Luciano Bartolini was born in Fiesole on July 23, 1948. During his youth, he dedicated himself mainly to the knowledge and learning of languages. Since 1971, he has completed regular travels in the East, visiting especially India and Nepal. These travels will influence his works significantly.
His first solo exhibition dates back to 1974, held at the Palazzo Comunale in Stia, near Florence, where they displayed works that were made with light and pliable paper. The same year, he starts the series of Kleenex, utilizing parcel paper and Kleenex tissues, and his works are often of large dimension. Also the ‘74 series is collected in the first “artist book” entitled: Soft, where Kleenex is pasted on the ends of colored paper.
In 1975, he holds an important solo show at the Galleria Françoise Lambert in Milan. In this period, he also realizes the first Cartepaglie, handmade cards, primarily using butcher paper, to which he applies, utilizing Vinavil glue, layers of very pliable paper. In 1977 he holds again a solo show at the Galleria Françoise Lambert in Milan entitled “Pensando all'Oriente” (“Thinking about the Orient”). From that moment on, the use of gold becomes typical and recurrent in Bartolini's works. In 1977, he makes the exhibition The Pearl Mosque, which would then be showed the following year on the occasion of the solo show at Galleria Paul Maenz in Cologne, where also was exhibited "Volevo possedere quello spazio" (I Wanted to Have That Space). This particular type of exhibition will become a typical selection of Bartolini in following exhibitions.
In 1981 he participates in the following collective shows: “Books by Artists” at the Art Metropole in Toronto; “Linee della ricerca artistica in Italia, 1960/1980” (“The Lines of Artistic Research in Italy, 1960-1980”) at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome; “La memoria, l'inconscio” (“The Memory, The Unconscious”) at the Studio La Torre in Pistoia; “Enciclopedia” (“Encyclopedia”) at the Galleria Civica in Modena; “La qualita” (“The Quality”) at the P.A.C. in Ferrara; “Kunstlerbucher” at the Frankfurter Kunstverein in Frankfurt.
In 1982 he participates in “Art and Critics” at Marshall & Field in Chicago and in “Arte Italiana 1960/82” (“Italian Art 1960-82”) at the Hayward Gallery in London. He also has a solo show at the A Gallery in Amsterdam, Space in Toronto and at the gallery Walter Storms of Villingen. The same year he publishes the artist book: Looking into the Heart of Light, the Silence.
In 1983 he wins a scholarship of the DAAD of Berlin and moves to the German capital, where he would remain for more than one year. The works made in this period are characterized by an expressive immediacy, which until then remained contained. The Simendron became the signature decoration most recurrent in his works, evocative of sounds and echoes.
In 1989 he holds a solo show entitled “Giano, la foresta, il tempo” (“Giano, The Forest, The Time”) set up at the same time at Lorenzelli Arte and at the Studio Marconi, both in Milan. Other solo shows are held in London, at the Frith Street Gallery; in Venice, at the Galleria Totem Il Canale; in Florence, at the Galleria M.
In 1993 from April to May, he had a solo show at Lorenzelli Arte in Milan, entitled “Soffi di luce” (“Puffs of Light”).