Curating Fascism. Exhibitions and Memory from the Fall of Mussolini to Today, Sharon Hecker and Raffaele Bedarida, eds., 2022
This essay examines future possible curatorial strategies for exhibitions on fascist-era art. The... more This essay examines future possible curatorial strategies for exhibitions on fascist-era art. The author ponders an ethical way to show the art of this epoch in a manner that effectively intertwines its aesthetic intensity with the realities of human tragedy. She suggests presenting the art alongside photographic and painted representations by artists of their studios, as a way to add to the glimmering visual dynamics of their artworks the often troubling personal and collective circumstances of each artist's trajectory under fascism. She suggests that this approach could lead viewers to look behind the art's visual power to glimpse the makers in their real or imagined workspaces, eliciting the contradictions, dissonances, complexities, and tragedies of the context in which artists moved and artworks were produced, while mitigating the risk of lionizing, fetishizing, spectacularizing, or romanticizing the artists or their workplaces.
Curating Fascism: Exhibitions and Memory from the Fall of Mussolini to Today, 2022
This essay examines possible future strategies for exhibitions on Italian fascist-era art, ponder... more This essay examines possible future strategies for exhibitions on Italian fascist-era art, pondering an ethical way to show the art of this epoch in a manner that effectively intertwines its aesthetic intensity with the realities of human tragedy. The author suggests presenting the art alongside photographic and painted representations by artists of their studios as a way to add to the glittering visual dynamics of their artworks the often troubling personal and collective circumstances of each artist's trajectory under fascism. She suggests that this approach could lead viewers to look behind the art's visual power to glimpse the makers in their real or imagined workspaces, eliciting the contradictions, dissonances, complexities, and tragedies of the context in which artists moved and artworks were produced, while mitigating the risk of lionizing, fetishizing, spectacularizing, or romanticizing the artists or their workplaces.
This chapter traces four significant rejections that marked Medardo Rosso's early career in I... more This chapter traces four significant rejections that marked Medardo Rosso's early career in Italy. He made two revolutionary monument proposals for Giuseppe Garibaldi, but the Italian establishment immediately rejected them. In these public projects, Rosso dared to criticize what he saw as falsely reassuring nation-building myths. Rosso also was expelled from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, and his first radical funerary monument, La Riconoscenza, was removed from the local cemetery for its frank and emotionally explicit portrayal of mourning and death. The chapter argues that Rosso adopted an artistic language of protest to experiment with new forms of expression that rejected the heroic idioms of traditional sculpture. His original antiheroic monument proposals expressed far-reaching ideas that aimed to revolutionize the concept of the monument in modern times.
Lead in Modern and Contemporary Art is the first edited volume to critically examine uses of lead... more Lead in Modern and Contemporary Art is the first edited volume to critically examine uses of lead as both material and cultural signifier in modern and contemporary art. The book analyzes the work of a diverse group of artists working in Europe, the Middle East, and North America, and takes into account the ways in which gender, race, and class can affect the cultural perception of lead. Bringing together contributions from a distinguished group of international contributors across various fields, this volume explores lead's relevance from a number of perspectives, including art history, technical art history, art criticism, and curatorial studies. Drawing on current art historical concerns with materiality, this volume builds on recent exhibitions and scholarship that reconsider the role of materials in shaping artistic meaning, thus giving a central relevance to the object and its physicality.
Sull'orlo di un cambiamento è dunque l'idea che ha lanciato il n. 5 di «Novecento Transna... more Sull'orlo di un cambiamento è dunque l'idea che ha lanciato il n. 5 di «Novecento Transnazionale». L'urgenza che il numero poneva nella Call for Papers nel maggio 2020 era sintetizzata in una serie di questioni sulle quali riflettere. Come situazioni di crisi o emergenza hanno portato nel passato e portano attualmente gli artisti a fare scelte particolari? Come il museo si misura con gli stati di emergenza? Come, per altro verso, la storia dell'arte e le forme del suo racconto possono non solo dare voce alla crisi, ma anche ripensare le forme e i modi del proprio fare? Quali poetiche e stati della ricerca artistica diventano segni o sintomi di condizioni di crisi sia individuale che storica e culturale? Come l'arte pensa e immagina modelli alternativi e direzioni da intraprendere rispetto alla natura, all'ambiente, all'ecologia e alla sostenibilità? Le proposte e i saggi che abbiamo ricevuto e che ora sono pubblicati in questo numero costituiscono, a nost...
This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable ef... more This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication and apologize to copyright holders if per� mission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any copyright material has not been acknowledged please write and let us know so we may rectify in any future reprint.
