ABBANDONIAMO L'ARTE CONOSCIUTA, Percorsi nell'arte italiana dal dopoguerra ad oggi by Quadrifolium Group

ABBANDONIAMO L’ARTE CONOSCIUTA Percorsi nell’arte italiana dal dopoguerra ad oggi December 1, 2019 - January 26, 2020

Camino a Garzón, km 1 Garzón | Uruguay 5520 NE 4th Avenue Miami | USA info@pieroatchugarry.com www.pieroatchugarry.com

Graphic design: Arch. Alessio Gilardi Quadrifolium Group Srl, Lecco (Italy) Print: Editoria Grafica Colombo, Lecco (Italy) Photo Credits: Fundación Pablo Atchugarry, Daniele Cortese, Alessio Gilardi

ABBANDONIAMO L’ARTE CONOSCIUTA

WE ABANDON THE USE OF KNOWN ART

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Getulio Alviani Alighiero Boetti Roberto Crippa Riccardo De Marchi Piero Dorazio Piero Gilardi Paolo Minoli Bruno Munari Ugo Rondinone Arcangelo Sassolino Emilio Scanavino Paolo Scheggi Turi Simeti Arturo Vermi

About PIERO ATCHUGARRY GALLERY

Percorsi nell’arte italiana dal dopoguerra ad oggi

Routes through Italian art from post-war to the present day

ABBANDONIAMO L’ARTE CONOSCIUTA Percorsi nell’arte italiana dal dopoguerra ad oggi Elena Forin

PIERO GILARDI Rampicante, 2004 (detail) Mixed technique 11 3/4 x 11 3/4 in (30 x 30 cm)

Nel grande spazio dall’Atchugarry Art Center di Miami, Piero Atchugarry ha deciso di presentare, insieme alle opere di Eugenio Espinoza, Pablo Atchugarry e Louise Nevelson, anche un piccolo affondo sull’arte italiana. Parlandomi del progetto che ha intrapreso attraverso la Fondazione e le gallerie, mi ha raccontato quanto per lui sia importante connettere attraverso la ricerca dello spazio, della materia e dell’esperienza visiva tre universi differenti tra loro per geografia, cultura e politica tre mondi che spesso si sono cercati e incontrati: l’America Latina, gli Stati Uniti e l’Europa. Da sempre abituato a vivere a cavallo tra questi scenari, Piero ha raccolto per questa occasione opere di autori italiani diversissimi tra loro, che però messi insieme possono permettere di ricostruire alcune delle dinamiche che hanno interessato l’arte della penisola a partire dal secondo dopoguerra. Questi percorsi visivi, così profondamente differenti, offrono un interessante contraltare agli altri progetti di questo ciclo espositivo della galleria: lo spazio, il grande protagonista delle indagini proposte, racconta infatti in queste tre mostre alcune tra le sue infinite e più straordinarie possibilità. Il punto d’origine di Abbandoniamo l’arte conosciuta è senz’altro la temperie del secondo dopoguerra italiano: una cesura netta quella prodotta dal conflitto, in Italia come altrove. Le proporzioni, le distanze, le azioni, le strategie e gli interventi si sono allargate fino a raggiungere interessi impensabili, dilatando geografie e contatti, espandendo il campo d’azione e le sue modalità. Nulla è stato più come prima, e anche se questa non è certo la sede per approfondire la complessità dell’impatto generato da quegli scontri sulla cultura e sulla società nel mondo, senz’altro è evidente che oltre al fattore umano drammaticamente emerso, la guerra ha completamente cambiato la concezione e la rappresentazione dello spazio. L’ambiente - distrutto e divelto dalla morte - e lo sguardo umano - profondamente provato da stermini e attentati alla dignità - si uniscono in un’unica visione e danno vita a quel panorama trasversale che è l’informale. Le Spirali di Roberto Crippa (1921-1972) ad esempio, si pongono all’interno di questo tracciato raccontando un universo fatto di continui movimenti, in cui il segno agita la superficie di circuiti ellittici: alcune macchie di colore, come nell’opera in mostra, e un continuo aggrovigliarsi di strutture che sfondano lo spazio sono gli assoluti di un codice linguistico destinato a svilupparsi negli anni successivi, confermando, pur nel cambiamento, l’idea di una pittura concentrata sul concetto di evoluzione. Siamo del resto nel 1951, l’anno del Manifesto tecnico dello Spazialismo di Lucio Fontana (1899 – 1968), a cui anche Crippa aveva aderito: “Abbandoniamo la pratica delle forme di arte conosciuta – dice Fontana in un intervento alla Triennale di Milano1 - e abbordiamo lo sviluppo di un’arte basata sull’unità del tempo e dello spazio… Concepiamo l’arte come una somma di elementi fisici, colore, suono, movimento, tempo, spazio, concependo un’unità fisico-psichica, colore l’elemento dello spazio, suono l’elemento del tempo, e il movimento che si sviluppa nel tempo e nello spazio. Sono le forme fondamentali dell’arte spaziale.” 1 Intervento di Lucio Fontana nel convegno della Triennale di Milano, 1951, in Lucio Fontana, Manifesti Scritti Interviste, a cura di Angela Sanna, ABSCONDITA, Milano, 2015, p. 47).

Il ’51 è anche l’anno della collaborazione tra Fontana e L’Age D’Or, la galleria-libreria fondata l’anno prima a Roma da Piero Dorazio (1927 - 2005) insieme ad Achille Perilli (1927) e Mino Guerrini (1927 – 1990). Dorazio, grandissimo protagonista dell’astrazione italiana e internazionale, è tra l’altro una di quelle figure “ponte” tra l’Europa e gli USA, dove tiene conferenze fin dal 1953, dove insegna in maniera continuativa ed espone la propria arte facendo parte del sistema di quegli anni: in questa occasione possiamo vedere uno dei suoi reticoli, un acrilico su carta del 1962 in cui è possibile misurare il senso di quel comporre che è un tratto distintivo unico del suo lavoro. Le linee si dispongono precise nello spazio, si alternano con il vuoto, lo scandiscono, lo tagliano; si sovrappongono una volta e poi tante altre ancora, fino quasi a coprire completamente la superficie, che emerge solo tra le righe e nei bordi. Lui, che proprio come Crippa aveva avviato da subito una carriera solida ed estremamente attiva, che nel ’62 aveva già partecipato a Biennali di Venezia2, a Documenta di Kassel3 e che aveva già fondato e aderito ai diversi gruppi nati in quella brillante stagione dell’arte italiana4, in questa sede ci mostra, tra le altre cose, una strada che sarà studiata e approfondita da tanti - quella della geometria. Facendo un balzo in avanti nel tempo, la Curva di Peano del 1991 di Bruno Munari, Dinamica prataiola del 1995 e Dinamica triangolare bianca del 1997 di Alberto Biasi, fino al dittico senza titolo di Paolo Minoli del 2003, tutti esposti in Abbandoniamo l’arte conosciuta, testimoniano infatti alcune delle possibilità percorse all’interno di questo grande universo. Rigore, forma, ripetizione e rottura dell’equilibrio: questi sembrano essere punti in comune a tutte queste ricerche, in cui ogni elemento è pensato ed elaborato all’interno dell’opera in maniera tale da creare frizioni ed esiti inaspettati. Del resto, diceva Munari in una raccolta di aforismi5, che “La regola, da sola è monotona / il caso da solo rende inquieti. / Gli orientali dicono: / la perfezione è bella ma è stupida / bisogna conoscerla ma romperla. / La combinazione tra regola e caso / è la vita, è l’arte / è la fantasia, è l’equilibrio”. Le sue curve di Peano, così come altri lavori diversi da questo ciclo, riproducono infatti le forme sulla tela quasi saturando lo spazio, mentre l’inserimento di bicromie e tricromie forti crea una sorta di scossa visiva, un’instabilità percettiva che dà la sensazione di un continuo movimento - a dire che la natura, anche quella delle immagini geometriche e regolari, ha risorse inimmaginabili e una propensione ineluttabile al cambiamento. Così accade anche nelle strutture in pvc di Alberto Biasi (1937), che con minimi cambi di direzione delle lamine rompe la monocromia e introduce la sfumatura del colore in rapporto al movimento dello spettatore, o come negli spazi punteggiati di Paolo Minoli (1942 - 2004), oppure, pensando agli esempi del nuovo millennio, nelle sfumature concentriche di Ugo Rondinone (1964): la variazione del colore, così come la ripetizione di un modulo prende forma in maniera differente, offrendo un affondo ogni volta personale sulla dinamica del tempo. La luce, che dai movimenti alle cromie è protagonista assoluta di questi quadri, ne è l’attivatrice: in Minoli si traduce in una linea che crea intensi bagliori sulla tavola, in Biasi è il riverbero nato dal rapporto tra la superficie e ciò che c’è oltre, è dissolvenza della tinta e della forma di Rondinone, mentre in Munari impastandosi col colore si fa rottura della perfezione – e questo genera nuove visioni. 2 Nel 1956, 1958 e nel 1960 con una intera sala dedicata al suo lavoro. 3 Nel 1959. 4 Nel 1947 Forma1, Origine (divenuto poi Fondazione origine Art Club. 5 Pubblicato per la prima volta nel 1982, Verbale scritto è una raccolta eterogenea di testi che spaziano dagli aforismi, alle invenzioni verbali fino all’haiku giapponese.

