WALTER LEBLANC E LA NEO – AVANGUARDIA EUROPEA
PRESS RELEASE Walter Leblanc e la Neo-avanguardia Europea
curated by Francesca Pola In collaboration with Walter & Nicole Leblanc Foundation 13 September – 21 October 2017 Opening: Wednesday 13 September 2017, from 6pm to 8.30pm Cortesi Gallery, Corso di Porta Nuova 46/B 20121, Milan Cortesi Gallery’s Milan location is pleased to present the work of Walter Leblanc (1932-1986), a cardinal figure in post-war European art whose importance is steadily gaining greater international recognition. This exhibition at Cortesi, curated by Francesca Pola and organized in collaboration with the Walter & Nicole Leblanc Foundation of Brussels, juxtaposes the oeuvre of this Belgian artist with a selection of contemporaries active in the European neo-avant-garde of the 1950s and ’60s, the peers with whom he exchanged ideas and who helped shape the course of his creative career. They include: Getulio Alviani, Marina Apollonio, Alberto Biasi, Agostino Bonalumi, Davide Boriani, Alberto Burri, Antonio Calderara, Enrico Castellani, Gianni Colombo, Dadamaino, Gabriele Devecchi, PieroDorazio, Lucio Fontana, Heinz Mack, PieroManzoni, François Morellet, Bruno Munari, Henk Peeters, Ivan Picelj, Otto Piene, Antonio Scaccabarozzi, Jesús Rafael Soto, Günther Uecker, Grazia Varisco and hermande vries. Starting with his early monochromes in 1958, then above all when “torsion” became the key element shaping his creative process in 1959, Leblanc’s work immediately placed itself at the centre of a debate that was pivotal for the European art world of the time: the question of moving past painting, to radically redefine the very nature of art-making. The artist titled his creations Twisted Strings, Mobilo-Statics, Torsions Schématiques, Stringfields: they are surfaces or sculptures whose rhythm derives from this twisting of the material, in regular progressions that seem to foreshadow an optical or minimalist approach, yet reject the coldness of such compositions, constantly seeking an active connection to the space around them. Different variations on the persuasive geometry that characterizes these works, so precise yet so vibrant, are explored through a wide range of unorthodox materials (such as cotton thread, latex, PVC, metal); the resulting structures look like the inevitable crystallization of a moment of existence, distilled by thought. Moved by this structural, structuring impulse, each work by Leblanc tries to forge an active dialogue with light and air.
Like Leblanc, the generation of European artists that took part in the same revolution also strove for images stripped of all subjective, expressive attributes; they saw the eradication of these aspects (like the wild outpourings of colour or gesture found in the Art Informel movement that had dominated the previous decade) as marking a new beginning, resetting the dial to objectivity. The reduction of formal and expressive elements (dialled back to “zero”) was seen as a crucial way of rebuilding a positive visual language, moving past the historical and cultural disenchantment that had followed World War II, especially in Europe. For this new generation of artists, it was fundamental to overcome their own subjectivity, to arrive at work that was fully autonomous as a distinct object with its own concrete existence. This led, for instance, to a new conception of the surface as a space for tangible or intangible events, rather than a mere vessel: no longer a passive receptacle for mental leaps and lurches, but the exploration of a conscious freedom. What emerged from this path of investigation, which could not possibly be exhaustive, was a transnational European vision. It certainly differed from American art, but to some degree even from the Parisian scene dominant at the time; following its own map, it moved between Milan, Rome, Lausanne, Bern, Basel, Düsseldorf, Munich, Frankfurt, London, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Copenhagen, and Zagreb. This formed a new network of places and ideas, generally characterized by self-run initiatives and spaces: reviews, galleries, and shows conceived and organized directly by the artists, catalogues and invitations that they wrote and designed themselves, exhibitions featuring transportable works that could easily travel from place to place, all of this tending, whenever possible, to forgo even the mediation of critics. This exhibition was preceded by Walter Leblanc: Sensorial Geometries, a monographic show presented at Cortesi Gallery’s London location (1 June -21 July 2017). The fully illustrated catalogue published by Mousse includes an essay by Francesca Pola, images of the works, installation views, and a bio-bibliographic appendix. Based on extensive art-historical research, it offers a more complete overview and paves the way to further international studies of Leblanc’s work. To round out this book for the exhibition in Milan, a brochure has been published that includes all the works on view, with a new essay by Francesca Pola that puts Leblanc's work into the context of the European neo-avant-garde. Walter Leblanc (Antwerp 1932 – Silly 1986) was an internationally pivotal figure in Belgian art, active in the second half of the twentieth century. In 1958 he was among the founders of Antwerp’s neo-avant-garde group G58, which brought together young artists representing a variety of currents. For Leblanc, 1959 marked the advent of “torsion” as the primary pictorial element in his work. In 1960, with the aid of his brother, he created a definitive version of his “twisting machine", which allowed him to achieve very precise torsions ofmetal. Leblanc was active in movements like ZERO and Nouvelle Tendance, and took part in major international shows such as The Responsive Eye (1965), Weiss auf Weiss (1966) and Serielle Formationen (1967). In 1967 he was awarded a prize at the Fifth Biennale de Paris, and in 1969 received the Prix Eugène Baie de Peinture. In 1970 he was among the artists chosen to represent Belgium in the 35th Venice Biennale, and in 1974 he was named Chevalier de l’Ordre de Léopold II.