Sull'orlo di un cambiamento è dunque l'idea che ha lanciato il n. 5 di «Novecento Transna... more Sull'orlo di un cambiamento è dunque l'idea che ha lanciato il n. 5 di «Novecento Transnazionale». L'urgenza che il numero poneva nella Call for Papers nel maggio 2020 era sintetizzata in una serie di questioni sulle quali riflettere. Come situazioni di crisi o emergenza hanno portato nel passato e portano attualmente gli artisti a fare scelte particolari? Come il museo si misura con gli stati di emergenza? Come, per altro verso, la storia dell'arte e le forme del suo racconto possono non solo dare voce alla crisi, ma anche ripensare le forme e i modi del proprio fare? Quali poetiche e stati della ricerca artistica diventano segni o sintomi di condizioni di crisi sia individuale che storica e culturale? Come l'arte pensa e immagina modelli alternativi e direzioni da intraprendere rispetto alla natura, all'ambiente, all'ecologia e alla sostenibilità? Le proposte e i saggi che abbiamo ricevuto e che ora sono pubblicati in questo numero costituiscono, a nost...
<p>This chapter traces four significant rejections that marked Medardo Rosso's early ca... more <p>This chapter traces four significant rejections that marked Medardo Rosso's early career in Italy. He made two revolutionary monument proposals for Giuseppe Garibaldi, but the Italian establishment immediately rejected them. In these public projects, Rosso dared to criticize what he saw as falsely reassuring nation-building myths. Rosso also was expelled from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, and his first radical funerary monument, <italic>La Riconoscenza</italic>, was removed from the local cemetery for its frank and emotionally explicit portrayal of mourning and death. The chapter argues that Rosso adopted an artistic language of protest to experiment with new forms of expression that rejected the heroic idioms of traditional sculpture. His original antiheroic monument proposals expressed far-reaching ideas that aimed to revolutionize the concept of the monument in modern times.</p>
T he portrait medal, as an art form, became popular in the mid-15th century in Italy. Its purpose... more T he portrait medal, as an art form, became popular in the mid-15th century in Italy. Its purpose was to link the Roman past with Renaissance rulers as a way to confirm their power and authority to rule. The painter and architect Pisanello (nickname for Vittore Pisano, 1395?–1455) was the originator of these medals. He made the most famous ones for the Este family in Ferrara and the Gonzaga family in Mantua. On the front side of each medal, the artist would represent a portrait head of the sitter in the classical profile, and on the medal’s other side he would cleverly personalize and combine the figure with his or her emblem or motto. Pisanello’s wit, attention to detail, and love for the study of animals shines through on the reverse sides of the medals. Interestingly, he always signed his sculpted medals as Pisani Pictoris (“Pisani the Painter”) despite the fact that they were made using sculptural techniques. This suggests that, like his sitters, he too lived his professional life on “two sides of the same coin.” Cecilia Gonzaga (Mantua, 1426–1451), the subject of this particular medal, was an Italian noblewoman and the daughter of the first Marquis of Mantua, Gianfrancesco I Gonzaga and Paola Malatesta. Cecilia was educated at the humanistic school Ca’ Zoiosa founded by Vittorino da Feltro, who was highly regarded as a great Renaissance humanist and teacher. Known for her intelligence, Cecilia studied ancient Greek and Latin from the age of seven. Despite her humanistic education (a rarity for a woman in the Renaissance), however, Cecilia’s only desire was to enter a convent and embrace the life of the spirit. Her father, who was not in favor of her desire to choose the religious realm over the real world, promised her in marriage to the condottiero Oddantonio II da Montefeltro. Cecilia waited until her father’s death in 1444 to annul the nuptial contract, and on February 2, 1445, she entered the
<p>This chapter focuses on the sculptures Rosso made during his Parisian years. Medardo Ros... more <p>This chapter focuses on the sculptures Rosso made during his Parisian years. Medardo Rosso created such extraordinarily advanced work as <italic>Après la visite</italic> (After the Visit); <italic>Impression de Boulevard, Femme à la voilette</italic> (Impression of a Boulevard, Woman with a Veil); and <italic>Madame X</italic>. Rosso registered in these sculptures an uneasiness about personal encounters that related to his own experience as an alienated artist working at the margins. His innovative artistic intuitions and itinerant self-fashioning would pave the way for the next generation of foreign artists in the city, breaking ground for younger sculptors such as the Romanian Constantin Brancusi and the Swiss Alberto Giacometti, who enjoyed successful careers in Paris after 1900 and made significant contributions to the international birth of modern sculpture.</p>
Curating Fascism. Exhibitions and Memory from the Fall of Mussolini to Today, Sharon Hecker and Raffaele Bedarida, eds., 2022
This essay examines future possible curatorial strategies for exhibitions on fascist-era art. The... more This essay examines future possible curatorial strategies for exhibitions on fascist-era art. The author ponders an ethical way to show the art of this epoch in a manner that effectively intertwines its aesthetic intensity with the realities of human tragedy. She suggests presenting the art alongside photographic and painted representations by artists of their studios, as a way to add to the glimmering visual dynamics of their artworks the often troubling personal and collective circumstances of each artist's trajectory under fascism. She suggests that this approach could lead viewers to look behind the art's visual power to glimpse the makers in their real or imagined workspaces, eliciting the contradictions, dissonances, complexities, and tragedies of the context in which artists moved and artworks were produced, while mitigating the risk of lionizing, fetishizing, spectacularizing, or romanticizing the artists or their workplaces.