La luce in rapporto con la geometria e con lo studio del materiale è del resto un nodo cruciale anche della ricerca di Getulio Alviani (1939 - 2018): instancabile indagatore dell’alluminio, nei suoi quadri pone tutti gli elementi in una condizione che è sempre al “limite della visione”. Nell’incontro tra luci, trattamenti di superficie, riflesso, e forme, l’occhio si perde infatti in una infinità di possibili letture: ogni atomo del quadro sembra potersi trasformare secondo dopo secondo, e questo equilibrio tra permanenza e trasformazione è in fondo quel valore latente, quella forma di delicata e struggente poesia che libera ogni opera dell’artista. Ma se una certa pittura traduceva nel segno, nella materia e nel colore le tensioni più inaccessibili dell’ambiente e dell’uomo – e in questo un altro nome indimenticabile è quello di Emilio Scanavino (1922 - 1986), maestro di linee e nodi con cui ha portato sulla tela angosce e inquietudini agitate da cromie cupe o sanguigne – e se la geometria mostrava infinite possibilità di uscita dalle regole, c’è stato anche chi ha coniugato il rigore della forma con lo straordinario potere della luce attraverso un alfabeto linguistico e poetico minimo (e minimale), Arturo Vermi (1928 – 1988), la cui analisi del tempo condotta proprio con segni essenziali porta l’uomo dal presente fino alle origini, e poi da lì fino all’eternità attraverso l’uso della foglia d’oro. La strada della pittura però si è anche incontrata con quella del concetto dando testimonianze assolute, come nel caso di Alighiero Boetti (1940 – 1994), di quanto possa essere incredibilmente sorprendente l’atto della scoperta e di come possa essere straordinario il potere del linguaggio: al di là di ciò che usa6, Boetti racconta universi da conoscere lentamente, ricostruendo lettera dopo lettera, segno dopo segno, elemento dopo elemento, il significato dell’esistenza, frammentato e frammentario eppure capace di fragili attimi di unità. I suoi ricami, di cui la galleria espone in questa occasione Tra l’incudine e il martello del 1987,hanno una densità pittorica che va ben oltre l’uso specifico della pittura come mezzo espressivo, e che raccontano l’identità del tempo affidando alla superficie il compito di tradurre per singole unità (le lettere e i quadrati che le contengono) concetti minimi ma dalla potenza inaudita. Nel proliferare dell’arte italiana, l’insegnamento di Lucio Fontana, che per la sua genialità visionaria e per l’invito a uscire costantemente da canoni e abitudini visive consolidate è un punto di riferimento indiscusso per generazioni e generazioni di artisti in tutto il mondo, si trova anche nella propensione della pittura verso dimensioni oggettuali: così in effetti Gillo Dorfles aveva unito un insieme di artisti7 che prediligevano una visione del dipinto come “elemento integratore dello spazio abitabile, che può valere quindi quale modulatore d’una situazione dimensionale o anche semplicemente quale squisito elemento plastico–cromatico scaturito dall’incontro di forme e colori, suscitato sempre, tuttavia, da un’attenta e preordinata progettazione strutturale”. Paolo Scheggi (1940 – 1971) nella breve e intensa stagione della sua vita, aveva dato corpo proprio a questa visione: le sue Intersuperfici curve, nate dalla somma di tre tele sovrapposte e tagliate appositamente, costruisconoforme che penetrano in profondità. Lo spazio che risulta da questa azione è fatto di un vuoto in cui colore e forma occupano un ruolo fondamentale, trasformando la superficie risultante dai tagli non più come una assenza, ma piuttosto come un 6 In questo caso il ricamo, ma anche disegno a penna, legno, fotografia, cemento, buste postali etc. 7 Agostino Bonalumi, Paolo Scheggi, Enrico Castellani (che tuttavia non si è mai particolarmente ritrovato in questa definizione) e Lucio Fontana, la cui inclusione “vuol essere soprattutto un omaggio a chi ha saputo con tanto anticipo su tutti in Italia scoprire alcune fondamentali costanti dell’arte moderna” (G. Dorfles, Pittura-oggetto a Milano, Arco d’Alibert Studio d’arte, 1966).

corpo plastico eccezionale, lirico e anche teatrale, fatto di quegli elementi che sono gli assoluti della pittura. Nella fuoriuscita dalla tela, oltre a Turi Simeti (1929) che opera in maniera analoga a Scheggi - ma agitando con corpi aggettanti la superficie, che si conferma come una entità inquieta, mossa da tensioni e forze che agiscono al di sotto e al di là di essa – non si può non citare Piero Gilardi (1942) che con i suoi Tappeti natura in poliuretano ha riprodotto fin dal 1965 la natura in maniera realistica. Si tratta di piccole porzioni d’ambiente – boschi, gretti di fiumi, frutta, vegetali e via dicendo – che potrebbero appartenere a qualunque luogo: sono composizioni colorate e gioiose, che creano un impatto immediato in chi le osserva, che non può non sorridere quando le vede. Eppure da questa prima empatia scaturisce il senso di una fragilità inesorabile: non solo il materiale che tende a sgretolarsi sotto l’azione della luce e del tempo, ma anche (e specialmente) una denuncia verso una vita sempre più artificiale. Questa ricerca lo ha portato nel 1969 a una lunga sospensione del fare artistico, che ha messo da parte per dedicarsi al fronte teorico e politico: ha ripreso nel 1981 a produrre arte, e da allora il suo impegno ha coniugato estetica, ambiente e comunità. Spesso nelle sue mostre sono previsti workshop e laboratori con il pubblico, e, insieme a vari progetti sullo sviluppo tecnologico e ambientale, ha promosso PAV, Parco Arte Vivente8, un luogo in cui si compendiano tutte le sue esperienze relative alla dialettica Natura/Cultura. Abbandoniamo la pratica delle forme di arte conosciuta.9 A conclusione di questa analisi tra generazioni, linguaggi, geometria, materia informe, concetto, oggetto, colore, luce e tempo, non ci resta che rilevare quanto a unire le tante direttrici percorse, ci sia in tutte le opere presentate, un sottofondo comune che risiede nella volontà di analizzare in maniera profonda e approfondita la natura delle cose: che si tratti di animo umano, di condizioni esistenziali frammentate e stravolte dalla storia e dal tempo, di regole messe in discussione, di forme pittoriche assolute, della parola o della natura, l’arte italiana del secondo novecento ha dato prova di voler sempre penetrare il reale e il pensiero per attingere a nuove letture e interpretazioni del presente, dell’uomo, del tempo e della storia. Così del resto fanno anche Arcangelo Sassolino (1967) cercando e mettendo a fuoco le tensioni nascoste nella società, nel tempo e nell’animo umano, o Riccardo De Marchi (1964) forando le superfici che incontra nel proprio lavoro e nel proprio vivere (dal teflon all’acciaio fino alle copertine dei dischi che ascolta) generando una poesia di elementi minimi (i buchi) e una scrittura fatta letteralmente di nulla – eppure così intensa da stravolgere lo spazio in cui si trova. In questa intensità di analisi, la sua e quella di tutti gli altri nomi presentati, nell’alterazione che generano queste opere nei contesti in cui sono allestite, nella loro capacità di assorbire e rimandare lo spazio e nell’attitudine inevitabile a porre continui quesiti si compiono quindi alcuni dei più intriganti capitoli di una ricerca visiva che tende da sempre a mettersi e a mettere il presente in gioco. Dimostrando quanto un territorio diversificato e attraversato da continue criticità formi animi predisposti alla ricerca e alla messa in discussione dei valori acquisiti, e dimostrando quanto ancora oggi l’insegnamento di Lucio Fontana sia uno dei fari che muove lo sguardo di chi cerca. 8 PAV è aperto dal 2008 a Torino. 9 Si veda la nota 1.

