DOCSLIB.ORG

Galleria Dell'ariete Records, 1955-1993

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8b27w2m No online items Finding aid for the Galleria dell'Ariete records, 1955-1993 Alan Tomlinson and Annette Leddy Finding aid for the Galleria 990058 1 dell'Ariete records, 1955-1993 Descriptive Summary Title: Galleria dell'Ariete records Date (inclusive): 1955-1993 Number: 990058 Creator/Collector: Galleria dell'Ariete Physical Description: 46.43 Linear Feet(88 boxes; 2 flatfile folders) Repository: The Getty Research Institute Special Collections 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100 Los Angeles 90049-1688 [email protected] URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref (310) 440-7390 Abstract: The complete business records of the Galleria dell'Ariete of Milan, Italy, from 1955, when it opened, through its closing in the mid-1980s. It was among the most important galleries in Italy for contemporary art, and had extensive connections with dealers, collectors, artists, and critics in Europe, the United States, and Japan. The archive documents these connections through correspondence, business and financial papers, catalogs, press clippings, and an extensive photographic record. Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy . Language: Collection material is primarily in Italian and English Biographical/Historical note Beatrice Monti della Corte opened the Galleria dell'Ariete at Via San Andrea, 5, Milan, Italy in 1955, when she was twenty-five years old, principally as a showplace for modern art-her first major exhibition at the gallery was of lithographs and engravings by Picasso-though the formal statutes of the company state that its object is 'il commercio in generale di opere d'arte antiche e moderne'. Thus Monti della Corte regularly exhibited and dealt in such items as 17th to 19th century Indian miniature paintings, Afghan kilims and dhurries, 19th century American patchwork quilts, and 18th and 19th century Italian folk paintings on glass. A 1958 exhibition, Tauromachia, brought together engravings of bullfighting subjects by Goya and Picasso. However, the main focus was on the work of living artists, and the Galleria dell'Ariete rapidly became one of the foremost Italian galleries for contemporary art, forming close connections with such like-minded establishments as the galleries of Kasmin and Waddington in London, and Leo Castelli, Ileana Sonnabend, and Betty Parsons in New York. Monti della Corte had a special interest in introducing modern-especially new, young-Italian artists to American collectors, through her contacts with American dealers, and in promoting modern American artists in Italy, through her own gallery. Artists such as Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns amongst the Americans, and Andrea Cascella, Enrico Castellani, and Luigi Parzini amongst Italians were particular enthusiasms of hers, as was the Spaniard Antoni Tápies, and she kept in personal contact with some of them even after she had finally closed the gallery. She was also amongst the first to exhibit the work of the English artists Francis Bacon and David Hockney in Italy, and, as her business became established, she started to bring modern Asian art, especially Japanese, within its range. In 1970 Monti della Corte opened a new section of the Galleria dell'Ariete, at the same Via San Andrea address, under the name Ariete Grafica. It was dedicated to drawings, lithographs, engravings, prints, and editions of small sculptures, leaving the main gallery free to concentrate on paintings and large sculptures. Ariete Grafica itself published editions of works in various media by a number of artists. A list from 1980 has twenty-one names of "artisti delle nostri edizioni"; amongst them, Andrea Cascella, Diego Esposito, Barry Flanagan, Nancy Martin, Luigi Parzini, and Shu Takahashi, and including a serial work by Alan Shields in the form of hand-painted, beaded crochet panels. Monti della Corte closed Galleria dell'Ariete as an exhibition space on November 30, 1979, though she maintained an office at Via San Andrea, and from it carried on dealing in paintings and sculpture under the gallery's name for a few more years. The records contain papers related to these transactions dated up to 1983. Ariete Grafica remained open at the same address, and exhibitions were held and business conducted there into the mid-1980s, by which time the gallery was handling paintings and sculptures as well as graphic arts. As late as 1993 Monti della Corte was using the Via San Andrea address to deal with paperwork connected to her loans of artworks from her personal collection for exhibitions at museums Finding aid for the Galleria 990058 2 dell'Ariete records, 1955-1993 and other galleries, but her own galleries were, by