and his own works and methodology at the Symposium of Geometric Art, sponsored by the Noésis Foundation in Calaceite, Spain, and in September, became a founding member of the Ametlla-del-Valles (Greater Barcelona), Spain, Art Association. Participated in various group shows in and around Barcelona.

- From Sept. 10 to Oct. 23; 1994.Vast exhib. Madi at Salon d’Honneur de la Mairie de Maubeuge (France) from Sept. 10-27, and in the Hall of the Maubeuge Manège Theater from Sept. 10-Oct. 23: 55 Madi International artists participate in these two shows, including Roitman.

- Dec. 1994: Petits Formats show at Gal. Claude Dorval, Paris.

- Dec. 10 - Jan. 31, 1995: 99 Idees per l’Arte show at Arte Struktura Gallery, Milan, Italy.

- From Jan. 30 to Feb. 4, 1995: Madi group show, at Lycée Jacques Prevert, Longjumeau (Greater Paris), France.

- March 3 – 6, 1995: Mouvement Madi on stand of Gal. Claude Dorval at Salon International d’Art Contemporain, Strasbourg, France.

- April 28 – May 31, 1995. First exhib. of Madi International in the United States, organized by Oskar d’Amico. Inauguration of group show of 30 Madi artists, including Roitman, at the Arte Struktura Gallery, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

- May 15 – June 3, 1995 Madi group show Art dans la Ville, with pieces shown in public buildings and private establishments throughout the town of Longjumeau (Greater Paris), France. Works in schools, theater, town hall, restaurants,the cemetery, train and fire stations, post office, church, the hospital. Roitman shows recent sculptures and collages.

- From June 23 to 25, 1995: Madi Festival Gyor ’95, a three-day festival of art, music, ballet, fireworks, kite flying and conferences by A.Q. and Zsuzsa Darda organized by the Hungarian Madi group and held in the historic city of Gyor. 34 Madi artists participated.

- July 1995 : Exhib. Incontro e Scontri alle Soglie del 3e Millennio at the Monse Forum Artis Museum of Contemporary Art, Montse, Italy. Section Abstracta-Arte Struktura Movimento Madi contains works by A.Q., Bolivar, Caporicci, d’Amico, Frangi, Piemonti, Presta, Roitman.

- Aug. 14 – 20, 1995: Participated in the “Structures on the Edge of Chaos” symposium and poster display held in Washington, D.C. under the auspices of the Third Inerdisciplinary Symmetry Congress.

- August 10 – September 30, 1995: Costruttivismo, Concretismo, Cinevisualismo Internazionale Per l’Unificazione Europea show, organized by Arte Struktura, in Lonato del Garda, Italy

- Sept. 15 – Nov. 15, 1995: In a Group exhibit of Madi works at the High Tech University of Mining and Engineering in Socorro, New Mexico, U.S.A. Organized by Arte Struktura Gallery, Albuquerque.

- From May 18 to June 9, 1996: Concretismo, Cinevisualismo Internazionale show at Sala del Cerrobbio, Italy.

- Sept. 12 – Oct. 31,1996: Costruttivismo, Concretismo, Cinevisualismo Internazionale show at Palazzo della Soprintendenza ai beni artistica in Trieste, Italy, with color catalogue.

- April 15 – May 16,1997: Works of international Madi artists shown at Institut Français, Budapest, Hungary.

- July 18 – Aug. 30, 1997: Costruttivismo, Concretismo, Cinevisualismo + Nuova Visualita Internazionale at Villa Ormond, San Remo, Italy. Retrospective curated by Anna Canali and organized by Arte Struktura, Milan, with 300 constructivist works of international scope.

- Sept. 2 - 6, 1997: Abstraction-Intégration show at Médiathèque Georges Sand Palaiseau, France.

- Oct. 6 – 24, 1997: L’Art Madi, exhib. at Lycée Parcs des Loges in Evry (Essonne), France. Sponsored by Lycéee des Loges and Compagnons de l’Art de Savigny-sur-Orge. Participants are Binet, Mori, Saxon, Herrera, Bernardini, Neyrat, Arden Quin, Roitman, Prosi, Ridell, Presta, Frangi, Bulli, Cecerre, d’Amico, Bolivar, Stempfel, Kovacs, Trelat, Fajo, Lapeyrère, Matzon, Ugarte, Girodon, Satoru, Froment, Branchet, Timer.