GETULIO ALVIANI Superficie vibratile, 1972 (detail) Aluminum on board 28 1/4 x 28 1/4 in (72 x 72 cm)

WE ABANDON THE USE OF KNOWN ART

Routes through Italian art from post-war to the present day Elena Forin

ARTURO VERMI Untitled, 1968 (detail) Mixed technique on wood 12 1/2 x 8 3/4 in (32 x 22 cm)

Piero Atchugarry has chosen to display a brief synopsis of Italian art alongside works by Eugenio Espinoza, Pablo Atchugarry, and Louise Nevelson in the sizeable space of Miami’s Atchugarry Art Center. When talking about this project—which he has been working on through the foundation and galleries— he told me how important it was for him to connect three worlds that differ in terms of geography, culture, and politics through the search for space, material, and visual experience; three worlds that have often sought each other out and been brought together: Latin America, the United States, and Europe. Used to a life lived constantly between these three settings, Piero has assembled works by an extremely diverse group of Italian artists that, when looked at as a whole, allow for a reconstruction of some of the dynamics affecting art in the peninsula since the end of the Second World War. These profoundly different visual approaches offer an interesting counterpoint to the other projects in this gallery exhibition cycle: space, the main protagonist of the research on display, reveals some of its infinite and most extraordinary possibilities in these three exhibitions. There is no doubt that the starting point for We Abandon the Use of Known Art is the climate of the post-war period: a clean break produced by the conflict, both in Italy and elsewhere. Proportions, distances, actions, strategies, and interventions were broadened out to include unthinkable interests, expanding geography and contacts, as well as the field of action and its methods. Nothing was the same as it had been before, and, although this is definitely not the place to explore the complexity of the impact generated by those clashes on culture and society across the world, it is clear that, in addition to the human factor that emerged dramatically, the war completely changed the conception and representation of space. The environment—destroyed and torn up by death— and the human gaze—profoundly tested by exterminations and attacks on dignity—united in a single vision and gave life to the wide-ranging overview that was Arte Informale. Spirals by Roberto Crippa (1921-1972), for example, can be found within this scheme, describing a world of continuous movements in which the sign shakes up the surface of elliptical circuits: patches of color, as in the painting on display here, and a continuous tangling of structures that break through the space are the absolutes of a linguistic code destined to develop over the coming years, confirming the idea of a painting focused on the concept of evolution through this change. This takes us to 1951, the year of Lucio Fontana’s (1899-1968) Technical Manifesto of Spatialism, which Crippa had also supported: “We abandon the use of known art forms,” said Fontana during a speech given at the Milan Triennale,1 “and turn to the development of an art based on the unity of time and space [...] We conceive of the synthesis as a sum of physical elements: color, sound, movement, space, completing a unity of idea and matter. Color, the element of space; sound, the element of time; and movement, which develops in space and time. These are the fundamental forms of the new art.” It was also in 1951 that Fontana collaborated with L’Age d’Or, the gallery-bookshop founded the previous year in Rome by Piero Dorazio (1927-2005), Achille Perilli (1927), and Mino Guerrini (19271 Speech delivered by Lucio Fontana at the conference for the Milan Triennale, 1951, in Lucio Fontana, Manifesti Scritti Interviste, ed. Angela Sanna, ABSCONDITA, Milan, 2015, p. 47).

1990). Dorazio—a key player in Italian and international abstraction—was, among other things, one of the figures that formed a “bridge” between Europe and the United States, where he lectured from 1953, taught continuously, and exhibited his art as part of the system of that period: on this occasion we see one of his lattices, an acrylic on paper from 1962, in which it is possible to measure the meaning of the composition that is a unique distinctive trait of his work. The lines are arranged precisely in the space, alternating with emptiness, both articulating and cutting through it; they overlap continuously until they almost completely cover the surface, which emerges only between the lines and at the edges. Like Crippa, he immediately embarked on a solid and extremely active career, and by 1962 had already participated in the Venice Biennale2 and documenta in Kassel,3 as well as founding and joining the various groups that sprang up during that brilliant season of Italian art.4 Here he shows us, among other things, a direction that would later be studied and explored by many: geometry. Leaping forward in time, Curva di Peano from 1991 by Bruno Munari, Dinamica prataiola from 1995 and Dinamica triangolare bianca from 1997 by Alberto Biasi, as far as the untitled diptych by Paolo Minoli from 2003—all exhibited as part of We Abandon the Use of Known Art—bear witness to some of the possibilities explored within this great universe. Rigor, form, repetition, and the destabilizing of the equilibrium seem to be what this research has in common. Each element is thought and elaborated within the work in such a way as to create unexpected frictions and outcomes. Furthermore, Munari said in a collection of aphorisms5 that “A rule alone is monotonous / chance alone is unsettling. / The Orientals say: / perfection is beautiful but it is stupid / you have to know it but break it. / The combination between rule and chance / is life, is art / is fantasy, is balance”. His Curve di Peano, as well as other works different from this cycle, reproduce shapes on the canvas almost by saturating the space, while the insertion of powerful two- and three-tones creates a sort of visual shock, a perceptive instability that provides a sensation of continuous movement; it is almost as if nature, even one of geometrical and regular images, has unimaginable resources and an inevitable propensity for change. We also see this in the PVC structures of Alberto Biasi (1937), which, with minimal changes of direction in the layers, break the monochromy and introduce color according to the movements of the viewer; or in the punctuated spaces of Paolo Minoli (1942-2004); or, thinking of examples from the new millennium, in the concentric colors of Ugo Rondinone (1964). The variation of color, like the repetition of a module, takes shape in a different way, offering a perspective on the dynamic of time that is always personal. Light, which from movements to colors is the absolute protagonist of these pictures, is its activator: in Minoli’s art, it results in a line that creates intense flashes on the canvas; in Biasi’s art, it is the reverberation of the relationship between the surface and what lies beyond it; for Rondinone it is the fading of color and form; while Munari mixes it with color to break perfection—and this generates new visions. 2 In 1956, 1958 and 1960, with a whole room dedicated to his work. 3 In 1959. 4 In 1947 Forma1, Origine (which later became Fondazione Origine Art Club). 5 Published for the first time in 1982, Verbale scritto is a heterogeneous collection of texts ranging from aphorisms to verbal invention and Japanese haikus.

Light in relation to geometry and the study of material is also a vital crux of the research of Getulio Alviani (1939-2018): a tireless investigator of aluminum, he places every element in a condition that is always “at the limit of vision” in his paintings. In the encounter between lights, the treatment of surfaces, reflections, and forms, the eye is lost in an infinite number of possible interpretations: every atom of the painting seems to be able to transform itself second by second, and this balance between permanence and transformation is ultimately the latent value, form of delicate and poignant poetry that liberates every work by the artist. One particular type of painting translated the most inaccessible tensions of humans and their environment through sign, material, and color: Emilio Scanavino (1922-1986), master of the lines and knots through which he brought anxieties agitated by dark or blood like shades to the canvas, is another unforgettable name. At the same time, geometry showed infinite potential for going beyond the rules, but there was also someone who combined the rigor of form with the extraordinary power of light through a minimal linguistic and poetic alphabet: Arturo Vermi (1928-1988), whose analysis of time carried out using essential signs brings humans back from the present time to their origins, and then from there to eternity through the use of gold leaf. The direction taken by painting, however, has also encountered that of concept, providing absolute evidence, as in the case of Alighiero Boetti (1940-1994), of both how incredibly surprising the act of discovery can be, and how extraordinary the power of language can be. Beyond his medium,6 Boetti reveals a universe we can learn about slowly, reconstructing letter by letter, sign by sign, element by element, the meaning of existence, fragmented and fragmentary, yet capable of fragile moments of unity. His embroideries—Tra l’incudine e il martello (1987) is on display here—have a pictorial density that goes far beyond the specific use of painting as an expressive medium, and describe the identity of time by entrusting the surface with translating minimal yet unprecedently powerful concepts through single units (the letters and squares that contain them). Thanks to his visionary genius and invitation to constantly go beyond the established canons and visual habits, Lucio Fontana became an undisputed point of reference for generations and generations of artists all over the world. As such, his teachings could also be found in painting’s increasing propensity towards the dimension of objects as Italian art proliferated. With this in mind, Gillo Dorfles had brought together a group of artists7 who favored a vision of painting as an “integrating element of the living space, which acts as much as a modulator of a dimensional situation as simply an exquisite plastic-chromatic element created by the encounter of shapes and colors, always generated, nevertheless, by a careful and preordained structural design.” Paolo Scheggi (1940-1971), in his short and intense life, had given form to this vision: his Intersuperfici curve, the result of three overlapping and carefully cut canvases, construct shapes that penetrate deeply. The space that results from this action is created by a void in which color and form play a fundamental role, transforming the resulting surface through cuts no longer as an absence, but rather as an exceptional three-dimensional body that is lyrical and even theatrical, consisting of elements that are the absolutes of painting. 6 In this case embroidery, but also pen drawing, wood, photography, cement, postal envelopes, etc. 7 Agostino Bonalumi, Paolo Scheggi, Enrico Castellani (who never identified particularly with this definition, however) and Lucio Fontana, whose inclusion “aims above all to be a tribute to someone who was so far ahead of anyone else in Italy when it came to discovering some of the constant fundamentals of modern art” (G. Dorfles, Pittura-oggetto a Milano, Arco d’Alibert Studio d’arte, 1966).