Curating Fascism: Exhibitions and Memory from the Fall of Mussolini to Today, 2022
This essay examines possible future strategies for exhibitions on Italian fascist-era art, ponder... more This essay examines possible future strategies for exhibitions on Italian fascist-era art, pondering an ethical way to show the art of this epoch in a manner that effectively intertwines its aesthetic intensity with the realities of human tragedy. The author suggests presenting the art alongside photographic and painted representations by artists of their studios as a way to add to the glittering visual dynamics of their artworks the often troubling personal and collective circumstances of each artist's trajectory under fascism. She suggests that this approach could lead viewers to look behind the art's visual power to glimpse the makers in their real or imagined workspaces, eliciting the contradictions, dissonances, complexities, and tragedies of the context in which artists moved and artworks were produced, while mitigating the risk of lionizing, fetishizing, spectacularizing, or romanticizing the artists or their workplaces.
This chapter traces four significant rejections that marked Medardo Rosso's early career in I... more This chapter traces four significant rejections that marked Medardo Rosso's early career in Italy. He made two revolutionary monument proposals for Giuseppe Garibaldi, but the Italian establishment immediately rejected them. In these public projects, Rosso dared to criticize what he saw as falsely reassuring nation-building myths. Rosso also was expelled from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, and his first radical funerary monument, La Riconoscenza, was removed from the local cemetery for its frank and emotionally explicit portrayal of mourning and death. The chapter argues that Rosso adopted an artistic language of protest to experiment with new forms of expression that rejected the heroic idioms of traditional sculpture. His original antiheroic monument proposals expressed far-reaching ideas that aimed to revolutionize the concept of the monument in modern times.
Lead in Modern and Contemporary Art is the first edited volume to critically examine uses of lead... more Lead in Modern and Contemporary Art is the first edited volume to critically examine uses of lead as both material and cultural signifier in modern and contemporary art. The book analyzes the work of a diverse group of artists working in Europe, the Middle East, and North America, and takes into account the ways in which gender, race, and class can affect the cultural perception of lead. Bringing together contributions from a distinguished group of international contributors across various fields, this volume explores lead&#39;s relevance from a number of perspectives, including art history, technical art history, art criticism, and curatorial studies. Drawing on current art historical concerns with materiality, this volume builds on recent exhibitions and scholarship that reconsider the role of materials in shaping artistic meaning, thus giving a central relevance to the object and its physicality.
Sull'orlo di un cambiamento è dunque l'idea che ha lanciato il n. 5 di «Novecento Transna... more Sull'orlo di un cambiamento è dunque l'idea che ha lanciato il n. 5 di «Novecento Transnazionale». L'urgenza che il numero poneva nella Call for Papers nel maggio 2020 era sintetizzata in una serie di questioni sulle quali riflettere. Come situazioni di crisi o emergenza hanno portato nel passato e portano attualmente gli artisti a fare scelte particolari? Come il museo si misura con gli stati di emergenza? Come, per altro verso, la storia dell'arte e le forme del suo racconto possono non solo dare voce alla crisi, ma anche ripensare le forme e i modi del proprio fare? Quali poetiche e stati della ricerca artistica diventano segni o sintomi di condizioni di crisi sia individuale che storica e culturale? Come l'arte pensa e immagina modelli alternativi e direzioni da intraprendere rispetto alla natura, all'ambiente, all'ecologia e alla sostenibilità? Le proposte e i saggi che abbiamo ricevuto e che ora sono pubblicati in questo numero costituiscono, a nost...
This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable ef... more This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication and apologize to copyright holders if per� mission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any copyright material has not been acknowledged please write and let us know so we may rectify in any future reprint.
