Page 50 - The MoMA/ Guggenheim issue of World of Art magazine (2003)

Transavanguardia

Curated by Ida Gianelli
This exhibition presents major works
by Italian artists of the Eighties whose
painting and sculpture - under the rubric of
“Transavanguardia” - became one of the most
significant moments of neo-expressionism.
The term Transavanguardia, coined by
critic Achille Bonito Oliva, identifies the
work of the Italian artists Sandro Chia,
Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Nicola
De Maria e Mimmo Paladino, who first
exhibited as a group in the late 1970s. The
Transavanguardia, recognized immediately
as one of the most significant movements
of the Postmodern era, opposed the most
radical artistic experimentalism of previous
decades with a return to more traditional
expressive practices, particularly painting.
The term itself recognizes art that looks
NICOlA DE MARIA toward the past, with the intention
of reviving, with a critical eye, certain
SONO ASIATICO SONO AFRICANO (JAM ASIAN JAM AFRICAN)
1980-81 mixed media on PaPer mounted on Canvas languages already developed within the
215 x 272,5 Cm
aeffe s.P.a. CoLLeCtion context of an Italian tradition and the
Courtesy riZZiero arte, teramo historical avant-garde movements of the
CASTEllO DI RIVOlI early 20th century. The movement achieved
international recognition in 1980, with a
museum of traveling exhibition held at the kunsthalle
in Basel, the Folkwang Museum in Essen
ContemPorary art and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. In
1982 the artists in the group participated in
TORINO Documenta 7, in kassel. Within the span of

ENzO CUCCHI only a few years, these five artists reached
the heights of success, exhibiting both
lA DERIVA DEl VASO (THE DNFT OF THE VASE) individually and as a group in the most
1984-85 oiL on Canvas important museums of contemporary art
280 x 320 Cm
andrea CaratsCh CoLLeCtion, ZuriCh in Europe and the United States, from
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
in New York, to the Louisiana Museum
in humlebaek and the Royal Academy
in London. This exhibition at Castello di
<- Rivoli examines the time span from 1979
to 1985. Eighty works, approximately
fifteen for each artist, will be exhibited
on the third floor of the Manica Lunga
and in certain galleries of the Castello.
The catalogue, edited by Ida Gianelli, will
include essays by Achille Bonito Oliva,
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and john Yau,
as well as documentation related to the
works in the exhibition and extensive
appendices. This exhibition is organized
as part of the Progetto per l’Arte Moderna
e Contemporanea established by the
Fondazione CRT Cassa di Risparmio di
Torino, which has also made possible the
acquisition of some works on exhibit for the
permanent collection of the Museum.

48 WORLD of ART