then, closed. Monti della Corte married the novelist Baron Gregor von Rezzori in the 1960s. Access Open for use by qualified researchers. Publication Rights Contact Library Reproductions and Permissions . Preferred Citation Galleria dell'Ariete records, 1955-1993, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 990058 http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa990058 Acquisition Information Acquired from Beatrice Monti della Corte von Rezzori in 1999. Processing History Alan Tomlinson processed the collection and wrote the preliminary inventory, which was encoded by Laura Schroffel in 2008. Annette Leddy further processed the collection and revised the finding aid in 2012. Correspondence may be further processed at a future time. Scope and Content of Collection The Galleria dell'Ariete records contain all of the surviving business papers of the gallery from its foundation by Beatrice Monti della Corte in 1955 to its closure in 1979, plus papers connected with her continued activities under the Galleria's name during the following few years. Also included are the business records of the Galleria's offshoot, Ariete Grafica, from its opening in 1970 to the mid-1980s. These records comprise correspondence (letters received and copies of letters sent) with dealers, collectors, and artists in many countries; miscellaneous business papers, including accounts and stock cards, which give extensive information on the acquisition, sale, and movement of works of art; and business diaries and minute books, the earliest of which include the articles of association and the statutes of the Galleria. The correspondence is arranged by region (Europe, the United States, and Asia), and then chronologically. These materials are supplemented by an extensive file of press clippings, collecting items about specific exhibitions at the Galleria, items about artists and others associated with it, and some items of general interest about art and culture. There is a complete run of catalogs for the Galleria's exhibitions from 1955-1979, with related ephemera, and a collection of pages of signatures from visitors' books put out for some of the exhibitions. A comprehensive photographic archive documents works of art and exhibitions, and includes photographs of artists and other individuals, and of gallery activities. Photographers include Carlo Cisventi, Ugo Mulas, Hans Namuth, and Vicenzo, among others. Arrangement note Arranged in four series: Series I: Correspondence, 1955-1983; Series II: Photographic documentation, 1955-1979, undated;Series III: Business records, 1955-1993, undated;Series IV: Clippings, catalogs, other publications, 1955-1977, undated. Subjects - Names Appel, Karel, 1921-2006 Francis, Sam, 1923-1994 Castelli, Leo Monti della Corte von Rezzori, Beatrice Frankenthaler, Helen, 1928-2011 Takahashi, Shū Arakawa, Shūsaku, 1936-2010 Scordia, Antonio King, Phillip, 1934- Sutherland, Graham Vivian, 1903-1980 Saura, Antonio, 1930-1998 Subjects - Corporate Bodies Betty Parsons Gallery Ariete Grafica Kasmin Limited Finding aid for the Galleria 990058 3 dell'Ariete records, 1955-1993 Leo Castelli Gallery Subjects - Topics Art, Italian -- 20th century Art dealers -- United States Collectors and collecting Art, Asian Art, American -- 20th century Art dealers -- Italy -- 20th century Genres and Forms of Material Black-and-white photographs Carbon copies Color photographs Contact sheets Inventories Invoices Transparencies Clippings files Photocopies Notebooks Scrapbooks Contributors Francis, Sam, 1923-1994 Castelli, Leo Galleria dell'Ariete Mulas, Ugo Namuth, Hans Sonnabend, Ileana Takahashi, Shū Appel, Karel, 1921-2006 Cisventi, Carlo King, Phillip, 1934- Tàpies, Antoni, 1923-2012 Arakawa, Shūsaku, 1936-2010 Betty Parsons Gallery Sutherland, Graham Vivian, 1903-1980 Leo Castelli Gallery Kasmin Limited Scordia, Antonio Parsons, Betty Frankenthaler, Helen, 1928-2011 Monti della Corte von Rezzori, Beatrice Saura, Antonio, 1930-1998 Finding aid for the Galleria 990058 4 dell'Ariete records, 1955-1993 Series I.Correspondence, 1955-1983 Series I.A. Europe, 1955-1979 Series I. Correspondence, 1955-1983 Physical Description: 17.09 Linear Feet(41 boxes) Scope and Content Note Correspondence between Galleria dell'Ariete and artists, dealers, galleries, museums, collectors, and critics in Europe, the United States, and Japan between 1955 and 1983, including letters received, and copies of letters sent. Among the highlights of this correspondence is the witty, eloquent, exchange between Monti della Corte and her friend and colleague New York art dealer Leo Castelli. With the shared objective of raising the profile of American artists in Italy and Italian artists in America, the two exchange strategic letters
Recommended publications
  • And Variations – Post-Wa Art from The

