Artl@s Bulletin

Volume 10 Issue 1 Images in Circulation Article 8

Circularity and Visibility in Italian Art Periodicals (1968-1978)

Denis Viva Università di Trento, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Viva, Denis. "Circularity and Visibility in Italian Art Periodicals (1968-1978)." Artl@s Bulletin 10, no. 1 (2021): Article 8.

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Circularity and Visibility in Italian Art Periodicals (1968-­1978)

Università di Trento Denis Viva Abstract

visibility During the 1970s, at the apex of “dematerialized art”,museum the art validation magazines contributed a great deal to turn (the photographicFlash Art circulationData of artworks, news on the artists, etc.) into an economic value. In a country like Italy, where was still lacking, neo-­ avantgarde periodicals such as or introduced new communicative strategies (community building, indirect advertising, etc.) in order to provide a trans-national­ audi- ence for Italian art. This study tries to enlighten the impact of advertising on art magazines’ preferences and their criteria of newsworthiness by analyzing some quantitative data. Riassunto

visibilità Negli anni settanta, all’apice dell’“arte dematerializzata”,museum le riviste validation d’arte contribuirono a convertire la Flash(la Art circolazione Data fotografica delle opere, le notizie sugli artisti, ecc.) in un valore economico. In un paese come l’Italia, privo di , le riviste di neo-­ avanguardia come o introdussero nuove strategie comunicative (community building, pubblicità indiretta, ecc.) col fine di creare un pubblico trans-­nazionale per l’arte italiana. Questo studio prova a chiarire l’impatto della pubblicità sulle preferenze e sui criteri di notiziabilità delle riviste d’arte, analizzando alcuni dati quantitativi.

Denis Viva is assistant professor of Contemporary Art History at the University of Trento, Italy. He is the founder of (www.palinsesti.net) and a researcher within the team of www.capti.it, a database of Italian art periodicals supported by the Italian Ministry of University.Palinsesti. Contemporary Italian Art On-line Journal

Artl@s Bulletin, Vol. 10, Issue 1 (Spring 2021) Viva ­– Circularity and Visibility

In the 1970s it was commonly acknowledged by the other hand, it provides the work with one of the

art critics and artists that “one reproduction1 in an most valuable commodities of our information so- art magazine is worth two one-man­ shows.” This ciety: the audience’s attention. adage blatantly expressed the importance held by If observed today, the history of art magazines after photographic reproducibility and the distribution 1960 stands out as another episode within the of art periodicals for the circulation of an artwork. wider process which affected first mass media, and In years during which the relationship with mass then social media: that is to say, the need of plan- media was perceived as both utopic and problem- agenda-­setting ning content for an audience, according to the prin- atic, such a maxim sounded pragmatic and mock- 5 ciples of , and the emergence of the ing at the same time. To artists and critics who 6 aura exhibition value exposability) Attention Economy , aimed at inducing a greater had long debated Walter Benjamin’s definition of 2 cognitive focus in its consumers. and ( , the pho- tographic circulation of an artwork revealed its These communicative mechanisms emerged slowly pseudo-democratic­ effects instead: in contempo- within art magazines and became stronger – para-