- Nov. 7, 1997 – Jan. 11 1998: Vast Arte Madi retrospective from the Reina Sofía shown at Museo Extremeno e Iberamerica de Arte Contemporaneo, Badajoz, Spain.

- Sept. 11-12, 1998: Festival Euro-Madi, a 2-day event at Musée d’Art Contemporain, Palais Esterhazy in Gyor, Hungary, organized by the Hungarian Madi group with a ballet, concert, exhibition, debate and an auction of the works of 49 international Madi artists to raise funds for the Madi Museum project on the Pinnye bridge in Gyor, of which Roitman is a founding member.

- Oct. 29 – Nov. 29, 1998: International Madi exhib. at Espace Sculfort, Maubeuge, France, with works of 52 Madi artists from U.S.A., Argentina, France, Italy, Belgium, Hungary, Japan, Uruguay, and Ireland, represented by Volf Roitman..

- Dec 1998 to March 1999: Madi show at Castelnuovo Museum, Naples, Italy.

- Feb. 7 –21, 1999: Madi in Perspective exhib. at the Franco Maria Ricci Library in Naples, Italy.

- May 16 – June 12, 1999: Movimento Arte Madi exhib. organized by Associazione Culturale Il Pilastro in Santa Maria Capua Vetere, Caserta, Italy.

- July 3 – Oct. 3, 1999: Exhib. Hommage de Madi à Gorin held at the Chateau de la Groulais, Blain, France. Participation of 80 Madi artists from 12 different countries.

- Nov. 8 – Dec. 12, 1999: Madi show at Villa Campolieto, Greater Naples, Italy

- Nov. 18 – Jan. 10, 1999: Costruttivismo, Concretismo, Cinevisualism + Nuova Visualitè Internazionale show held at the Young Museum, Palazzo Ducale, Revere, Italy.

- Jan 23, 2000: Inauguration of vast exhib. Madi all’alba del terzo millennio, sponsored by the province of Naples and the city of Portici at the Palacio Real de Portici in Naples, Italy, with Madi artists from Italy, U.S.A., France, Canada, Hungary, U.K., Venezuela, Argentina, Japan, Uruguay, Spain, Tunesia, Belgium, and Switzerland. Sections on Moviment Madi –ieri and Movimento Madi – oggi

- July 2 - Oct. 29, 2000: Art Concret, historical exhibition, curated by Serge Lemoine, held at Espace de l’Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux, France.

- Oct. 6 – 22 , 2000: “Mouvement Madi International” show at the Chateau, Morsang-sur-Orge (Greater Paris), France, with the participation of 75 international Madi artists.

- Inauguration of exhibition Italia-Argentina/Argentina-Italia, l’Arte Costruttiva: un Ponte per la Cultura at - Dec. 13, 2000: Arte Struktura Gallery in Milan, Italy, with a section entitled “Omaggio agli esponenti del ‘movimento internazionale madi,” featuring the works of Arden Quin, Bolivar, Presta and Roitman.

- April 7, 2001: Inauguration of exhibition Arte Madi Freie Geometrie at Galerie Emilia Suciu, in Ettlingen, Germany with work of Madi artists from 12 countries.

- May 12 – June 17,2001“Costruttivismo, concretiámo, cinevisualiamo, madi + nuova visualità internazionale” exib. at Forum Omegna, Fondazione museo artì e industrìa di omegna, in Omegna, Italy

- From December 8, 2001 to January 4, 2002, presented “Prelude to Playful MADI Art.”, a solo show at the South Art, Miami, Florida.

- Dec. 11, 2001 – Jan. 15, 2002: Solo show “Playing Madi,” a series of collages and drawings, held at the Portobello Restaurant, Miami, Florida.

- April 6, – May 5, 2002: “7 International MADI Artists” including Roitman, at South Art Gallery, Miami, Florida.

- From April 2 to May 25, 2002, solo show at Pasco Art Center, Holiday, Florida.

- Since January 2003, his animated piece “WHAT IS MADI 1?” is exhibited permanently at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, Tarpon Springs, Florida. (include photo)

- From May 16 to August 29, 2003:The Capitol, Tallahassee, Florida, solo artworks.

- From November 19, 2003 to February 14, 2004, Roitman curated the show and designed the original catalogue of “9 Modern Venezuelan Masters” - MADI Museum, Dallas, Texas.