    And Variations – Post-Wa Art from The

    Palazzo Venier dei Leoni 701 Dorsoduro 30123 Venezia, Italy Telephone 041 2405 411 Telefax 041 5206885 Press release THEMES AND VARIATIONS POST-WAR ART FROM THE GUGGENHEIM COLLECTIONS February 2 – August 4, 2002 On Friday 1st February 2002, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, will inaugurate Themes and Variations – Post-war Art from the Guggenheim Collections. Curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, this 6-month cycle of installations will assemble paintings, sculptures and works on paper - both European and American, but predominantly Italian – from the holdings of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, with a small number of additional private loans. This dynamic and innovative project sets out to provide a fuller understanding and contextualization of the post-war works in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. A series of three two-month installations – examining in turn a succession of movements and artists with which Peggy Guggenheim was affiliated first in New York and later Venice - will present works by a strong group of post-war 20th century artists, including Edmondo Bacci, Francis Bacon, César, Joseph Cornell, Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Alberto Giacometti, Asger Jorn, Bice Lazzari, René Magritte, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, Mimmo Rotella, Giuseppe Santomaso, Tancredi, Laurence Vail, Victor Vasarely and Emilio Vedova. Themes and Variations provides an opportunity to present for the first time recent acquisitions of post-war art, including important works by Carla Accardi, Agostino Bonalumi, Costantino Nivola, Mimmo Rotella and Toti Scialoja, alongside previously acquired works by Edmondo Bacci, Lucio Fontana, Conrad Marca-Relli, Giuseppe Santomaso and Armando Pizzinato. A series of private loans will further strengthen the representation of Italian post-war art; it is in this context that the work of Mirko Basaldella will be presented in depth in the course of the initial February- March installation.
  • AGOSTINO BONALUMI: All the Shapes of Space / 1959 - 1976 4 October – 15 November 2013

    AGOSTINO BONALUMI: All the Shapes of Space / 1959 - 1976 4 October – 15 November 2013

    AGOSTINO BONALUMI: All the Shapes of Space / 1959 - 1976 4 October – 15 November 2013 ROBILANT + VOENA 38 Dover Street, London W1S 4NL First Solo Exhibition in the UK in over 50 years. Organized in cooperation with the Archivio Bonalumi. Exhibition curated and monograph edited by Francesca Pola under the supervision of the artist. Including over 20 works by Agostino Bonalumi alongside works by Fontana, Manzoni, Dadamaino and Castellani. Featuring loans from public and private collections, as well as works for sale. To include Blu Abitabile, 1967 – an installation not exhibited since 1970. Artist may be available for interview by special advance agreement. ROBILANT + VOENA are pleased to announce an exhibition of the Italian artist Agostino Bonalumi, opening in October at their London gallery. This long-overdue project will be the first solo presentation of this significant artist in the UK since 1960. Organized in cooperation with the artist and the Archivio Bonalumi, the exhibition will examine the work of Bonalumi during the 1960s and 1970s in relationship with the other artists of the Azimut group. The exhibition will bring together pivotal examples of Bonalumi´s shaped canvas with early experimental works by his friends and collaborators in the Azimut project: Enrico Castellani, Piero Manzoni, Dadamaino, and their guide Lucio Fontana. A selection of Bonalumi’s paintings from the beginning of the 60s to the late 70s, including some unpublished and never before exhibited canvases from Italian private collections, will form the core of the exhibition and will reaffirm the important role played by this internationally lesser known artist in the development of Modern Art in Italy.
  • Shaping Sense Italian Post-War Functionalistic Design