rary art, where even multiple copies (often coming doxically – after 19687 with the so-called­ “dema- in limited edition) were only affordable for a few terialization of art”. At a time when art became owners, the public visibility of an artwork was more and more immaterial and multipliable, pho- certainly a way to widen its audience, but it also tographic circulation among magazines was a good ended up increasing its value. What Benjamin con- way to reactivate some sort of fetishization of the aura sidered to be a democratic feature of technology – work of art and to compensate somewhat for its cult value interest namely the end of the work of art’s and of its material inconsistency: its circulation guaranteed a through seriality – was actually produc- capital of , also developed through various ing a new form of exclusive value. As philosopher ostensive mediations (from the exhibitions to arti- exhibition value Byung-­Chul Han observed in a recent reinterpreta- cles in magazines). tion of Benjamin, the has thus been museum visibility In Italy, for example, during the 1970s magazines converted into an actual economic factor – which validation Visibility replaced institutions: lacking a form of I would rather define as : “value accrues 8 aura 3 expos- comparable to that offered by Germany only insofar as objects are seen.” – which ability interests (contemporary museums first opened in Italy only is the restoration of also by means of 9 4 in the 1980s) , magazines were one of the few tools – produces a capital of , conceived of internationalization for Italian art. They contrib- in the double meaning of the term: on the one hand, visibility uted a great deal to the reputation of artists, regulat- it attributes an economic value to the work of art ing their . Starting with periodicals such as according to the degree of its circulation, and on Agenda-­setting The Art Press. Two Centuries of Art Ma- 5 Setting the Agenda. gazines1 The Mass Media andis the Public capacity Opinion of the mass-media­ to give salience to a news and to John A. Walker, “Periodicals since 1945,” in Artforum turn into a public topic. On this notion see Maxwell E. McCombs, , ed. Trevor Fawcett, Clive Phillpot (London: The Art Book Company, 1976), 6 (Cambridge [MA]: Polity Press, 2004). 51;2 Clive Phillpot, “Arts Magazines and Magazine Art,”Exposability , February 1980, 53. Attention Economy is focused on humanThe Economics attention of as Attention. a marketing Style problem and Substance to solve. in According to Benjamin, in the age of mechanical reproduction the uniqueness of thePerhaps Age of it Informationis not by chance that a theorist of Attention Economy dealt with Marcel Du- the artworks will be replaced by their circulation. “is the dialectical Thepair- champ’s oeuvre: Richard H. Lahnam, ater,of aura, Garden, with Bestiary:the declared A Materialist historical History decay of art’sExhibitions aura directly related to increased 7 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), 42-54.­ exposability” [Lucy Steed, “Exposability: On the Taking-­Place in Future of Art,” in This definition came from a well-known­ book, where Post-minimalist­ artSix after Years: 1966 the , ed. Tristan Garcia and Vin- Dematerializationis described as a “process of the Art of Object dematerialization, from 1966 to or1972 a deemphasis on material aspects Selectedcent Normand Writings: (Berlin, 1938- Lausanne:­1940 ECAL, Sternberg Press, 2019), 75]. On this notion, (uniqueness, permanence, decorative attractiveness)”: Lucy Lippard, see Walter Benjamin, “Work of Art in the Age of Reproducibility (Third Version),” in (New York: Praeger Publishers, , ed. Howard Eiland and Michael W. Jennings (Cambridge 81973), 5. [MA], London: The Belknap Press of Harvard UniversityNuova Press, Corrente2003), 257- 15458.­ On this On the relevance of GermanCirculations art system, in the see Global Catherine History Dossin of Art and Béatrice Joyeux-­ notion in relation to the World’s Fairs, see Andrea Pinotti, “Esposizione, esponibilità, Prunel, “The German Century? How a Geopolitical Approach Could Transform the Hi- disponibilità: Walter Benjamin e la dialettica dell’Expo,” , 2 (2014): story of Modernism,” in , ed. Thomas DaCosta 49-72.­ For repurposingThe this Transparency concept today Society in Art Theory: Steed, “Exposability: On the Kaufmann, Catherine Dossin and Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel­ (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015), Taking-3 ­Place in Future of Art,” 75-­84. 183-9 201.­ Byung-­Chul Han, visibility (Stanford: Stanford University Press, The Museum of Contemporary Art at the Castello di Rivoli has opened inInternational 1984, while 2015),4 9. aura exposability Journalthe Centro of Arts per Management l’Arte Contemporanea “Luigi Pecci”, in Prato, in 1988. Alessia Zorloni, To a certain extent, is the reconciliation between what Benjamin conceived “Structure of Contemporary Art Market and the Profile of Italian Artists,” as opposite: and . , 1 (2005): 61-71.­ 99 Artl@s Bulletin, Vol. 10, Issue 1 (Spring 2021)

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Metro10

, which promoted New Dada and Pop Art in first kind was the self-­promoted and experimen- Italy and Europe, and which was founded by Bruno tal review, which aims at realizing an artistic and 11 La città di Riga Alfieri , who was in contact with the12 powerful high intellectual product (a good example of this Italian-­American gallerist, Leo Castelli , a decisive sort was , published between 1976 metamorphosis took place: art magazines ceased and 1977, with the contributions of several neo-­ being arenas for the debate among critics, and avantgardist critics and artists); the second kind started instead to ground their mediation upon the was the “advisor” review, which mainly tried to selectivity implicit in their topics, with the result of guide the taste of its readers and bourgeois collec- D’ars agency Bolaffi Arte generating indicators of the prestige of given artists, tors, while expanding its audience among the art such as the significance of the spaces dedicated to public ( , since 1960, and , them. In this way, magazines actively contributed to since 1970, have been the most popular in Italy, the public recognition of an artwork and prompted by giving many information about auctions, quo- previsional evaluations of its possible commercial tations, etc.); and, finally, the third one, which was worth or future musealization. Magazines not only the combination of the previous two, by offering a visibility validated the work of art on the market, but they militant and neo-avangardist­ approach to art and could also increase its value through . an attempt to create an international community of Italian Art Periodicals (1968–1978) readers – this essay will only deal with this kind of art reviews, described in the following table 1.