Walter Leblanc Twisted strings 15 FH90 1958-1959 oil and cotton thread on canvas 65x54 cm
Walter Leblanc Twisted Strings 4F X 09 1962-1963 cotton threads and white latex on a cotton canvas 100x81 cm
Walter Leblanc Twisted Strings 1958 mixed media on cotton canvas 100 x 81 cm
Walter Leblanc Mobilo-Statique L.B. 36 1962 polyvinyl on board in artist's frame 68x58 cm
Walter Leblanc Mobilo-Statique 1962-1965 polyvinyl on board in artist's frame 130x127 cm
Walter Leblanc Torsions TQ 9 1965-1969 white polyvinyl on masonite panel 60x60 cm
Walter Leblanc Torsions 1965 strips of red and blue lacquered wood 59x42.5x20.8 cm
Walter Leblanc Composition abstraite 1958 Collage, fils de coton et latex blanc sur toile, blanc/gris 64 x 54 cm
Walter Leblanc Twisted Strings 1961 Fils de coton et latex blanc sur toile, chassis en forme de cousin 60 X 60 cm
Alberto Biasi Rilievo ottico dinamico, 1966 Pvc on wood 114 Ă— 114 cm Diagonal 162.5 cm
Agostino Bonalumi Grigio, 1969 Shaped canvas and vinyl tempera 125 Ă— 154.4 cm Courtesy Cortesi Gallery
Dadamaino La ricerca del colore, 1967 Oil on canvases on laminated panels 21 Ă— 21 Ă—3 cm
Piero Dorazio Miss Kayenta, 1964 Oil on canvas 149.5 × 196 cm
Lucio Fontana Concetto Spaziale. Attesa, 1966 Water-based on canvas 62 Ă— 55 cm
Heinz Mack Relief mit seriellen Reflektoren, 1961 Anodised aluminium 103 Ă— 103 Ă— 15 cm
Heinz Mack Dynamische Struktur in Schwarz (Dynamic Structures in Black), 1962 Synthetic resin on nettle 129.5 Ă— 170 cm
Heinz Mack Dynamische Struktur schwarz-weiĂ&#x;(Dynamic Structure black/white), 1957-58 Synthetic resin on nettle 53 x 80 cm
Henk Peeters Stikselwerk no.62-13, 1962 Silver thread and embroidery on grey cotton, stretched on wood 80 Ă— 75 cm
Ivan Picelj Surface XIII, 1962 Wooden panel painted black 58.5 × 58.5 × 7.3 cm
Ivan Picelj CTS-I, 1966 Black, red and blue painted metal on white painted wooden panel 90 Ă— 90 Ă— 7.5 cm
Jesús Rafael Soto PÚRPURA Y PLATA, 1969, Acrylic on aluminium and wood 151 × 101.6 cm
GĂźnther Uecker Horizontale Struktur, 1965 Nails and oil on board 42 x 36 cm
Grazia Varisco Schema Luminoso Variabile R.R. 66, 1964/65 Wood, perspex, neon, electric motor 68.5 Ă— 68.5 cm
Grazia Varisco Reticolo frangibile. Quadrato rosso in quadrato nero, 1968 White cardboard, Q 130 industrial glass, wood 45 Ă— 45 cm