    Shaping Sense Italian Post-War Functionalistic Design

    Kjetil Fallan SHAPING SENSE ITALIAN POST-WAR FUNCTIONALISTIC DESIGN Thesis in fulfilment of the degree of cand. philol. (MA) Department of History / Centre for Technology and Society Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Trondheim 2001 To my parents “We have never discussed it, but I think the main reason why we are reluctant to get married is all those dreadful presents you get and can not dispose of just like that. Every christmas, we get a little foretaste of that hell. Cathrine’s parents have gotten wind of our “interest in design”, so that is why the garish wrapping paper nor- mally contains something even more garish; rubbish from Alessi.” -Torgrim Eggen in Pynt Preface This project has been fatiguing in addition to being extremely interesting. I would never have finished it without the help and support from many persons: I wish to thank my supervisor Per Østby for taking on such a unorthodox project. His enthusiasm has been very important to me, and his experience crucial to my work. Øst- by and my co-supervisor Stig Kvaal have guided a sometimes frustrated candidate through the non-determined, multidirectional flux of writing history. Centre for Technology and Society has been my haunt the last two years. I am very thankful for the good working environment the centre has provided me with. I have shared office, problems and laughter with Jon N. Eikrem and Finn Arne Jørgensen. Jørgensen also deserves many thanks for his proofreading and formatting. I also wish to thank the staff at the Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense and the Settore Bib- lioteca, Documentazione, Archivio of the Triennale di Milano for being so helpful and service-minded.
  • Giulio Paolini QUI DOVE SONO (HERE WHERE I

    Giulio Paolini QUI DOVE SONO (HERE WHERE I

    Giulio Paolini QUI DOVE SONO (HERE WHERE I AM) Galleria Christian Stein Corso Monforte 23, Milan September 30, 2020-January 16, 2021 The Galleria Christian Stein presents a solo exhibition by Giulio Paolini (Genoa, 1940) entitled Qui dove sono (Here Where I Am), a reference to a work in the show and a homage to the Galleria Christian Stein, where Paolini exhibited for the first time over fifty years ago, in 1967, at the branch in Turin, and has continued to do so regularly throughout his career, most recently in 2016. The exhibition at the gallery on Corso Monforte is made up of five works, three of which were created expressly for the occasion. Sculpture and photography, suitably elaborated in Paolini’s language, tell a story that turns around myth, classical antiquity and history; the images on display are shrouded in an absolute dimension of time, remote from the realities of the present day. In the work located at the center of the room, In volo (Icaro e Ganimede) (In Flight [Icarus and Ganymede], 2019-20), the plaster cast of Ganymede, copy of a marble sculpture by Benvenuto Cellini (1500-71), stands on a high base. The youth is holding two wings made of gilded cardboard to evoke his flight to Olympus. In fact the myth of Ganymede is founded on the beauty of the young man, to whom Zeus, king of the gods, takes a fancy, abducting him in the form of an eagle and carrying him off to Olympus to be his lover. On the ground a square sheet of transparent material offers glimpses of fragments of a photographic image of the sky together with a reproduction of the figure of Icarus from the picture Daedalus and Icarus (1799) by the French painter Charles Paul Landon (1761-1826).
  • For Immediate Release Dominique Lévy Presents the First London Solo Exhibition by Enrico Castellani with the Collaboration of T

    For Immediate Release Dominique Lévy Presents the First London Solo Exhibition by Enrico Castellani with the Collaboration of T