In order to fully understand the reputational influ- After 1960, the history of Italian magazines can be ence of these art magazines and their circulation, it is reconstructed upon the progressive consciousness worth considering two aspects: first of all, in the post-­ Metro they achieved about these new communicative war period, despite the huge development of mass strategies: starting with , and going through media, information on contemporary art was mo- Bit the attempts of refusing the interference of adver- nopolized by specialized magazines; and secondly, NAC tisements perpetrated by magazines such as specialized magazines had no interest in widening Flash Art and in 1968, up to the ability of exploiting such their distribution too much, because it proved more

mechanisms by 13 with the advent of Trans­ effective to address an international14 art community, avanguardia in 1979 . rather than a mass audience . Italian magazines, es- pecially those belonging to the neo-avantgarde,­ show Following their communicative and marketing very well this networking approach: while their cir- strategies, so, we can divide the Italian art reviews, 15 culation only reached about 5,000 copies , distribu- during the 1960s and 1970s, into three kinds: the tion reached the most strategic Western16 countries,

10 Metro soon requiring English translations . The high price On thePalinsesti. visual strategies Contemporary of the magazine,Italian Art see On- Giadaline­ Journal Centazzo, “‘Piacevole a leggersi e anche a vedersi’. Fotografie nella prima serie della rivista (1960-68)­ di Bruno of international shipping, however, impacted the cost Alfieri,” Bruno Alfieri, un profilo. Critica ed editoria, 6 d’arte(2017): tra 19- Venezia­37. http:// e Mi- of these already expensive magazines, which prided lano,www.palinsesti.net/index.php/Palinsesti/article/view/62/9711 1948-­1960 Giada Centazzo, themselves for their exclusive graphic design and 12 (post-­MA Thesis, Università degli Studi di Udine, 2016). Based in New York, Leo CastelliMetro was one of the most successfulThe Leo gallerists Castelli of Gallery the XXth in high standard of reproductions. Until the arrival of MetroCentury, Magazine: promoting American Abstract Approach Expressionism, to postabstract Pop Art andfiguration Minimal in Art,an Italian among Contest others. On Castelli’s relationship with : Dorothy J. McKetta, , 14 NAC (MA13 Thesis, University of Texas, 2012). Riviste d’arte fra Otto- 15 OnData these aspects of art magazines, see Walker, “Periodicals since 1945,”. cento On theed Etàhistory contemporanea. of these magazines: Forme, modelli, Maria Teresa funzioni Roberto, “‘Bit’, ‘Flash Art’, ‘Data’ e For instance, this was the average of copies for (Contessi, “‘Nac’, un caso italiano,”) la situazione artistica in Italia tra anni sessanta e settanta,” in and th (my interviewFlash with Art Tommaso Trini, the directorDocumenta of the 5 review, Milan, Novem- , ed. Gianni Carlo Sciolla L’uomo(Skira: ber 29 , 2019). An exceptionalnd case was the circulation of 30000 copies announced by neroMilano, 2003), 299-305;­ Gianni Contessi, “‘NAC’, un caso italiano,” in ibid., 307-310;­ Giancarlo Politi for his on the occasion of : Giancarlo Politi, letter Giulia Polizzotti, “Bit. Arte oggi inFlash Italia. Art LaPallone rivista Cartabiancadella ‘nuova avanguardia’,”Senzamargine Data to Leo Castelli, Milan, April 22Bit, 1972, Archive of American Art, Smithsonian Institute, Palinsesti., 7-8­ (2011): Contemporary 125-145;­ Italian Giuliano Art Sergio,On-line­ “Forma Journal rivista. Critica e rappresentazione 16Leo Castelli Gallery Records, Correspondence, Box 9, Folder B9.31, Washington. della neo-avanguardia­ in Italia ( , , , , ), Metro According to their editors was distributed in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Intermedia. Archivio di Nuova Scrittura , 1 (2011): 83-100.­ http://www Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, UnitedData Kingdom, United States; .palinsesti.net/index.php/Palinsesti/article/view/21/26; Denis Viva, “Bit Gener- in Argentina, Brasil, Canada, Chile, France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, South ation,” in , ed. Nicoletta Boschiero, Duccio Africa, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela; and in France, Germany, Italy, Dogheria and Letizia Ragaglia (Bolzano-­Rovereto: Museion, MART, 2020), 158-169.­ United States. 100 Artl@s Bulletin, Vol. 10, Issue 1 (Spring 2021)