When it comes to going beyond the canvas, in addition to Turi Simeti (1929), who works in a similar way to Scheggi—but by disturbing the surface with protruding shapes, confirming it as a restless entity, moved by tensions and forces that act beneath and beyond it—we must mention Piero Gilardi (1942), who, with his polyurethane Tappeti natura has been reproducing nature in a realistic way since 1965. He creates small sections of the environment—woods, riverbeds, fruit, vegetables, and so on—which could come from anywhere; colorful and joyful compositions, they have an immediate impact on viewers, who cannot help but smile when they see them. Yet this initial empathy is followed by a sense of inexorable fragility: not only of the material that tends to crumble over time and exposure to the light, but also (and especially) a condemnation of life’s increasingly artificial direction. In 1969, this research led him to take a long break from art, which he set aside to devote himself to theory and politics; he returned to art in 1981, and since then his commitment has combined aesthetics, the environment and community. His exhibitions are often supplemented by workshops with the public, and, as well as various projects on technological and environmental development, he has promoted the PAV, Parco Arte Vivente [Living Art Park],8 a place that synthesizes his experiences linked to the nature/culture dialectic. We abandon the use of known art forms.9 As we come to an end of this analysis of generations, languages, geometry, formless matter, concept, object, color, light, and time, all that remains is to point out that the many directions travelled in the works on display are united by a shared background found in the desire to profoundly analyze the nature of things. Whether a human soul, existential conditions fragmented and distorted by history and time, rules called into question, absolute pictorial forms, words, or nature, Italian art of the second half of the 20th century has shown that its aim is always to penetrate reality and thought to glean new readings and interpretations of the present, humanity, time, and history. This same is true of Arcangelo Sassolino (1967), who attempts to focus on the tensions hidden in society, time, and the human soul, as well as Riccardo De Marchi (1964), who pierces the surfaces he encounters in his work and life (from Teflon to steel, and even the sleeves of the CDs he listens to), generating a poetry of minimal elements (the holes) and a writing literally made out of nothing, yet so intense as to distort the space it inhabits. This intense analysis— his and that of all the other names listed—, the alteration generated by these works in the contexts in which they are displayed, their ability to absorb and reflect space, and the inevitable approach of asking continuous questions all serve to write some of the most intriguing chapters in a history of visual research that has always tended to bring itself and the present in to play. It also demonstrates how much a country of differences, marked by constant criticism, shapes minds predisposed to research and to questioning acquired values, as well as demonstrating how the teachings of Lucio Fontana are still the lights guiding the gaze of those who search today. 8 PAV opened in Turin in 2008. 9 See note 1.

PAOLO SCHEGGI Intersuperficie curva, 1965 (detail) Acrylic on 3 overlapping canvas 27 1/2 x 23 1/2 x 2 1/4 in (70 x 60 x 5.5 cm)

GETULIO ALVIANI Superficie vibratile, 1972 Aluminum on board 28 1/4 x 28 1/4 in (72 x 72 cm)

GETULIO ALVIANI

Udine, 1939 - Milano 2018

Getulio Alviani was an Italian painter based in Milan. He is considered to be an important International Optical - kinetic artist. Alviani was born in Udine, where he showed talent for design and geometric drawing from his childhood. He enrolled in the Venice Art School, but soon showed little interest in his studies, spending afternoons in Venice’s museums in contemplation of classical masterpieces. He also started doing small jobs for local architects, and helped local artists in inking projects such as etchings. His first series was “The Wires”, inspired by aerial electric wires. Fascinated by some polished aluminium surfaces found in a factory in which he was working: after further polishing and abrasion, he created his landmark “Superfici a testura vibratile” (vibrating texture surfaces), winning international acclaim. In 1961 he was invited to the Zagreb exhibition “Nove Tendencije”, together with other artists working along similar lines and exploring the opportunities of a dynamic art which interacts with the viewer. He started exchanging ideas with artists like Julio Le Parc, François Morellet and Enrico Castellani, actively participating in the activities of the so-called G.R.A.V. (Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuelle) in Paris. In 1962 he moved to Milan, where he became friends with Piero Manzoni and Lucio Fontana, who was very interested in his works and bought some of his “surfaces”. He also worked with other famous artists like Max Bill, Bruno Munari and Josef Albers. In 1964 he was invited to show at the Venice Biennale, successfully sharing a room with Enrico Castellani. In 1965 Alviani took part in The Responsive Eye at MoMA in New York, together with other artists associated with Kinetic and Programmed Art. His work was purchased by MoMA and used as a poster image for the museum’s next exhibition, “The New Acquisitions”. In 1968 he was invited at Kassel’s Documenta 4. Throughout the 1970s he travelled to South America, and accepted, upon request of Jesús Rafael Soto, the directorship of the Jesús Soto Museum of Modern Art, Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela. His work was again included in the Venice Biennale in 1984, 1986 and 1993. He also exhibited at the Milan Triennale, the Kunsthaus Graz, Palazzo delle Papesse in Siena, Academie de France in Rome, the Buenos Aires Biennale, the travelling exhibition “Light, Movement and Programming”, and the Rome Quadriennale. Alviani’s works are actively traded in Italian and international modern art auctions, such as the “Italian sales” held in London by Christie’s and Sotheby’s. Among his works, the most appreciated by the market are the “Superfici a testura variabile” where the polished aluminium reflects the light in different hues according to the angle at which they are viewed. Other works by Alviani are the “chromodynamic surfaces”, where primary colour interactions are studied, and his “mirrors” with their illusion of rings created on reflecting metal surfaces. Alviani was the author of a book on Josef Albers (1988). He also edited with Giancarlo Pauletto a book on Michel Seuphor (1987), and contributed with his photographs to a book of Pauletto and Margaret A. Miller on Richard Anuszkiewicz (1988).

GETULIO ALVIANI 8 mezzi moduli al centro, 1964 Aluminum on board 22 x 22 in (56 x 56 cm)

GETULIO ALVIANI Alluminio opaco = Alluminio matrice di luce, 1965/68 Aluminum on board 16 1/2 x 16 1/2 in (42 x 42 cm)

GETULIO ALVIANI Superficie a testura vibrante, 1964 Aluminum on board 23 1/4 x 23 1/4 in (59 x 59 cm)

ALIGHIERO BOETTI Tra lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;incudine e il martello, 1987 Embroidery on fabric 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 in (21.5 x 21.5 cm)

