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Until 14th February 2010, two important venues, Serrone della Villa Reale and the Arengario of Monza, will be hosting the exhibition Gli anni 80. Il trionfo della pittura. Da Schifano a Basquiat, (The Eighties. The triumph of painting. From Schifano to Basquait), which retraces one of the most controversial and important decades of the 20th century. A period characterised by radical changes on the global political scene, which also led to deep changes in art and in the way it was conceived: indeed, it was in the Eighties that the idea of art as business and status symbol developed.
Curated by Marco Meneguzzi, the exhibition analyses the main movements of that time and the most renowned individualities, from the Italian Trans-avant-garde movement to the New German Savages, from the US graffiti artists, to Young British Sculpture, from the Italian Anachronists to the French Figuration Libre.One hundred works for about fifty artists who represent that controversial period through the explosion of colours and vitality in painting and sculpture, which for some symbolises the hedonistic revival, for others the return of the most authentic and immediate expressivity. Furthermore, next to this “core” dedicated to art, the exhibition intends to examine all the linguistic, social and even political changes that were crucial for international history in the Eighties.Art abandons the minimalist and conceptual trends of the previous years, it starts being appreciated by a larger public, it becomes an actual economic guarantee and galleries start to be structured in a more organised and professional way.
There is an increasing artistic need to return to classical means and methods and Germany and Italy understand this new need before other countries.Neo-expressionism gains ground on the German side (with representatives such as Georg Baselitz, A.R. Penk, Markus Lupertz, Anselm Kiefer, Jorg Immendorf, Sigmar Polke), while Italy becomes the “world’s crossroads”: between 1978 and 1979 Achille Bonito Oliva confirms the birth of the Trans-avant-garde movement, considered one of the most original and successful movements of the Post-modern era. Although the artists who belong to it – Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Nicola De Maria and Mimmo Paladino – look at the past, at the Italian Novecento, at Metaphysics, at Scipione, at Mafai, at the painters of the Thirties and Forties. Their eclectic language is so powerful and vital, that in little time it becomes a reference point for European and American artistsBesides this exceptional artistic movement, in this decade Anachronism also emerges Italy, a movement referred to the past, to classical art which it contaminates in a provocative way with conceptual intuitions (its representatives include Carlo Maria Mariani, Stefano Di Stasio, Paola Gandolfi, Ubaldo Bartolini and Alberto Abate).
The Eighties. The triumph of painting. From Schifano to Basquait is displaying works by the main representatives of German Neo-expressionism, from the Trans-avant-garde movement to Anachronism, but it also looks at the main artistic researches of the Eighties. Among the many artists present at the exhibition there is Mario Schifano, high-profile representative of Italian Pop Art. Luigi Ontani, outstanding master in taking on appearances and attitudes of the characters portrayed in classical paintings in his “Tableux Vivants”. Also important is the artistic career of Salvo who after a conceptual period is one of the first authors to feel the need to recuperate tradition and revisit the themes and styles of the past.Among the stars of US Neo-expressionism we find Julian Schnabel who disseminates his paintings with plate fragments among which icons of American imagination appear, while in the ambit of Graffiti Art there is Keith Haring with his “radioactive kids”, but also the rage and rough style, without chromatic and formal harmony, of Jean Michel Basquiat. Finally, the artists who emerge from the Young British Sculpture are Tony Cragg, Antony Gormely, Anish Kapoor, Richard Deacon and Bill Woodrow, figures that revolutionised the way of making art in Great Britain.
Until 14th February 2010
GLI ANNI 80. Il trionfo della pittura.
Da Schifano a BasquiatMonza, Serrone della Villa Reale (via Brianza, 2) and Arengario (piazza Roma)
Web: www.glianni80.it
Email: servizi@civita.it
Tel. 02 43353522
Opening times: from Tuesday to Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm; closed on Mondays
Entrance: Full 9 euros; Reduced 7 euros.
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