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Director |and ReviewMetro Years Issues city Brief description Available at 1960–1970 15 Bruno Alfieri, The review enhanced the http://www.capti.it/index.php Milan-­Venice relationship between U.S. and Italy ?ParamCatID=1&id=35&lang=IT by promoting especially New Dada and Pop Art. It was characterized by monographic articles and good quality Bit reproductions. 1967–1968 10 Daniela The review supported Fluxus, Arte Palazzoli, Milan Povera and hippie’s culture in Italy. It was also characterized by its experimental and psychedelic graphic Flash Art ongoing design. 1967–ongoing Giancarlo Politi, Born as a news bullettin for arts, the Rome-­Milan-­ review turned itself into an influent New York vehicle for self-presentation­ of artists and for monographic articles, following many neo-­avantgardes of that time, from Arte Povera to NAC Transanvanguardia. 1968–1974 81 Francesco Conceived as a platform for debating, http://www.notiziarioarte Vincitorio, the review tries to promote the contemporanea.it/index.php Milan-­Rome discussion around some controversial topics without supporting any Data particular movements or tendency. 1971–1978 28 Tommaso Trini, Very selective and based on extensive http://www.capti.it/index.php Milan monographic articles, the review ?ParamCatID=1&id=43&lang=IT mainly supported Arte Povera and Conceptual Art, and it contributed to the early surveys on women artists in Table 1. Italy. Main neo-­avantgardist art reviews in Italy between 1968 and 1978

Idea Book, an international wholesaler and distrib- companies had started investing in contemporary utor founded in 1976 and specialized in art related art, finding a “symbolical ally” in it, in the name Data Flash Art 18 publications, the international distribution of art of a common spirit of innovation . In Italy, on the

magazines, such as or 17 remained ex- contrary, the luxury industry didn’t support art pe- pensive and limited to a global elite . riodicals and, so, these magazines should resort to private gallery advertising even more. Aware of this To sustain expenses, magazines resorted mainly to problem, some independent and neo-avantgardist­ advertising sales (since increasing their cover price Bit reviews, for instance, had unsuccessfully tried to would have especially penalized foreign readers, free themselves from advertising: – a rebel mag- who were already paying a higher price). In this re- azine with a hippie design – had to capitulate after spect, Italian reviews were peculiar, because they a few issues in order to “enrich the number of pages mainly relied on the support of private art galleries, NAC 19 and reproductions” , and sober magazines such as and almost no luxury industry or museum institu- , after years without advertisements, finally tions (fig. 1). As highlighted by Alexander Alberro 20 trusted a single private sponsor . in his book on Conceptual Art and publicity, at Conceptual Art and the Politics of Publicity that time in the United States some multinational 18 Data AlexanderBit Alberro, (Cambridge [MA]: MIT 17 Artforum Studio International 19Press, 2003). NAC On the advent of Idea Books, see the advertisement on , October-November­ 20 , November 1967, 5. 1976, 81. Idea Books distributed also and in Europe Since January 1970 has only been sponsored by the company Koh.I.Noor. 101 Artl@s Bulletin, Vol. 10, Issue 1 (Spring 2021)

Images in Circulation Viva ­– Circularity and Visibility Fig. 1a Types of advertisers on Bit (tot. 24) Fig. 1a Types of advertisers on Bit (tot. 24)

20,80% 20,80%

50% 50%

29,20% 29,20%

Private Art Galleries Publishers Other Private Art Galleries Publishers Other Figure 1a. Bit Figure 1b. Data

Types of advertisers on (tot. 24). Types of advertisers on (tot. 190).

However, apart from the types of sponsor, the prev- example, German critic Willi Bongard started high- Kunstkompass alence of advertising as a form of support seemed to lighting the peculiarities of the contemporary art Artforum be an international problem, typical of magazines market: his was an annual ranking22 of with neo-avantgardist­ ambitions: , for ex- the artists based not only on their quotations , but

ample, dedicated21 40% of its printed pages to adver- also upon reputational criteria (such as the artist’s