ALIGHIERO BOETTI Torino, 1940 - Roma 1994

Alighiero Boetti (1940-1994) – or Alighiero and Boetti as signed in 1971 – was born in Turin where he made his debut in the Arte Povera in January 1967. In 1972 he moved to Rome, a context closer to his predilection for the South of the world. Already in the previous year he discovered Afghanistan and started the artistic work he entrusted to the Afghan embroiderers, including the Maps, the colored planispheres that he will propose over the years, as a register of political changes in the world. A conceptual artist, versatile and kaleidoscopic, he multiplies the types of works whose execution – in some cases – is delegated with precise rules to other subjects and other hands, following the principle of ‘necessity and chance’: so the Biro (blue , blacks, reds, greens) in which the dotted pattern depicts language; thus the embroideries of letters, small or large, and multicolored; or the Tutto, dense puzzles in which heterogeneous silhouettes are found, including shapes of objects and animals, images taken from magazines and printed paper, and much more, really ‘everything’ (Tutto in italian). There are also postal works played on the mathematical permutation of the stamps, the haphazard adventure of the postal journey and the secret beauty of the sheets contained in the envelopes. Another sector of Boetti’s work, unmistakably his own, offers in the early ’70s many’ exercises’ on squared paper, based on musical or mathematical rhythms; then on paper, light compositions in which ranks of animals recalling the Etruscan and Pompeian decoration flow. Time, its fascinating and ineluctable flow, is perhaps the unifying theme of Boetti’s typological and iconographic plurality. Alighiero Boetti has exhibited in the most emblematic exhibitions of his generation, from “When attitudes become form” (1969) to “Contemporanea” (1973), from “Identitéitalienne” (1981) to “The Italian Metamorphosis” 1943-1968 (1994). He is several times present at the Venice Biennale, with a personal room in the 1990 edition, a posthumous tribute in 2001 and a large exhibition at the Cini Foundation in the recent edition of 2017. Among the most significant exhibitions of the last few years the great Game Plan retrospective has been realized in three prestigious locations (MOMA in New York, Tate in London, Reina Sofia in Madrid). Of the ample corpus of works, many Italian and international museums are kept, including the Center Pompidou in Paris, Stedelijk Museum, the MOCA in Los Angeles, etc.).

ROBERTO CRIPPA Spirali, 1951 Oil on canvas 19 3/4 x 23 1/2 in (50 x 60 cm)

ROBERTO CRIPPA

Monza, 1921 - Bresso, 1972

Roberto Crippa was born in Monza in 1921. He attended the Accademia di Brera where he had Aldo Carpi, Achille Funi and Carlo Carrà as teachers. In 1947 he graduated from the Academy and exhibited at the Bergamini Gallery in Milan. He was affected by the post-cubist climate. In 1948 he took part in the Milan Triennale and the Venice Biennale. In 1950 he is still present at the Venice Biennale and exhibits in the collective exhibition “Spatial art” at the Casanova Gallery in Trieste. Crippa attends Lucio Fontana and signs the third of the posters of spatialism “Proposal for a regulation”. In 1951 he signed the “Space Art Manifesto” and visited New York where he met the gallery owner Alexander Jolas, who will organize personal exhibitions annually. He takes part in solo and group exhibitions in New York, at the Naviglio in Milan, in Florence, in Venice, Zurich, Stockholm. In 1954 he took part in the Venice Biennale, and in the X Triennale in Milan, he exhibited in New York and kept the collaboration with architects alive, already begun in 1951 on the occasion of the Triennale. In 1955 he exhibited the poly-materials at the Naviglio di Milano. In 1956, in addition to the Venice Biennale, he was present in collective exhibitions in Tokyo, Hiroshima, Amsterdam, Madrid and in personal exhibitions in Paris and Rome. He continued his presence in New York, London, Buenos Aires for the whole 1957, the year in which he made the first corks, barks and woods, as well as continuing the production of irons, bronzes, steel pieces with a neo-primitive and symbolic content. In 1958 he took part in the Venice Biennale and the following year he pursued an intense exhibition itinerary for the whole world. In 1960 he inaugurated the production of asbestos, collages with corks, newspapers, plasticized tissues and other materials. The exhibition activity in Japan, Holland, the United States, Australia, France and in 1962, during one of his many acrobatic flights, broke his legs and for a year he was forced to use a wheelchair and crutches, impediment that does not block his vitality; it also presents itself at exhibitions in Lausanne, New York and Paris. Until 1967 the exhibition itinerary marks stages in countries around the world; just in that year Rhodesia dedicated a stamp to him. His fame is now at the top and the artist starts a series of asbestos engraved with carvings and reliefs. In 1968 he was again invited to the Venice Biennale and the Menton Biennale. This is followed by a very busy exhibition in Italy and abroad, which tirelessly supports the passion for acrobatic flight, so much so that in 1971 he was invited to represent Italy at the World Acrobatics Championships for 1972. However his car crashes at the airport of Bresso and Crippa, only fifty-one years old, finds his death along with his pupil Piero Crespi

ROBERTO CRIPPA Spirale, 1950 Oil on canvas 19 3/4 x 23 1/2 in (50 x 60 cm)

ROBERTO CRIPPA Spirale, 1951 Oil on canvas 15 3/4 x 23 1/2 in (40 x 60 cm)

RICCARDO DE MARCHI Mereto di Tomba, 1964

Riccardo De Marchi was born in Mereto di Tomba (Udine) in 1964. He has participated in numerous collective exhibitions in prestigious institutional contexts, including the XLV Venice Biennale (1993), the Du Mont Kunsthalle in Cologne (1997), the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa in Venice (1994 and 2001), the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (2009 and 2011) and the Museo Fortuny in Venice (2009, 2011 and 2016), the MART in Rovereto (2005 and 2011). The most recent group exhibitions have been at the Fundaciรณn Pablo Atchugarry in Manantiales (Punta del Este, 2017) and in Miami, at the Piero Atchugarry Gallery (2018). He has held a number of personal shows in both public institutions and major galleries or private spaces: an exhibition at Villa Pisani Bonetti in Bagnolo di Lonigo (2009, with Alan Charlton) and at MACRO, contemporary art museum of Rome (2011). In 2015 he exhibited at Casa Cavazzini, the museum of modern and contemporary art of Udine and in 2019 in Milan, at the A Arte Invernizzi gallery.

RICCARDO DE MARCHI Pagina stampata, 2014 Aluminium with white patina 53 1/4 x 39 1/4 in (135 x 100 cm)

RICCARDO DE MARCHI Untitled, 2016 Plexiglas 19 3/4 x 19 3/4 in (50 x 50 cm)

PIERO DORAZIO Reticolo, 1962 Acrylic on paper 13 x 9 3/4 in (33 x 25 cm)

PIERO DORAZIO

Roma, 1927 - Perugia, 2005

Dorazio was born in Rome. His father was a civil servant, while his mother was interested in history and art. Dorazio attended Julius Caesar Lyceum (high school) in Rome. The family fled to their homeland province of Abruzzo in 1943. After the war, Dorazio worked briefly as a translator for the British Army and then studied architecture at the University of Rome. He was influenced by futurists such as Gino Severini, Antonio Corpora, Enrico Prampolini, and Giacomo Balla, attracting him to painting. An aversion to their right-wing views pushed him to align instead with left-leaning artists like Renato Guttuso. Along with Pietro Consagra, Achille Perilli, and Giulio Turcato, he helped formulate a manifesto and establish a group of abstract artists in 1947 called Forma I. Although imbued with socialist leanings, the group did not follow the realist social commentary furthered by Guttuso but proposed to reclaim abstraction from Futurism. In 1947 Dorazio won a prize and a stipend from the French government to study at the École des Beaux-Arts of Paris. Dorazio, along with artists Mino Perilli and Guerrini, helped found L’Age d’Or in 1950. It was a bookstore/gallery space dedicated to abstract art. In 1952, he promoted the foundation Origin with Alberto Burri, Ettore Colla and others, and edited the magazine Arti Visive. As a representative of Italy, in 1953 he traveled for the first time to the United States to participate in the International Summer Seminar at Harvard University. That fall, he moved to New York City and stayed through 1954. In October 1953, Dorazio had his first solo exhibition at George Wittenborn’s One-Wall Gallery. He published La Fantasia Dell’ Arte Nella Vita Moderna” in 1955, a review of modern art in Italy. Regarding this book, reviewer Christopher Masters states that Dorazio advanced his belief, perhaps with a surfeit of optimism, that “abstract art could change the world... That just as science and technology were destroying the barriers between different cultures, so the new ‘universal style’ would lead to a ‘universal civilisation’.” He was invited to teach at the Graduate School of Fine Arts program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design in 1959. He taught painting there for one semester each year from 1960 to 1969, splitting his time between the United States and Italy. In 1970 he returned to live and work fulltime in Rome. In 1974 he moved his studio from Rome to Umbria, near Todi. He continued to work and exhibit until 2004. Described as an “outspoken, independent character” who was the “opposite of politically correct”, Dorazio’s use of materials and colors stayed constant over time. He is mostly known for paintings with thick bands of bright color and crosshatched grids. While abstract, his paintings do not neglect detail or complexity. His style is in line with what Clement Greenberg later described as “Post-painterly abstraction”.