- From January 24 to March 31, 2004, Roitman selected the 14 MADI artists participating in the show , “Out of the Frame”. - Durban Segnini Gallery, Miami, Florida.

- April 24 – July 11, 2004: “Madi Artists” exhibition at the Madi Museum and Gallery in Dallas, Texas.

- All Summer 2004: Exhib. at the Galerie Nery Mariňo, Paris, France, of the works of Cruz-Diez, Jesus Soto, Vasarely, Herrera, Barbosa, and Roitman.

- Feb. 25 – May 22, 2005: Curated and showed his work in the “Celebration of Geometric Art” exhib. held at the Madi Museum, Dallas, Texas.

- Oct. 22 – 25, 2005: Participation in Artparis, International Art Fair held in the Gardens of the Louvre, Paris, France.

- Roitman works also shown in diverse Madi and other group shows held in Italy, Germany, and Ireland in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005.

- July 3 – Aug. 4, 2005: “In his capacity as “Honorary Committee Member of the Venezuelan Madi Group,” participated in the Madi Arte show held at the Centro Cultural Eladio Aleman Sucre in Valencia, Venezuela.

- Feb. 17 – June 18, 2006: Part of the “Historical MADI – Its Roots” exhibition held at the Madi Museum, Dallas, Texas.

- May 12 – June 15, 2006: Roitman work shown along with that of Madi artists from 14 countries at the M’ARS Contemporary Art Gallery under the aegis of the SupreMADIsm, Homage to the Masters of Russian Constructivism festival organized in Moscow, Russia

- Roitman co-curated “Celebration of Geometric Art”, presenting 80 artists of 20 countries, with a catalogue of 180 pages, partly designed by him. This traveling international exhibition was presented in the United States, at the MADI Museum, Dallas, Texas in February 2005,and at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, Tarpon Springs, Florida, in July 2006.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Here below, from a vast bibliography covering a life consecrated to the arts since 1950, some selected samples:

- Roitman, Volf: “Presencia y Epitafio del Surrealismo en André Breton´in the revue Poesía Buenos Aires, Winter, 1951.

- Vrinat, Robert, French Magazine Actualites Artistiques, Paris, February 21,

- 1953."The MADI group has not ceased it's activities; on the contrary, the show of four of it's members: Pierre Alexandre, Guy Lerein, Volf Roitman and George Sallaz proves it with brilliance.... If in the beginning, their goal was to break out of a square which represented traditional order and static energy, they are without a doubt on the road to toward a more important, though, still scarcely perceived, visual renewal."

- Pellegrini, Aldo: Nueve Artistas Abstractos, Centre International d’Art Paris-Buenos Aires, 1955. With reps. of Roitman paintings “Triangulo Perdido (1952), “Poder” (1953), “Espiral Madi” (1953), “Dominio” (1953)

- Dictionnaire des Peintres, Dessinateurs, Sculpteurs et Graveurs de Tous les Temps et deTous les Pays, Editions Benezit, Paris, 1955.

- Aguirre, Raul Gustavo (editor) :Antologia de una Poesía Nueva, Ediciones Poesia Buenos Aires, B.A., 1956.

- Seuphor, Michel: Dictionnaire de la Peinture Abstraite, Editions Hazan, Paris 1957.

- Arden Quin, Carmelo (editor) portions of Roitman’s plays “CESQUETUCROY” and “PROFESSOR OMNIUM”, in revue Ailleurs, Paris, 1962.

- Von Bartha, Miklos (editor) : Arte Concreto Invención, Arte MADI, Editions Galerie Von Bartha, Basel, Switzerland, 1991.

- Borras, Maria Lluisa: “A figure in Madi Art: Volf Roitman” in newspaper La Vanguardia, Barcelona, Spain, May 20, 1994: “Roitman, a man of many faces about whom it has been said that his greatest creation is his own life…is showing brilliantly colored cut-outs and totems.”

- Caruso, Rafaella A.: Incontro e Scontri alle Soglie del Terzio Millennio, Montse Forum Artis Museum of Contemporary Art, Italy, July 1995.

- Neyrat, Roger: “Arden Quin et Volf Roitman, 44 Years After”, Clause Dorval Gallery, Paris, June 1995.

- Roitman, Volf: “Open Letter to Juan-Jacobo Bajarlía” in the newspaper La Maga, Buenos Aires, Oct. 11, 1995.