tisement in 1979 . The more general issue was that presence in “international exhibitions; the most im23 - magazines operated within a circle that was equally portant museums; the most qualified literature” ). visibility, virtuous and defective: if, on the one hand, maga- For the first time, Bongard pointed out the eco- zines could boast an international reputation, the nomic value of relating it to circulation in support they received from private actors, such as a precise way, as the result of the points given by art galleries in particular, could be a form of inter- experts to each institution, exhibition or publica- ference on their critical independence. In face of the tion. Obviously, not every exhibition or magazine Kunstkompass economic realities, periodical had to maintain a del- contributed to the increase of the artist’s reputa- visibility circularity icate balance between their selective reliability and tion. rather showed how circulation visibility the demand for they received from private needed to look more like a form of to galleries. Art reviews had inevitably to negotiate convert itself into . As a matter of fact, its between critical autonomy and economic interests, ranking produced a self-consolidating­ judgement: visibility resorting to the tools at their disposal: their ability the ranking of the artists also validated the art- to generate circulation and to produce . ists’ results in the eyes of those experts involved in Circularity and community building the ranking to various degrees. Indeed, circulation was not itself a positive value in contemporary art, which aimed at distinguishing itself from the cul- circularity ture industry. Such an environment rather needed How was it possible to balance authority and profit? , that is, a circulation filtered by selective What were the strategies to build reader loyalty circularity visibility and self-consolidating­ criteria. Only in this way without following the logic of the culture industry? could further evolve into , which Within an elitist and global community such as that combines the prominence and relevance given to of contemporary art, neither the appeal of ostenta- interests an artwork (or an artist), its geocultural distribu- tious luxury nor the resonance of mass media would tion, its “auratic” appeal and the capital of prove effective. At the beginning of the 1970s, for Kunstkompass Artforum 22 Capital Art Aktuell 21 Since 1970, the has been published on the German economicFlash maga Art- In 1979 published 10 issues. The average of advertisers was between 85 zine23 and on his own art magazine . (January) and 100 (October). Including the covers, 872 pages were printed in 1979 Bongard’s criteria of ranking were also known in Italy: “I magnifici cento,” , and 361 were dedicated to advertising (41,40%). January 1973, 17. 102 Artl@s Bulletin, Vol. 10, Issue 1 (Spring 2021)

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29 (Byung Chul-Han)­ that it can produce (and which photographed at social events or at work . In this Bongard empirically helped us to estimate). case, the aim was that of cooptation: a few issues circularity later, these portraits also appeared on subscrip- Therefore, magazines played a fundamental role in 30 tion coupon . In this way, the magazine fulfilled transforming circulation into and Ital- a function that was parallel to that of its network, ian art periodicals (especially the neo-avangardist­ contributing to the designation of a qualified com- ones) contributed in various ways to transform the Flash Art munity of operators which one could access thanks flow of information into a form of validation of the to the visibility on its pages: contributed art they dealt with. One early example was the re- Metro Flash Art to creating cohesion among an international group fined strategy of community building adopted by of actors who found there a means of synergy and or : art reviews, indeed, had to cre- mutual acknowledgement. ate their audience with the help of gallerists, who were not only their advertisers, but who sometimes Direct and Indirect Salience

held 24 a role in the distribution of the same maga- zines . When consulting the archive belonging to circularity Leo Castelli at the Smithsonian in Washington, this The building of an audience by the art reviews gen- phenomenon can be clearly observed together with erated a further form of , so to speak. In Metro its geopolitical effects. Bruno Alfieri, director of such a selective community, there was a risk that newsworthiness , maintained a long correspondence with the the few advertisers – the private gallerists – could gallerist during the 1960s, promoting his artists in strongly influence the criteria of Flash Europe and trying to provide exhibitions for Ital- (which is to say, the possibility of an event or an Art 25 31 ian artists in return . And more: in 1972-73,­ information to become a public news ) adopted director, Giancarlo Politi, suggested to Castelli by the magazine they were partly financing, thus the idea of a magazine based solely on a few West- risking to undermine its impartiality and reputa- ern advertisers: Castelli himself, and the gallerists tion. However, this hypothesis is more complex

Sperone, Fischer,26 Sonnabend, Lambert, L’Attico and than it appears at first glance. In fact, a statistical a few others . test, partly inspired by Bongard’s method, reveals visibility . some unexpected facts. First of all, it is necessary to Politi, however, was able to introduce more updated Art Diary understand that started to show a quan- forms of community building In 1975, he launched titative relation with the salience given to a mes- two enterprises: , a guide to more than sage, a name or an artwork. Indeed, in the case of 3000 addresses of contemporary art’s world insid- direct indirect art magazines and gallerists, this salience could ers, complete with advice on “typical or particularly salience 27 be distinguished between a and an cheap” restaurants , and an official t-­shirt line de- 28 form of : the former corresponds to all the signed by Fiorucci . Politi thus offered connections news explicitly alluding to the activities of a gal- that mixed a professional attitude with a more in- Flash Art lery (exhibition reviews, notes on the openings, formal management of social relations: that same etc.); the latter is based instead on the visual and year, published a two-­page column ded- textual relevance given to artists exhibited by the icated to portraits of artists, critics, and gallerists, galleries (size and quality of photographic repro- Bit NAC 24 ductions, critical essays on their works, etc.). Once Magazines such as and were distributed in the bookshops and art galleries a score has been given to each element, it will be according to their own announcements. It is also possible that the habit of providing a great number of copies to the advertisers (namely the art galleries) was already possible to relate it to the advertising investment of used25 at that time. Archive of American Art, Smithsonian Institute, Leo Castelli Gallery Records, Corre- Flash Art spondence,26 Box 1, Folders 15-17,­ Washington. th 29 Flash Art Giancarlo Politi, letter to Leo Castelli, Milan, October 30 , 1972, Archive of Ameri- 30 , June-newsworthiness­July 1975, 16-17.­ canFlash Art, Art Smithsonian Institute, Leo Castelli Gallery Records, Correspondence, Box 9, 31 The coupon was attachedInformation to Age, October- Journalism:­November Journalism 1975. in an International Folder27 B9.31, Washington. Context The notion of derived from the theory of mass-media­ and journa- 28 , February-­March 1975, 12. lism: Vincent Campbell, Ibid., 59. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 117-123.­ 103 Artl@s Bulletin, Vol. 10, Issue 1 (Spring 2021)