PIERO DORAZIO Out-out, 1972 Canvas collage on canvas 114 1/4 x 181 in (290 x 460 cm)

PIERO GILARDI Foglie rosse, 2003 Mixed technique 27 1/2 x 27 1/2 in (70 x 70 cm)

PIERO GILARDI Torino, 1942

Piero Gilardi was born in Turin in 1942, where he lives and works. In 1963 he held his first one-man show, entitled “Machines for the future”. In 1965 he created his first pieces in polyurethane foam and exhibited them in Paris, Brussels, Cologne, Hamburg, Amsterdam and New York. As from 1968 he stopped producing regular artworks to engage in the new artistic trends of the late ’60s. Arte Povera, Land Art and Antiform Art. He took part in setting up the first two international exhibitions of the new trends at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and at the Bern Kunsthalle. In 1969 he started a long trans-cultural experience to conceptually analyze and practice the “Art/Life” combination. As political activist and animator of youth culture, he organized several experiences of collective creativity on urban and “world” fringes, such as Nicaragua, Indian Reserves in the USA and Africa. In 1981 he resumed his activity in the art world and exhibited installations, accompanied by creative public workshops. In 1985 he started an artistic research project with new technologies with the elaboration of the IXIANA project (which was presented at the Parc de la Villette in Paris). This work consisted of a technological park in which the public could artistically experiment with digital technologies. During the ’90s he developed a series of multimedia interactive installations with an intense international activity. Along with Claude Faure and Piotr Kowalski, he formed the International Association Ars Technica. He presides over the international association “Ars Technica” which has promoted two Arslab exhibitions of neo-technological art in Turin (Arslab. Metodi ed Emozioni in 1992, Arslab, I Sensi del Virtuale in 1995, Arslab. I labirinti del corpo in gioco in 1999). He has published two books of theoretical reflection about his varied forms of research: “Dall’ arte alla vita, dalla vita all’arte” (From art to life, from life to art), La Salamandra, Milano 1981 and “Not for Sale”, Mazzotta, Milano 2000 and “Les Presses du reel”, Dijon 2003. He writes articles for a number of different art magazines such as Juliet and Flash Art. He had promoted the project of PAV – Parco Arte Vivente (Living Art Park opened in the 2008 in Turin) which will contain a compendium of all his experiences concerning the relationship between Nature/Culture.

PIERO GILARDI Rizoma e madrepora, c. 2000 Mixed technique 27 1/2 x 27 1/2 in (70 x 70 cm)

PIERO GILARDI Mitra e corallo, c. 2000 Mixed technique 19 3/4 x 19 3/4 in (50 x 50 cm)

PIERO GILARDI 2003 Mixed technique 32 1/4 x 32 1/4 in (71 x 71 cm)

PIERO GILARDI Aguacate sulla spiaggia, c. 2000 Mixed technique 12 1/4 x 12 1/4 in (31 x 31 cm)

PIERO GILARDI Greto con ammaniti, c. 2000 Mixed technique 19 3/4 x 19 3/4 in (50 x 50 cm)

PIERO GILARDI Rampicante, 2004 Mixed technique 11 3/4 x 11 3/4 in (30 x 30 cm)

PIERO GILARDI Mango, 1992 Sculpture with kinetic-sound program 118 x 118 x 118 in (300 x 300 x 300 cm)

PAOLO MINOLI Di cielo in cielo secondo, 1995 Acrylic on board 9 1/2 x 7 in (24 x 18 cm)

PAOLO MINOLI Cantù, 1942 - 2004

Paolo Minoli was born in 1942 in Cantù (Como). At a very young age he attended the house of the painter Enrico Sottili and, as a student, the studio of the sculptor Gaetano Negri. He graduated “Master of art” in 1961 at the State Institute of Art in Cantù, where he taught from 1964 to 1978. From 1977 to 1978 he was part of the research group “Systematic interrogation” with Nato Frascà and Antonio Scaccabarozzi. Since 1979, at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan he has been teaching the special course of “Cromatologia” and collaborates, as a consultant, with companies for the application of color solutions in industrial production. In 1980 he published for the publisher Corraini of Mantua two artist’s books, in twenty copies, each composed of 13 plates printed in serigraphy personally at the “RS” center in Como. In 1982 he was invited to the “XL Biennale Internazionale d’Arte” in Venice, sector “Visual Arts”. In 1986 he was present at the “XLII International Art Biennale” in Venice with the work Sequenza A / D from 1977 for the “Color” sector, as part of the review Arte e Scienza. In 1999 he was invited to the “XIII Art Quadrennial” of Rome Projections 2000. Curated by Elena Pontiggia, in October 2000, the “Paolo Minoli” catalog was published for the “Rex” editions. The slow dart of beauty “. Edited by Alberto Veca, in October 2004, on the occasion of the exhibition at the Lagorio Arte Contemporanea gallery in Brescia, the monograph “Paolo Minoli. Works 1974-2003 ”. He has held meetings, seminars, refresher courses, training and qualification at various institutions. In 1999 he was a contract professor for the degree course in architecture for the Institute of Industrial Design, University of Palermo. He was president of the “Friends of the City of Cantù Museum Association”, member of the scientific committee of the “Gallery of Design and Furnishing”, of the “Bruno Munari Collection” of Cantù and of the “Luigi Veronesi Committee”, Milan. On the initiative of Paolo Minoli, who died on December 20, 2004, Casaperlarte was established - the Paolo Minoli foundation based in Cantù, aimed at promoting contemporary art in its various expressions.

PAOLO MINOLI Per il poeta, quando il cielo si specchia nella sera, 2003 Acrylic on board, 2 elements 11 3/4 x 11 3/4 in each (30 x 30 cm)

PAOLO MINOLI Pizzicato quinto, 1999 Acrylic on board, 2 elements 9 1/2 x 7 in (24 x 18 cm) each

PAOLO MINOLI Specchio magico per il poeta, 2003 Acrylic on canvas, 2 elements 23 1/2 x 23 1/2 in (60 x 60 cm) each

BRUNO MUNARI Scultura da viaggio, 1958 Brass 35 x 36 1/2 x 19 3/4 in (89 x 93 x 50 cm)

BRUNO MUNARI Milano 1907 - 1998

Bruno Munari was born in Milan in 1907. He soon moved with his parents to Badia Polesine, in the Venetian countryside near the Adige river. At eighteen he returned to Milan and, in 1925, thanks to the help of his uncle engineer, he began working as a graphic designer. His first creations published in various magazines of the time date back to 1926 and are signed “bum”, because at that time Munari called himself like that. In 1926 he came into contact with the Futurist movement and, between 1927 and 1933 participated in the collective exhibitions of the Pesaro gallery, as well as in the Biennials and the Quadrennials of the 1930s. His artistic activity ranges from painting to collage, to graphics, to design, to multi-material works. In 1930 he created his first “aerial machine”, which anticipated “useless machines”, completely abstract constructions, suspended or resting on the ground. In the same year he also associates with Ricas (Riccardo Castagneri) and with the R + M brand the two artists will produce advertising graphics until 1938. In 1933 Munari set up his first solo exhibition at the Galleria delle Tre Arti, in Milan. The following year he appeared among the signatories of the “Technical Manifesto of the Futurist Airplane” and in 1935 he made a series of abstract paintings. In the second half of the thirties he entered into a relationship with the artists of the Milione, a gallery in which he exhibited the “metaphysical objects” in 1940. In the same years he also approached the group of “Primal Values”, signing the Manifesto. In 1942 he published a book on “useless machines” and in 1947 he began to build them in series. From 1939 to 1945 he worked as a graphic designer for Mondadori and was the art director of the magazine “Tempo”. In 1945, with the same publisher, he began his series of children’s books which, designed for his son Alberto, were then translated all over the world. After World War II, in 1948, he was among the founders of MAC (Concrete Art Movement), alongside Gillo Dorfles, Gianni Monnet and Atanasio Soldati. Starting from 1949 he builds illegible books. From 1952 he began producing foam rubber toys, cubic ashtrays, knitted lamps and signed the “Manifesto del Machinismo”. In 1962, at the Olivetti store in Milan, he organized the first Programmed Art Exhibition. Starting from the seventies, he deepened his interests in the didactic field and contributed to the theoretical and practical renewal of the artistic teaching by creating the first habitable transformable structure, The Hut. In 1977 he created the first Laboratory for the Infancy at the Pinacoteca di Brera. Since then his fame has spread throughout the world. He received many honors; numerous schools in Europe, America and Asia have awarded him with various titles, and everywhere there are exhibitions dedicated to him. He died on September 30, 1998 in Milan.