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DOMINIQUE LÉVY PRESENTS THE FIRST LONDON SOLO EXHIBITION BY ENRICO CASTELLANI WITH THE COLLABORATION OF THE ARTIST AND THE FONDAZIONE ENRICO CASTELLANI Enrico Castellani 9 February – 26 March 2016 Dominique Lévy 22 Old Bond Street, London London...Dominique Lévy is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition in London by Enrico Castellani, with whom the gallery has worked since its inception in 2012. Opening in February 2016 at the gallery’s Old Bond Street location, the exhibition explores the ways in which painting can occupy three- dimensional space by showcasing recent as well as historical works by the artist, most of which are on view in London for the first time. A selection of Castellani’s large-scale shaped relief canvases Superfici bianche (White Surfaces) are presented in juxtaposition with recent angular metallic paintings titled Biangolare cromato (Bi-angular Chrome) and Angolare cromato (Angular Chrome), the latter of which Castellani installs in corners. These white and metallic works are placed in dialogue with one another, highlighting the ambient light and shadow effects that occur as the works activate the architectural space in which they are situated. These three- dimensional paintings are complemented by the recent sculpture Spartito, in which Castellani references a seminal work made in 1969 by bolting hundreds of sheets of paper together, creating a biomorphic minimalist form. The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive book featuring a newly commissioned essay by Angela Vettese, former President of the International Jury of the Venice Biennale and director of the graduate programme at the Università Iuav di Venezia.
  • ACTION | ABSTRACTION Alberto Burri Lucio Fontana

    ACTION | ABSTRACTION Alberto Burri Lucio Fontana

    ACTION | ABSTRACTION Alberto Burri Lucio Fontana PRESS RELEASE 14th January 2019 TORNABUONI ART LONDON - 46 Albemarle St, W1S 4JN London Exhibition: 8th February - 30th March 2019 Press view: 10am - 12pm from 6th to 8th February Conference: 7th March, 5pm-7pm, Royal Academy of Arts London, ‘Alberto Burri: A Radical Legacy’ moderated by Tim Marlow, Director of Programmes at the Royal Academy, with professor Bruno Corà, President of the Alberto Burri Foundation, professor Luca Massimo Barbero, Director of the Art History Institute at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, and professor Bernard Blistène, Director of the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. This exhibition sets out to recapture one of the most dramatic periods of Post-War art in Italy. The selection of works by the avant-garde artists Alberto Burri and Lucio Fontana will shed light on how the trauma and destruction of two world wars spurred these artists to reject representation and to return to primordial forms of communication through material and gesture – in Fontana’s case, through a simple but supremely efective piercing of the canvas surface and, in Burri’s case, a radical and sometimes violent reimagining of the expressive potential of traditionally ‘non-artistic’ materials. The show will shine a light on the correspondences and convergences between these artists who, despite their vastly difering aesthetics, now stand together as luminaries of material- based abstraction and an inspiration to an entire generation of artists who grew up in their shadow. Tornabuoni Art will explore their work in a tightly curated selection of highlights on display in the London gallery. Both artists are being honoured with institutional exhibitions this year.
  • Introduction and Will Be Subject to Additions and Corrections the Early History of El Museo Del Barrio Is Complex

    Introduction and Will Be Subject to Additions and Corrections the Early History of El Museo Del Barrio Is Complex

    This timeline and exhibition chronology is in process INTRODUCTION and will be subject to additions and corrections The early history of El Museo del Barrio is complex. as more information comes to light. All artists’ It is intertwined with popular struggles in New York names have been input directly from brochures, City over access to, and control of, educational and catalogues, or other existing archival documentation. cultural resources. Part and parcel of the national We apologize for any oversights, misspellings, or Civil Rights movement, public demonstrations, inconsistencies. A careful reader will note names strikes, boycotts, and sit-ins were held in New York that shift between the Spanish and the Anglicized City between 1966 and 1969. African American and versions. Names have been kept, for the most part, Puerto Rican parents, teachers and community as they are in the original documents. However, these activists in Central and East Harlem demanded variations, in themselves, reveal much about identity that their children— who, by 1967, composed the and cultural awareness during these decades. majority of the public school population—receive an education that acknowledged and addressed their We are grateful for any documentation that can diverse cultural heritages. In 1969, these community- be brought to our attention by the public at large. based groups attained their goal of decentralizing This timeline focuses on the defining institutional the Board of Education. They began to participate landmarks, as well as the major visual arts in structuring school curricula, and directed financial exhibitions. There are numerous events that still resources towards ethnic-specific didactic programs need to be documented and included, such as public that enriched their children’s education.
  • Annual Report 1995