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Figure 2. Data: direct salience.

the ten main gallery advertisers compared by

a gallery: advertising fares were easy to calculate, between the two well-­established advertisers in

mainly based upon the size of the space (1 page, the magazine,34 art gallery Sperone and art gallery ½ page, etc.) and on the position (back cover, in- Il Naviglio , showing a similar advertising invest- ternal page, etc.). In Leo Castelli’s Archive there are ment. The advertising space being equal, the dis- indirect salience many examples of advertisement rate table which placement in favour of Sperone becomes even more Data can allow us to establish some kind of parameters: evident when considering (Fig. 3).

if a back cover cost 250, then a page of advertising32 This demonstrates the delicate attempt of to would cost 200, ½ page 110, ¼ pageData 60, and so on . combine critical autonomy and advertising funding. Trini was in fact a critic who showed evident predi- We can apply this analysis to , a magazine Kunstkom- lections for Arte Povera, which partly explains the whose authority could be considered high (it was pass displacement of these tables, where the galleries the only Italian review included in the salience 33 that exhibited Arte Povera (such as Sperone, Toselli, in 1977 ) and whose director, Tommaso Trini, 35 Lambert and Stein) received more in com- was an internationally acclaimed critic, who has parison to their investment in advertising (Fig. 4). associated his name mainly with the rise of Arte visibility Povera. The results give a good example of the re- 34 lationship between and advertisement Both galleries were renown in Italy and abroad. Sperone has started his career by building a network with the gallerists Ileana Sonnabend and Leo Castelli, promoting (Fig. 2). The table here illustrates the range created first Pop Art and Minimalism, and then Arte Povera and Conceptual Art. Il Naviglio had a prestigious family tradition: founded in 1942 by Carlo Cardazzo, in Venice, the gallery promoted avant-­gardes and prominent figures such as Lucio Fontana. During 32 the 1960s and the 1970s, the gallery – which was informelalso opened in Milan – was directed These rates came from a letter writtenth by Politi to Castelli (Giancarlo Politi, letter to by Renato, Gabriella and Paolo Cardazzo, but its activity was not identifiable with any Leo Castelli, Milan, November 14 , 1973, Archive of American Art, Smithsonian Insti- particular art movement by mixing, for example, and videotape artists in its

tute, Leo Castelli Gallery Records, Correspondence, Box 9, Folder B9.31, Washington) programmation.35 33but theyData basically represented the average of other international art reviews. Franco Toselli was a gallerist who mainly organized exhibition of Arte Povera, Mini- Ciacia Nicastro, “Kunstkompass: italiani non buoni, non fare punti, non avere bol- malist and Conceptual Art in Milan, as well as François and Yvon Lambert did in their lini,” , October-December­ 1977, 86. galleries in Milan and Paris, and Christian Stein in Turin. 104 Artl@s Bulletin, Vol. 10, Issue 1 (Spring 2021)

Images in Circulation Fig. 3 Data: the four main gallery advertisers compared by indirect salience

Viva ­– Circularity and Visibility

ADVERTISER «COINS» ADVERTISER SCORE Galleria del Naviglio, Milan- 3930 Galleria Sperone, Turin-Rome-New 147 Venice York Studio Marconi, Milan 3480 Studio Marconi, Milan 69 Galleria Sperone, Turin-Rome- 3310 Salone Annunciata, Milan 42 New York Galleria del Naviglio, Milan- 15 Salone Annunciata, Milan 3120 Venice