BRUNO MUNARI Curva di Peano, 1991 Acrylic on canvas 39 1/4 x 39 1/4 in (100 x 100 cm)

BRUNO MUNARI Negativo-Positivo, 1986 Acrylic on canvas 31 1/2 x 31 1/2 in (80 x 80 cm)

BRUNO MUNARI Curva di Peano, 1977 Acrylic on canvas 47 1/4 x 47 1/4 in (120 x 120 cm)

UGO RONDINONE Einundzwanzigsteraugustzweiltausendindnullinone, 2000 Oil on canvas 78 3/4 in (200 cm) of diameter

UGO RONDINONE

Brunnen (Switzerland), 1964

Ugo Rondinone is a Swiss installation artist best known for his spray paintings and video environments that bear a strong sense of melancholy and alienation. The artist is based in New York and his themes usually try to find a middle ground between fantasy and reality, dancing on a razor’s edge of euphoria and depression. This phenomenal artist has been active for years now, never failing to bring us fresh and original pieces that continue to amaze us to this day. Besides installations, Ugo is also quite active in creating sculpture pieces. Ugo Rondinone was born during the year of 1964, in Brunnen, a town in Switzerland. He was born to Italian parents and started showing signs of artistic tendencies from early on. In 1983, Ugo moved to Zurich in order to become the assistant to Hermann Nitsch, an Austrian artist who works in experimental and multimedia modes. This was Ugo’s first contact with professional art. Rondinone acquired his education by studying at the Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna, where he graduated in 1990. His official career started in the 1990s, in a time he created a series of circular paintings that were simply titled using numbers and many critics thought they resembled Kenneth Noland’s target works. Soon he became the subject of international attention as his work started to expand and evolve. Technically speaking, Rondinone worked with different media, such as photography, video, sculpture, and drawing – and he also regularly used more or less familiar quotations from literature and popular culture, appropriately placing them where he saw fit. Ever since his early days as a professional artist, Rondinone has shown what type of pieces he likes creating – the ones that tempt the viewer into a meditative state, much alike the way aforementioned target-shaped paintings lure the audience into their brightly colored, concentric rings.

ARCANGELO SASSOLINO Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Inconveniente, 2019 Ski, steel, and steel wire 65 3/4 x 15 3/4 x 3 1/2 in (167 x 40 x 9 cm)

ARCANGELO SASSOLINO Vicenza, 1967

Arcangelo Sassolino’s signature visual vocabulary is both ethological and mechanized, poetic and menacing, pushing materials past their physical limitations to demonstrate Modemism’s process of becoming and unbecoming. His kinetic sculptures employ industrial materials and technologies to mine the harrowing consequences and destructive qualities in which societies must engage to evolve, perhaps eschewing empathy more than ever in our contemporary culture. Marshaling the expertise of industrial and mechanical engineers, Sassolino’s works implicate the viewer in the immanent tension and expectation embedded in the sculpture’s visceral aesthetic language. Arcangelo Sassolino has had solo shows at the Contemponary Ant Museum, Saint Louis (2016), the Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt (2016), the MACRO, Rome (2011), the Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2008), the Z33 Center for Contemporary Art, Hasselt (2010), and Ad and the City, Zurich (2012). His works have been exhibited in galleries and museums, including 104, Paris, the MART, Rovereto, the Guggenheim Collection, Venice, the FRAC, Reims, Autocenter and Mica Moca, Berlin, the Tinguely Museum, Basel, the Swiss Institute, New York, CCC Strozzina, Florence, the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice, the Kunsthalle, Goppingen, the ZKM Karlsruhe, and the Fondazione Amaldo Pomodoro, Milan.

ARCANGELO SASSOLINO Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Inaspettato, 2019 Ski, steel, and steel wire 67 1/4 x 9 1/2 x 4 in (171 x 24 x 10 cm)

ARCANGELO SASSOLINO Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Imprevisto, 2018 Ski, steel, and PVC 69 3/4 x 13 x 3 1/2 in (177 x 33 x 9 cm)

EMILIO SCANAVINO Untitled, 1968 Mixed technique on canvas 18 x 21 3/4 in (46 x 55 cm)

EMILIO SCANAVINO Genova, 1922 - Milano, 1986

Scanavino was born in Genoa in 1922. In 1938 he enrolled in the Art School Nicolò Barabino where he met Mario Calonghi, who was teaching at the school and was a great influence on Scanavino’s artistic formation. In 1942 he had his first exhibition at the Salone Romano of Genoa. In the same year he enrolled at the Faculty of Architecture at the Milan University. In 1946 he married Giorgina Graglia. In 1947 Scanavino moved to Paris where he met poets and artists such as Edouard Jaguer, Wols and Camille Bryen. This experience proved to be inspirational. He was especially interested in Cubism, which he rendered into a personal interpretation when he exhibited at the Island Gallery in Genoa in 1948. In 1950 Scanavino and Rocco Borrella joined “The Seven of Number”, an artistic group revolving around the Number Gallery in Florence. He had a two-person exhibition with the sculptor Sarah Jackson at the Apollinaire Gallery in London. During his time in London Scanavino met Philip Martin, Eduardo Paolozzi, Graham Sutherland and Francis Bacon. In the same year he opened his first study in Milan in an attic in Foro Bonaparte. Critic Guido Ballo and dealers Guido Le Noci and Arturo Schwartz were early champions of his works. In 1952, Scanavino worked at the Marzotti’s Ceramic Factory in Albissola Marina, where he met and befriended many artists, including Lucio Fontana, Asger Jorn, Corneille, Roberto Matta, Wifredo Lam, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Enrico Baj, Sergio Dangelo, Roberto Crippa, Gianni Dova, Agenore Fabbri and Aligi Sassu. In 1954 he exhibited again at the Venice Biennale and in 1955 he received the Graziano Prize. In 1958 he won the Lissone Prize and the Prampolini Prize for a solo presentation at the Venice Biennale. In the same year he moved to Milan where he joined the Naviglio Gallery directed by Carlo Cardazzo with whom he established a long-standing friendship and proficuous working relation. In Milan he also met the art collector Gianni Malabarba with whom he established a strong friendship. In 1962 Scanavino bought an old house in Calice Ligure, which he later converted into a studio space. In 1963, after winning the La Spezia Prize, Scanavino learned of the sudden death of Carlo Cardazzo. Cardazzo’s brother, Renato, continued to run the Naviglio Gallery but the loss of Carlo had a huge impact in Scanavino’s life. After participating for the fourth time to the Venice Biennale, when he won the Pininfarina Prize, Scanavino permanently moved to Calice Ligure in 1968. In 1970 he won the Grand Prix at the 10th Menton Biennale and met Franco Castelli, then editor of “The Man and the Art”, who became one of his closest friends and supporters. In 1971 Scanavino had to undergo a major surgery operation. The recovery period signaled the start of a new creative phase in his painting. He traveled to Belgium, France and Germany, and in 1974 the Darmstadt organized a comprehensive anthological exhibition that later traveled to Venice’s Palazzo Grassi and Milan’s Royal Palace. In 1982, Scanavino’s health started to decline. His last exhibition was the 1986 edition of the Rome Quadriennale. Scanavino died in Milan on 28 November 1986.

EMILIO SCANAVINO Alfabeto senza fine, 1970 Acrylic on canvas 78 3/4 x 31 1/2 in (200 x 80 cm)

EMILIO SCANAVINO Fuochi fatui, 1973 Oil on canvas 31 1/2 x 31 1/2 in (80 x 80 cm)

PAOLO SCHEGGI Intersuperficie curva, 1965 Acrylic on 3 overlapping canvas 27 1/2 x 23 1/2 x 2 1/4 in (70 x 60 x 5.5 cm)

