We are pleased to feature Porfirio DiDonna (1942-86) on our Nielsen Gallery website, whose work has been central to our gallery and our understanding of the basic needs to make art.

A recent biography on DiDonna, The Shape of Knowing, examines his intense art. DiDonna had suggested in his later years that he was trying to “making a place for my marks.” To the author John Baker, DiDonna really meant articulating a place for himself. Baker examines DiDonna’s development, from art student to last paintings, in an attempt to discover what place meant to him. The DiDonna “Gallery” is organized into four major formal “periods” Baker identifies as DiDonna’s response to the basic questions of place in his life.