    Annual Report 1995

    19 9 5 ANNUAL REPORT 1995 Annual Report Copyright © 1996, Board of Trustees, Photographic credits: Details illustrated at section openings: National Gallery of Art. All rights p. 16: photo courtesy of PaceWildenstein p. 5: Alexander Archipenko, Woman Combing Her reserved. Works of art in the National Gallery of Art's collec- Hair, 1915, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1971.66.10 tions have been photographed by the department p. 7: Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Punchinello's This publication was produced by the of imaging and visual services. Other photographs Farewell to Venice, 1797/1804, Gift of Robert H. and Editors Office, National Gallery of Art, are by: Robert Shelley (pp. 12, 26, 27, 34, 37), Clarice Smith, 1979.76.4 Editor-in-chief, Frances P. Smyth Philip Charles (p. 30), Andrew Krieger (pp. 33, 59, p. 9: Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon in His Study, Editors, Tarn L. Curry, Julie Warnement 107), and William D. Wilson (p. 64). 1812, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.15 Editorial assistance, Mariah Seagle Cover: Paul Cezanne, Boy in a Red Waistcoat (detail), p. 13: Giovanni Paolo Pannini, The Interior of the 1888-1890, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon Pantheon, c. 1740, Samuel H. Kress Collection, Designed by Susan Lehmann, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National 1939.1.24 Washington, DC Gallery of Art, 1995.47.5 p. 53: Jacob Jordaens, Design for a Wall Decoration (recto), 1640-1645, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, Printed by Schneidereith & Sons, Title page: Jean Dubuffet, Le temps presse (Time Is 1875.13.1.a Baltimore, Maryland Running Out), 1950, The Stephen Hahn Family p.
  • Sito STORIA2 RS INGLESE REVISED

    Sito STORIA2 RS INGLESE REVISED

    You may download and print this text by Roberta Serpolli, solely for personal use THE PANZA COLLECTION STORY “The Panza Collection is entirely a couple’s affair. When my wife Giovanna and I discover works by a new artist, I look at her and she looks at me. I can see in her eyes if she wants to buy or not. So even between my wife and me, ‘looking’ is an issue.” Giuseppe Panza, 20091 Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, along with his wife Giovanna, is recognized as one of the world’s foremost collectors of contemporary art. The collection, originally composed of around 2,500 works of art, is mainly representative of the most significant developments in American art from post- World War II to the 21st century. Along with a need to fulfill spiritual and inner quests, both intuition and reflection have inspired the collectors’ choice that would demonstrate, retrospectively, their far- sightedness. By devoting themselves to an in-depth focus on emerging artists and specific creative periods, the Panzas contributed to acknowledging the new art forms among both the general public and the art market. The Beginnings of the Collection: On the Road to America The collection ideally began in 1954 when Giuseppe, at the age of thirty years, traveled to South America and the United States, from New York to Los Angeles, where he discovered the continents’ captivating vitality of economy and culture. Upon his return to Milan, he felt the need to take part in the international cultural milieu. In 1955, shortly after his marriage with Giovanna Magnifico, Giuseppe purchased his first work of art by Italian abstract painter Atanasio Soldati.

  • CENTRAL PAVILION, GIARDINI DELLA BIENNALE 29.08 — 8.12.2020 La Biennale Di Venezia La Biennale Di Venezia President Presents Roberto Cicutto

