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)
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