See fig. 2 See fig. 4 and the criteria adopted for artists’ salience. The score considers at least a range of three years: one year before and one year after the exhibition of an artist in each gallery. For example: if Andy Warhol had a show at Galleria Sperone only once, in 1976, the score will be calculated for the range 1975-1977. Figure 3. Data indirect salience

: the four main gallery advertisers compared by . Fig. 4 First 10 artists for salience on Data Data: first 10 advertisers for direct salience

ARTIST SCORE ADVERTISER SCORE Giulio Paolini 59 Galleria Sperone, Turin-Rome-New 181 York Giuseppe Chiari 48 Studio Marconi, Milan 115 Michelangelo Pistoletto 46 Galleria Toselli, Milan 69 Mario Merz 43 Salone Annunciata, Milan 63 Luciano Fabro 41 Framart Studio, Naples 54 Alighiero Boetti 38 Galleria Stein, Turin (930 c.) 53 Vettor Pisani 36 Galleria Multipli/Persano, Turin 49 Daniel Buren 36 Galleria Lambert, Milan (720 c.) 49 Michele Zaza 36 Galleria Martano, Turin (990 c.) 32 Antonio Trotta 33 Galleria del Naviglio, Milan – 31 Venice Points are calculated in this way: reproduction of her/his artwork on the cover = 5 p.; article of more than 2 pages dedicated to See fig. 2 her/him= 3 p.; brief article or only photos and self-presentation of 2 pages = 1 p.; photographic reproduction of her/his artwork= 1 p. The arrows show the artists and gallerist related to Arte Povera Figure 4. Data

: comparison between most prominent artists and gallery advertisers.

This neat critical attitude, which seems very usual (its institutional weakness, its lack of contemporary for an art magazine, still holds a relationship with museums, etc.). The confirmation of this factor is NAC sa- advertisement: not a rigid or univocal relation- clearly visible when gallery advertising was absent lience ship, but a flexible one. These tables indeed show from a review, as in the case of , where the that the “aesthetic policy” of a magazine was not so of artists inevitably flattened: an artist very straightly induced by economic demand or by ad- prolific and active in Italy, such as Valeriano Trub- vertisers’ pressure, but rather by the match between biani, was granted the same space as Giulio Paolini, Data the two, which could be a formidable conjuncture in who boasted an international career and was very order to compensate some Italian promotional gaps prominent in magazines such as (Fig. 5). 105 Artl@s Bulletin, Vol. 10, Issue 1 (Spring 2021)

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Figure 5. Salience

of some artists by comparing NAC (from 1971, nn. 8–9 to 1974, n. 12) and Data (from 1971, no. 1; to 1974, n. 14).

We can infer how, for a gallerist, the most effective advertising initiative. Before being an act of persua- strategy was not to invest massively in advertising sion, one gallery’s advertising was an act of partic- promotion, but rather to engage with a community ipation, a way to be professionally acknowledged of similar, possibly international, actors, through within a community through an act of economic the choice of artists to represent and places to be and intellectual complicity. present. Since not every gallery could converge on Data This mechanism also favored communicative strate- Arte Povera, this strategy required a certain degree gies that were subliminal. During the 1960s, for ex- of flexibility: , for example, adopted a strong environments ample, Leo Castelli wisely exploited the birth of the turnover policy for the advertisers in order to get and installations to promote his brand, funding (approximately one-third­ of the advertis- by spreading his name in the credit lines of Italian ers purchased only one advertisement, typically magazines: the caption of photographic pictures be- around the time they had a review, but then stopped came a vehicle to show not only the art environment investing in such a strongly oriented information but also to represent the gallery’s space as a physical channel, especially when they realized it would not auratic 36 and recognizable place, a refined and modern venue, systematically bring more reviews ). 37 which can ascribe an appeal to its content . This meant something else too: the authority of Moreover, there were other methods of dissimu- a magazine did not depend on its ability to host lating the act of advertising that were specifically debates or inflame polemics, but on its implicit 38 NAC introduced by Conceptual Art . Looking at Seth assertiveness. Magazines that proved to be too plu- 39 Data Flash Art visibility Sieglaub’s way of promoting art , in Italy this at- ralistic, such as , soon failed before the ability of titude was introduced by gallerists like Franco or to filter the of art galler- Toselli, who intended publicity as a conceptual ies, favoring the audience’s selective recognition of Data act in cooperation with the artists. In 1971, for in- the artists and orienting the taste of the community.circu- stance, Toselli bought a blank page on , simply larity All the above implied a third aspect of this announcing40 that the “space was reserved” for his

