ST. MORITZ.- From February19th until March 15th 2011, artworks by Sylvester Stallone will be exhibited at Galerie Gmurzynska, St. Moritz. Stallone’s exhibition at Galerie Gmurzynska is a retrospective of his work. The pictures will document different periods of the creative work. About 30 pictures of the action star will be presented, including various self-portraits.

Stallone’s pictures are as action-packed as his movies: colorful, expressive and abstract. Referring to Automatism and abstract Expressionism, his paintings merge to a new, very personal expressive style. Thereby the Hollywood star uses the Expressionism concept of presenting art in a spontaneous manner without caring about conventional shapes.

The exhibition at Galerie Gmurzynska will be accompanied by a catalogue written by art critics Anthony Haden-Guest (i.e. for New York Times and the London Times) and Donald Kuspit, one of the most distinguished art critics in America. Donald Kuspits analysis is attached to this press release.

Subsequent to the show at Galerie Gmurzynska, Stallone’s art will be exhibited at the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.

Stallone & Gmurzynska – The Collaboration
Sylvester Stallone managed to conceal his talent for a long time. When he visited Galerie Gmurzynska in Zurich in September 2008, the gallery’s co-owner Mathias Rastorfer was not really surprised: Zurich Film Festival took place at this time and the movie star is well known as an art collector. “You could see he knew how art should be looked at. That he had an eye for it“, remembers Rastorfer. What did surprise him was the actor’s confession, that he had actually been a painter himself for many years. After Rastorfer had seen some of Stallone’s artwork, the idea of a Stallone exhibition was quickly born. After visiting him in LA, Galerie Gmurzynska showed eight Stallone pictures as a sneak preview at Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2009, which is one of the four biggest art fairs in the world. The exhibition in St. Moritz now is the outcome of the positive feedback at this fair. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue, in which texts of the renowned art historian Donald Kuspit and Anthony Haden-Guest, art critic (i.e. for New York Times and the London Times) are included.

Sylvester Stallone – His Art
Sylvester Stallone has started painting in his teens. His early pieces, which he signed “Mike Stallone”, were experimental. Due to financial reasons he then worked as an author until he started a career as an actor. In 1976 he made his breakthrough as “Rocky“, started painting again and continued to do so until today. During the seventies and eighties, Stallone’s art was very expressive and morbid. Amongst others, his paintings were influenced by the death of his manager to handle the stroke of fate. The work he made during this period was graphic, flat, often brightly coloured and still quite illustrative.

A change in his style began 1989/1990. He got deeper into art, studied closely contemporary art and painters like Picasso, Gerhard Richter and Anselm Kiefer. He looked into the abstract work of Mark Rotho and developed a unique style for himself: He produced expressive, profound and expressionistic works, sometimes modified self portraits, sometimes pictures playing with words.