- Di Maggio, Nelson : “Regreso a Los Origenes” in “ANTERIORIDAD Y CONTINUIDAD MADI” at the Museum Torres-García, Montevideo, Oct. 30,1995.

- Roitman Volf: Author of both the chronology and the historical sections of the catalogue “MADI, FIFTY YEARS AFTERWARDS”, published by the Ibercaja, Zaragoza, Spain, March 1996.

- De Sanna, Jole: “DOPO IL RETTANGOLO”, Edizoni Arte Struktura, Milano, 1996.

- Anthony Della flora: ”Artist Serves as Memory of Madi Movement”. "This year, as the movement celebrates its 50th anniversary, Roitman is still one of its innovators." The Albuquerque Journal, September 15,1996.

- Frangi, Reale : Reps of Roitman’s works in Inform Art No 0, Edizione Arte Struktura, Milan, 1996.

- Roitman, Volf « Hacia una Arquitectura Madi-Lúdica. » and several other texts in catalogue of vast MADI retrospective curated by Maria Lluisa Borrás for the Museo Reina Sofía , Spain, July 1997.te--xts in catalogue of Mathonet, Philippe, in newspaper Journal de Genève, Switzerland, Oct. 13, 1997 : the polychro matic structures of Volf Roiman, through the multiplicity of their planes and cut-outs, seem to extend into infinity, as if Madi were inexhaustible.

- Perazzo, Nelly : « Constructivist Art from Latin America ,» article in catalogue for Sotheby sale in New York, Nov. 25, 1997.

- Thirza Jacocks : Pelican Press, Sarasota, Florida, November 11,1999 "Volf Roitman is one of the foremost practicioners of Madi. Madi art is irresistible."

- Marcia Corbino: The Longboat Observer, Sarasota) November 11, 1999 "The Sarasota Visual Art center has mounted a MADI festival which may earn the Arts Center a niche in the history of 20th century art. Provocatively titled “Art out of its Frame” the exhibition features the innovative work of Volf Roitman... There is a joyous exhilaration and playfulness in all this non-objective work...”

- Roitman, Volf, “MADI at the Dawn of the Third Millennium” in catalogue of “Outside the Box”, Polk Museum, Lakeland, Florida, August 2001. Polk Mu

- Gordon, Michael, in newspaper The Ledger, Lakeland, Florida (August 24, 2001) “Outside the Box” At the Polk Museum, Lakeland, Florida.

- Lopez Osornio. César, Director , MACLA (Museo de Arte Contempóraneo de la Plata, Argentina.), in Documentarte, IberCaja, Zaragoza, Spain, September 2001: “Roitman is considered one of the great MADI creators…His sculptures –lamps, torches of the imagination – serve to corroborate the sense of liberty that runs through all of Madi creation…”

- Blackwell, Theresa,”Finding Poetry & Geometry on Display”, in newspaper The Saint Petersburg Times, Florida, Dec. 7, 2001.

- Stark, Brandy: “Museum goes MADI”, in newspaper The Saint Petersburg Times, Florida, Dec. 13, 2001.

- Luis, Carlos: “El Arte Lúdico de Volf Roitman” in newspaper The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida, January 20, 2002.

- Park, Andrew, A New Museum does Dallas Proud”, in newspaper Dallas Business Week, April 14, 2003.

- Craven, Jackie: “Marvelous MADI Architecture” in Architecture About, Sept. 17, 2003.

- Luis, Carlos: “The Presence of MADI art: MADI Museum” in magazine Arte al Día, Buenos Aires, Miami, Oct. 2003.

- Bettendorf, Elizabeth, “Like an art exhibition always in progress”, in newspaper The Saint Petersburg Times, Florida, May 31, 2005.

- Goodman, Shelley: “When Art Jumped Out of its Cage”, in a book published by the MADI Museum, Dallas, Texas, May 2005. (Complete Chronology and vaster Bibliography of MADI Movement)

- Fredricksen, Barbara: “Exhibit celebrates art form that defies meaning”, in newspaper The Saint Petersburg Times, Florida, July 7, 2006.

- Bennet, Lennie: “A Living Movement” in newspaper The Saint Petersburg Times, Florida, July 9, 2006.

References

* [http://www.volfroitman.com Volf Ritman]
* [http://www.madimuseum.org MADI Museum Dallas, TX]