. Often, gallerists did not aim at widening the gallery ; and in 1972 he proposed the followingth circle of their collectors by means of advertise- text to promote Ian Wilson’s show: “On the 20 of

ments but aimed at consolidating their own repu- 37 Annali della Scuola Normale di Pisa. Classe di salience Lettere Denis e Viva,Filosofia “L’immagine dello spazio. Dal 1967 a ritroso: fotografie di ambienti e tation with an already existing audience, which was installazioniConceptual sulle riviste Art d’arte and the italiane,” Politics of Publicity thus reassured by the gallery’s and by its 38 5, 8 (2016): 567-587;­ 799-800.­ 39 Alberro, . Conceptual Seth Siegelaub Art and strongly the Politics supported of Publicity many American Conceptual artists at their be- 36 ginnings,Data by introducing unconventional strategies of promotion. See also Alberro, From 1971 to 1978, 32,6% of advertisers paid only one advertising in the review, 40 . 34,8% between 2 and 3 times, and 32,6% 4 or more times. , September 1971, 8. 106 Artl@s Bulletin, Vol. 10, Issue 1 (Spring 2021)

Images in Circulation Viva ­– Circularity and Visibility

July of 1972, there was a discussion betweenst Franco eventually, its selection of artists came to represent Toselli and Ian Wilson, and on the 21 of July 1972, a solid canon within a given community, also built

Franco Toselli purchased the discussion. The dis41- thanks to magazines, then power relations could be cussion, but for this statement, is not recorded.” inverted, leading galleries to the acquisition of an The text seems to be the pure antithesis of persua- autonomous validating power. sion: the act of buying a fully dematerialized piece par excellence As the economist Leslie P. Singer pointed out in the of art was presented as the anti-­economic choice 1980s, by the time when Conceptual Art was re- , meaning the acquisition of an art- placed by Neo-­Geo, contemporary art represented work as a symbol for solidarity (or complicity) a special market where it was in the interest of ev- rather than as a capital estate. erybody (producers, intermediators, and buyers) to

Gian Enzo Sperone, a gallerist with headquarters narrow and control competition,44 making the sup- in Turin, Rome, and New York, also used advertise- ply of the goods inelastic . To a certain extent, this

ments to commemorate members of the ideal com42- phenomenon has become more evident when me- munity of contemporary art, such as Gerry Schum , chanical reproduction seemed to threat the craft- or to mock the table-­tennis diplomacy of conserva- manship status (and economic, inelastic, value) of tive Nixon, with the implicit accord of his readers: the artwork. In that moment, the art magazines auratic “Sperone Gallery in Turin” – he announced in 1972 – started to play a pivotal role in order to re-­establish 43 exposability “organizes international ping-­pong tournaments.” the valuable, , dimension of works of art, by converting from a supposed means of The act of advertising thus became a gesture of democratization into a new means of distinction. In intellectual complicity, belonging to a community museum validation national contexts, as the Italian one, which lacked which considers any attempt at persuasion vulgar: of a , this role of art magazines first of all, because advertising came from the tech- seems to be even more emphasized than in other niques of culture industry, whereas the contempo- Western countries, becoming one of the few way rary art audience considered itself to be immune to indirect salience to reach a trans-national­ audience. All the strate- them; secondly, because it would have been pleo- gies adopted by these reviews ( , nastic to do so to a reader who, by buying a selec- aura community building, etc.) ended up by reinforcing tive and activist magazine, had already manifested the control of competition, the of artworks a precise will of socialcircularity distinction. visibility circularity and the reputation of artists: in a word, they trans- interests These strategies of and , thus, formed circulation into , and they finally visibility warded off the danger of visual oversaturation produced that capital of that is at the core which is implied by circulation in a highly inter­ of . connected and mediatized society such as ours. Translated by Anna Guardini A work of art cannot be promoted with the same prosaic insistence used with goods. Preferably a good artist would not need commercials, just the aesthetic validation of critics, magazines, and insti- tutions. In order not to publicly affect the reputa- indirect salience, tion of these “validators”, a gallerist had to invest in showing off its disinterested and liberal support to such organs of validation. When, Data 41 , Summer 1972, 5. For Toselli see footnote 35. IanData Wilson was one of the most 42prominent Conceptual artists. Sperone dedicated a whole page “to Gerry Schum” on , Summer 1973, 7. Gerry SchumData was a filmmaker who directed some pioneering documentaries on Arte Povera, 44 Journal of Cultural Economics 43Conceptual, Land artists. Leslie P. Singer, “Phenomenology and Economics of Art Market: an Art Historical , February 1972, 5. Perspective,” , 1 (1988): 27-40.­ 107 Artl@s Bulletin, Vol. 10, Issue 1 (Spring 2021)

Images in Circulation