    LE MUSE INQUIETE WHEN LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA MEETS HISTORY CENTRAL PAVILION, GIARDINI DELLA BIENNALE 29.08 — 8.12.2020 La Biennale di Venezia La Biennale di Venezia President presents Roberto Cicutto Board The Disquieted Muses. Luigi Brugnaro Vicepresidente When La Biennale di Venezia Meets History Claudia Ferrazzi Luca Zaia Auditors’ Committee Jair Lorenco Presidente Stefania Bortoletti Anna Maria Como in collaboration with Director General Istituto Luce-Cinecittà e Rai Teche Andrea Del Mercato and with AAMOD-Fondazione Archivio Audiovisivo del Movimento Operaio e Democratico Archivio Centrale dello Stato Archivio Ugo Mulas Bianconero Archivio Cameraphoto Epoche Fondazione Modena Arti Visive Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea IVESER Istituto Veneziano per la Storia della Resistenza e della Società Contemporanea LIMA Amsterdam Peggy Guggenheim Collection Tate Modern THE DISQUIETED MUSES… The title of the exhibition The Disquieted Muses. When La Biennale di Venezia Meets History does not just convey the content that visitors to the Central Pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale will encounter, but also a vision. Disquiet serves as a driving force behind research, which requires dialogue to verify its theories and needs history to absorb knowledge. This is what La Biennale does and will continue to do as it seeks to reinforce a methodology that creates even stronger bonds between its own disciplines. There are six Muses at the Biennale: Art, Architecture, Cinema, Theatre, Music and Dance, given a voice through the great events that fill Venice and the world every year. There are the places that serve as venues for all of La Biennale’s activities: the Giardini, the Arsenale, the Palazzo del Cinema and other cinemas on the Lido, the theatres, the city of Venice itself.
  • Introduction*

    Introduction*

    Introduction* CLAIRE GILMAN If Francesco Vezzoli’s recent star-studded Pirandello extravaganza at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Senso Unico exhibition that ran con- currently at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center are any indication, contemporary Italian art has finally arrived.1 It is ironic if not entirely surprising, however, that this moment occurs at a time when the most prominent trend in Italian art reflects no discernible concern for things Italian. Rather, the media-obsessed antics of Vezzoli or Vanessa Beecroft (featured alongside Vezzoli in Senso Unico) are better understood as exemplifying the precise eradication of national and cultural boundaries that is characteristic of today’s global media culture. Perhaps it is all the more fitting, then, that this issue of October returns to a rather different moment in Italian art history, one in which the key practition- ers acknowledged the invasion of consumer society while nonetheless striving to keep their distance; and in which artists responded to specific national condi- tions rooted in real historical imperatives. The purpose of this issue is twofold: first, to give focused scholarly attention to an area of post–World War II art history that has gained increasing curatorial exposure but still receives inadequate academic consideration. Second, in doing so, it aims to dismantle some of the misconceptions about the period, which is tra- ditionally divided into two distinct moments: the assault on painting of the 1950s and early ’60s by the triumverate Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana, and Piero Manzoni, followed by Arte Povera’s retreat into natural materials and processes.
  • De Pictura, 1979

    De Pictura, 1979

    De pictura, 1979 Pencil, nails and collage on primed canvas, autograph inscription on reverse side of canvas, torn photographs Nine parts 80 x 120 cm each, overall dimensions 245 x 365 cm Signed, titled and dated on the recto, on the central part: “Giulio Paolini / De pictura / 1979” Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart (acquired in 1980, inv. no. 3366) Nine canvases placed one right next to the other form a large picture made up of 3 x 3 elements reproducing the drawing of a room in perspective with two “paintings” on the side walls: these two paintings are made to seem more life-like by the presence of real nails along the edge that is visible. The room drawn in perspective is inhabited by a person wearing a toga,1 who gazes at the painting hanging on the fourth wall of the virtual room, which we can only see from the verso. The reversed canvas bears the signature, title and date certifying the authenticity of a painting that we cannot see and at the same time of the work we are looking at. In his raised right hand the figure is holding a few photographic fragments of Parnaso (1979) – the profile of the hand is completed by one of the torn details – while other fragments from the same image are strewn about on the floor. While the counter-figure reflects our own gaze before the work, the torn photographs, the reversed canvas and the nails along the sides of the drawn canvases accentuate the diaphragm that separates the ideal perspective of the figure in costume inside the painting from our “blind” gaze, confined to this side of that insurmountable limit.