Post-war 'political art' between Guttuso and Schifano

(ANSA) - Florence, March 15 - The politics, activism, protest and social changes of the post-WWII period in Italy until 1968 are showcased in an exhibition that will open on Friday in Florence. 'Birth of a Nation: between Renato Guttuso, Lucio Fontana and Mario Schifano' is a show of contemporary art in Palazzo Strozzi in the Tuscan regional capital that will run from March 16 until July 22. Curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, the show focuses on the artistic trends of those years, from informal art to Pop Art, Arte Povera and conceptual art. There will be 80 works in the exhibition including paintings, sculptures and installations by the famous Italian artists Guttuso, Fontana and Schifano, as well as Alberto Burri, Emilio Vedova, Piero Manzoni, Michelangelo Pistoletto and many others. It was in the two decades of economic boom that separated the end of the Second World War from the beginning of major social protest in which Italian society underwent a profound transformation. In this period, new ideas and concepts of art took shape that then were projected into the contemporary worlds through an extraordinary variety of languages, materials and styles.
    Opening 'Birth of a Nation' is one of the masterpieces of Guttuso's 'protest realism', ' The Battle of Ponte dell'Ammiraglio (1951-1955), which was made for the Istituto di Studi Comunisti Palmiro Togliatti delle Frattocchie. Then there is one of 'anti-realism' by Giulio Turcato from 1950 and two of his from the following decade, a collage on fabric entitled 'General Inciting to Battle' (1961) by Enrico Baj and a décollage on former Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini's face, entitled 'The Last King of Kings' (1961) by Mimmo Rotella. A great deal of space has been set aside for informal art created between the 1950s and 1960s, with tormented existentialism as a major theme. Fontana's works are seen alongside the radical experimentation of Alberto Burri on jute, canvas and burnt wood, while works from 1968 - such as ones by Schifano and Franco Angeli - round out the exhibition. photo: La Battaglia di Ponte dell'Ammiraglio (Guttuso)