Sull'orlo di un cambiamento è dunque l'idea che ha lanciato il n. 5 di «Novecento Transna... more Sull'orlo di un cambiamento è dunque l'idea che ha lanciato il n. 5 di «Novecento Transnazionale». L'urgenza che il numero poneva nella Call for Papers nel maggio 2020 era sintetizzata in una serie di questioni sulle quali riflettere. Come situazioni di crisi o emergenza hanno portato nel passato e portano attualmente gli artisti a fare scelte particolari? Come il museo si misura con gli stati di emergenza? Come, per altro verso, la storia dell'arte e le forme del suo racconto possono non solo dare voce alla crisi, ma anche ripensare le forme e i modi del proprio fare? Quali poetiche e stati della ricerca artistica diventano segni o sintomi di condizioni di crisi sia individuale che storica e culturale? Come l'arte pensa e immagina modelli alternativi e direzioni da intraprendere rispetto alla natura, all'ambiente, all'ecologia e alla sostenibilità? Le proposte e i saggi che abbiamo ricevuto e che ora sono pubblicati in questo numero costituiscono, a nost...
<p>This chapter traces four significant rejections that marked Medardo Rosso's early ca... more <p>This chapter traces four significant rejections that marked Medardo Rosso's early career in Italy. He made two revolutionary monument proposals for Giuseppe Garibaldi, but the Italian establishment immediately rejected them. In these public projects, Rosso dared to criticize what he saw as falsely reassuring nation-building myths. Rosso also was expelled from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, and his first radical funerary monument, <italic>La Riconoscenza</italic>, was removed from the local cemetery for its frank and emotionally explicit portrayal of mourning and death. The chapter argues that Rosso adopted an artistic language of protest to experiment with new forms of expression that rejected the heroic idioms of traditional sculpture. His original antiheroic monument proposals expressed far-reaching ideas that aimed to revolutionize the concept of the monument in modern times.</p>
T he portrait medal, as an art form, became popular in the mid-15th century in Italy. Its purpose... more T he portrait medal, as an art form, became popular in the mid-15th century in Italy. Its purpose was to link the Roman past with Renaissance rulers as a way to confirm their power and authority to rule. The painter and architect Pisanello (nickname for Vittore Pisano, 1395?–1455) was the originator of these medals. He made the most famous ones for the Este family in Ferrara and the Gonzaga family in Mantua. On the front side of each medal, the artist would represent a portrait head of the sitter in the classical profile, and on the medal’s other side he would cleverly personalize and combine the figure with his or her emblem or motto. Pisanello’s wit, attention to detail, and love for the study of animals shines through on the reverse sides of the medals. Interestingly, he always signed his sculpted medals as Pisani Pictoris (“Pisani the Painter”) despite the fact that they were made using sculptural techniques. This suggests that, like his sitters, he too lived his professional life on “two sides of the same coin.” Cecilia Gonzaga (Mantua, 1426–1451), the subject of this particular medal, was an Italian noblewoman and the daughter of the first Marquis of Mantua, Gianfrancesco I Gonzaga and Paola Malatesta. Cecilia was educated at the humanistic school Ca’ Zoiosa founded by Vittorino da Feltro, who was highly regarded as a great Renaissance humanist and teacher. Known for her intelligence, Cecilia studied ancient Greek and Latin from the age of seven. Despite her humanistic education (a rarity for a woman in the Renaissance), however, Cecilia’s only desire was to enter a convent and embrace the life of the spirit. Her father, who was not in favor of her desire to choose the religious realm over the real world, promised her in marriage to the condottiero Oddantonio II da Montefeltro. Cecilia waited until her father’s death in 1444 to annul the nuptial contract, and on February 2, 1445, she entered the
<p>This chapter focuses on the sculptures Rosso made during his Parisian years. Medardo Ros... more <p>This chapter focuses on the sculptures Rosso made during his Parisian years. Medardo Rosso created such extraordinarily advanced work as <italic>Après la visite</italic> (After the Visit); <italic>Impression de Boulevard, Femme à la voilette</italic> (Impression of a Boulevard, Woman with a Veil); and <italic>Madame X</italic>. Rosso registered in these sculptures an uneasiness about personal encounters that related to his own experience as an alienated artist working at the margins. His innovative artistic intuitions and itinerant self-fashioning would pave the way for the next generation of foreign artists in the city, breaking ground for younger sculptors such as the Romanian Constantin Brancusi and the Swiss Alberto Giacometti, who enjoyed successful careers in Paris after 1900 and made significant contributions to the international birth of modern sculpture.</p>
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