PAOLO SCHEGGI

Firenze, 1940 - Roma 1971

Born in Florence in 1940, died in Rome in 1971. Within a “long” decade (1958-1971) the research of Paolo Scheggi went through different fields of knowledge and different disciplines, from visual arts to architecture to fashion, from poetry to urban and theatrical performances to arrive at a conceptual and metaphysics reflection. Characterized by a strong interdisciplinary approach, the route taken by Paolo Scheggi may be condensed in interpretation given by Giovanni Maria Accame in 1976: from the exhibition of the project to project of the exhibition. In Milan since 1961, he holds a vibrant collaborative relationship with Germana Marucelli for whose redesign the spaces of her tailoring, that will be inaugurated with the parade of optical dresses in the spring of 1965; then comes into contact with new research in the Lombard capital, attending the group around Azimuth and the first exponents of arte programmata, while Lucio Fontana, since 1962, follows his research carefully. In 1964 Carlo Belloli ascribes him among the “44 protagonisti della visualità strutturata”, in 1965 he’s ascribed by Dorfles among members of the Pittura Oggetto, in the same year he joined the movement “nove tendencije”, and holds international contacts, especially in northern European area, where he exhibited more occasions and participated in group exhibitions Zero and Nul. Fundamental is also the architectural and environmental direction that his research undertaken since 1964, working and confronting with Nizzoli Associates (Mendini, Oliveri, Fronzoni), Bruno Munari (Sala Experimental Film, Milan Triennale in 1964) and resulting in the Intercamera plastica created by the end of the 1966 and presented in Milan at Galleria del Naviglio in January 1967. Since 1968 he opened his investigation towards theater and performing arts, addressing the overcoming of the traditional space of the stage and the gallery and extending it into the city (note his Marcia Funebre o della geometria for Campo Urbano in Como, in 1969, and the performance Oplà Stick held in Milan’s -Galleria del Naviglio, Firenze-Galleria Flori and city streets, Zagreb Student Center Gallery, for nove tendencije 4, 1969). During the last two years he is engaged in a conceptual research culminating in the Sette spazi recursivi autopunitivi (never realized), the seiprofetiperseigeometrie and the Ondosa environment, yet to be investigated in their complexity. He was present at the Venice Biennale in 1966, 1972, 1976, 1986, Scheggi exhibited in some of the major artistic events of the time, from Paris to Buenos Aires from New York to Hamburg, Dusseldorf to Zagreb.

TURI SIMETI Quattro ovali rossi, 2011 Acrylic on shaped canvas 48 x 30 in (122 x 76 cm)

TURI SIMETI Alcamo, 1929

Simeti after studying at Alcamo, in the province of Trapani, studied law in Palermo, then leaving Sicily, to settle in Rome at the end of the fifties. In the capital the artist attended the studios of Tano Festa, Mario Schifano, Giulio Turcato, and Alberto Burri. The meeting with Burri changed his life, because through him he discovered the oval; from then on this shape in relief has become the protagonist of his three-dimensional painting, it gives new visual perceptions, with its monochromatic surface that changes with the light. Simeti, gradually detaching himself from the uniformity of the canvas, came to the realization of works full of depth and movement. In 1963 he participated in the Figurative Arts Exhibition in Rome and Lazio, the Termoli Prize and the Visual Art exhibition held at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, and other important international exhibitions, including Arte Programmata - Aktuel 65 and Weiss auf Weiss in Berne in 1965 and 1966. In 1965 Simeti was invited to exhibit his works in Milan (where he moved in the same year), at Zero Avantgarde, a collective exhibition hosted in the studio of Lucio Fontana, which saw Italian and foreign artists gathered, including the German Group Zero, Hans Haacke, Yayoi Kusama, Agostino Bonalumi, Enrico Castellani and Dadamaino, Yves Klein and Piero Manzoni. Between 1966 and 1969, as Artist in Residence at the invitation of Fairleigh Dickinson University, he lived for long periods in New York, where he created several works; in the early seventies he held personal exhibitions in Bergamo, Verona, Rottweil, Düsseldorf, Oldenburg, Cologne, Munich, also taking part in some collective exhibitions, such as Extension, in the Casa del Mantegna in Mantua. In the eighties, stimulated by Ludovico Corrao’s passion for art, he created a very linear sculpture for Gibellina, a travertino slab instead of the usual canvas (Impronta, stone slab from 1980), where the artist transfers his geometric plasticism. In 1982 he set up a personal exhibition in the Grossetti Studio in Milan and, in the following years, abroad in the Galerie Passmann in Freiburg and the Galerie Wack in Kaiserslautern; in 1983, at Galerie Maier in Kitzbüehl and Galerie Ahrens in Koblenz in 1984, Galeria Paulo Figueiredo de San Paolo and Galerie 44 in Düsseldorf in 1985, then at the Chicago fair, at the Galerie Apicella in Bonn in 1986 and at the Galerie Monochrome by Aachen in 1987. In the 1990s, he exhibited new works in Rio de Janeiro, Biberach, Kaiserslautern, Milan (Vinciana gallery), Bolzano and Trapani, and in 1996 in the Kunstverein of Ludwigsburg and in Erice, with a text in the catalog by Marco Meneguzzo. In 1998 he held a solo show at the Galerie Kain in Basel, followed the following year by other exhibitions in Biberach (again in the Uli Lang gallery), Ladenburg, Mannheim, and by participating in the exhibition “Art in Italy in the 70s” at The Salerniana of Erice. In the following years his personal exhibitions continued in dozens of Italian and foreign galleries.

TURI SIMETI Quattro ovali blu, 1997 Acrylic on shaped canvas 47 1/4 x 39 1/4 in (120 x 100 cm)

ARTURO VERMI Presenza, 1965 Acrylic on canvas 63 x 51 1/4 in (160 x 130 cm)

ARTURO VERMI

Bergamo, 1928 - Paderno d’Adda, 1988

Arturo Vermi was born in 1928 in Bergamo. Self-taught, he reveals in his first pictorial experiences, dated 1950, an inspiration from German Expressionism. In 1956, coming into contact with the innovative instances that gravitated around the Brera district in Milan, his work moved towards an informal environment: in this period he met Costantino Guenzi. From 1959 he stayed for two years in Paris where he attended various ateliers, in particular those of Luigi Guadagnucci, André Blok, Szabo and OssipZadkine. In the French capital he binds with affectionate friendship to Beniamino Joppolo. In 1961 he returned to Milan where with Ettore Sordini and Angelo Verga he founded the Gruppo del Cenobio, then integrated by Agostino Ferrari, Alberto Lucia and Ugo La Pietra. In 1964 he resides in the Botteghe district of Sesto San Giovanni where with other painters including Agostino Bonalumi, Enrico Castellani, Carnà, Lino Marzulli and Lino Tiné he tries to bring artistic experiences back into everyday life. At the same time, with a contract that commits him to a long series of exhibitions, he is linked to the architect Arturo Cadario. In 1967 attending Lucio Fontana deepens that concept of space that will subsequently flow back into his own work. The 1975 defined by Vermi as “Lilit”, is a milestone both in his life and in his work: in fact, that happiness proposal begins that will lead him to the drafting of the first issue of “Azzurro” and of the “Manifesto of Disengagement”. Moving to Verderio, in Brianza, in the same year the Ministry of Public Education commissioned a documentary on his work to be used as teaching aids for high schools. In 1978 he resumed and expanded on themes and concepts expressed in the “Manifesto on Disengagement”: a second issue of “Azzurro” was distributed during the Venice Biennale. The same year he sets up that work of orbition and refusal which will then flow into the cycle of large canvases “Com’era bella la Terra”. In 1980 he designed and recorded “La Sequoia”, a sort of commandments that, the following year during a trip to Egypt with Antonio Paradiso and Nanda Vigo, he will return to Moses on Mount Sinai. In the same year his work focuses on the “I Colloqui” suite which will presage the advent of a work of happiness: “L’Annologio”. He died in Paderno d’Adda in 1988.

ARTURO VERMI Clessidra, 1974 Acrylic and golden leaf on canvas 51 1/4 x 38 1/2 in (130 x 98 cm)

ARTURO VERMI Untitled, 1968 Mixed technique on wood 12 1/2 x 8 3/4 in (32 x 22 cm)

ARTURO VERMI Untitled, 1964 Acrylic and golden leaf on canvas 39 1/4 x 31 1/2 in (100 x 80 cm)

ARTURO VERMI Tramonto, 1961 Oil con canvas 27 1/2 x 27 1/2 in (70 x 70 cm)

PIERO ATCHUGARRY GALLERY

Piero Atchugarry gallery presents a contemporary art program and modern art survey. The gallery opened to the public in November 2013 with a Post-War Italian art exhibition. By January 2014 the gallery moved to a large stable adapted as an exhibition space in Garzรณn. In this space the program allowed outdoor and indoor proposal exploration, through the creation of dialogue between architectural features and curatorial practices.

On December 2018, the program expanded to North America with a second location, a 9000 square feet warehouse on 5520 NE 4th Avenue in the Design District neighborhood. The participation of the gallery in what is a boiling art community that connects Europe, Latin America and both coasts of the United States represents the commitment of the program to support and present the work of local and international artists with an institutional approach.