GiovanniANCESCHI, FrancoANGELI, EnricoBAJ, GianfrancoBARUCHELLO, AlighieroBOETTI, AgostinoBONALUMI, EnricoCASTELLANI, GianniCOLOMBO, EdoardaDADAMAINO, LucioDEL PEZZO, TanoFESTA, GiosettaFIORONI, LucioFONTANA, EmilioISGRò, JannisKOUNELLIS, RenatoMAMBOR, PieroMANZONI, FabioMAURI, GastoneNOVELLI, GiulioPAOLINI, PinoPASCALI, AchillePERILLI, ArnaldoPOMODORO, MimmoROTELLA, MarioSCHIFANO, EmilioTADINI
Con il gruppo 63. Artisti
10.2013–11.2013
Con il gruppo 63. Artisti
10.2013–11.2013
1/4
CON IL GRUPPO 63. ARTISTI, Installation view, Fondazione Marconi, Milan, 2013
1/10
Franco Angeli
Untitled, 1965 circa
Enamel and graphite on paper
100 x 70 cm
Untitled, 1965 circa
Enamel and graphite on paper
100 x 70 cm
Press Release
Con il gruppo 63. Artisti
Curated by Achille Bonito Oliva
Opening: October 29, 2013
October 30 – November 19, 2013
Artists on display Giovanni Anceschi, Franco Angeli, Enrico Baj, Gianfranco Baruchello, Alighiero Boetti, Agostino Bonalumi, Enrico Castellani, Gianni Colombo, Dadamaino, Lucio Del Pezzo, Tano Festa, Giosetta Fioroni, Lucio Fontana, Emilio Isgrò, Jannis Kounellis, Renato Mambor, Piero Manzoni, Fabio Mauri, Gastone Novelli, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, Achille Perilli, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Mimmo Rotella, Mario Schifano, Emilio Tadini.
Curated by Achille Bonito Oliva
Opening: October 29, 2013
October 30 – November 19, 2013
Artists on display Giovanni Anceschi, Franco Angeli, Enrico Baj, Gianfranco Baruchello, Alighiero Boetti, Agostino Bonalumi, Enrico Castellani, Gianni Colombo, Dadamaino, Lucio Del Pezzo, Tano Festa, Giosetta Fioroni, Lucio Fontana, Emilio Isgrò, Jannis Kounellis, Renato Mambor, Piero Manzoni, Fabio Mauri, Gastone Novelli, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, Achille Perilli, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Mimmo Rotella, Mario Schifano, Emilio Tadini.
The Marconi Foundation is pleased to present an exhibition focused on Group 63 and curated by Achille Bonito Oliva.
It’s not coincidence that it takes place in Milan, a symbol of the most creative artistic and literary New Vanguard (“neoavanguardia”) during the years of the Italian “economic miracle”.
It celebrates the Group 63 movement on the 50th anniversary since its foundation.
The group was founded in October 1963 during a meeting in Palermo, organised by some intellectuals, mostly writers, among whom Achille Bonito Oliva, Nanni Balestrini, Renato Barilli, Umberto Eco, Alberto Arbasino, Elio Pagliarani, Luciano Anceschi, Edoardo Sanguineti, Alfredo Giuliani, Antonio Porta, Giorgio Celli, Giorgio Manganelli, just to mention a few.
Group 63 soon raised the interest of critical and literary milieus of the time and it posited a New Vanguard literary movement aiming at a critical re-examination of modern literature.
"In the early Fifties vanguard was commonly considered to be an obsolete subject, already outdated. Some of us realised, in our peacefully provincial spirit, that modern tradition was marked by vanguards, and that like all traditions also this one had to be revisited. What has passed, still remains. A multi-faceted phenomenon, New Vanguard was mainly a critical re-examination of modern times, a way for us to glide across them with no prejudice, passionately eager to understand."
It was composer Luigi Nono who suggested the group name, on the wake of that employed by German writers for the Group 47 annual meetings, aimed at the reconstruction of a literary tradition, destroyed by Nazism and war.
"The German model seemed very interesting to us, since it corresponded to our constant need of confronting ourselves and discussing. [...] We had passed quite unharmed from war to post-war, from dictatorship to democracy, to find ourselves just in the middle of the economic boom that burst at the end of the Fifties. We knew we had to start again; but, instead of a desert, we had to face an old-fashioned cultural system, lifeless and powerful at the same time, that involved almost all aspects of communication and prevented renewal attempts."
Not only writers, poets and essayists but also artists of various currents attended the group’s meetings up to 1967, when the last one took place in Fano.
"The time of experiments had come to a close. The world was changing, 1968 was approaching. We knew or felt that we had to get ready for a different 'space', a 'place' we could manage on our own [...]."
It’s not coincidence that it takes place in Milan, a symbol of the most creative artistic and literary New Vanguard (“neoavanguardia”) during the years of the Italian “economic miracle”.
It celebrates the Group 63 movement on the 50th anniversary since its foundation.
The group was founded in October 1963 during a meeting in Palermo, organised by some intellectuals, mostly writers, among whom Achille Bonito Oliva, Nanni Balestrini, Renato Barilli, Umberto Eco, Alberto Arbasino, Elio Pagliarani, Luciano Anceschi, Edoardo Sanguineti, Alfredo Giuliani, Antonio Porta, Giorgio Celli, Giorgio Manganelli, just to mention a few.
Group 63 soon raised the interest of critical and literary milieus of the time and it posited a New Vanguard literary movement aiming at a critical re-examination of modern literature.
"In the early Fifties vanguard was commonly considered to be an obsolete subject, already outdated. Some of us realised, in our peacefully provincial spirit, that modern tradition was marked by vanguards, and that like all traditions also this one had to be revisited. What has passed, still remains. A multi-faceted phenomenon, New Vanguard was mainly a critical re-examination of modern times, a way for us to glide across them with no prejudice, passionately eager to understand."
It was composer Luigi Nono who suggested the group name, on the wake of that employed by German writers for the Group 47 annual meetings, aimed at the reconstruction of a literary tradition, destroyed by Nazism and war.
"The German model seemed very interesting to us, since it corresponded to our constant need of confronting ourselves and discussing. [...] We had passed quite unharmed from war to post-war, from dictatorship to democracy, to find ourselves just in the middle of the economic boom that burst at the end of the Fifties. We knew we had to start again; but, instead of a desert, we had to face an old-fashioned cultural system, lifeless and powerful at the same time, that involved almost all aspects of communication and prevented renewal attempts."
Not only writers, poets and essayists but also artists of various currents attended the group’s meetings up to 1967, when the last one took place in Fano.
"The time of experiments had come to a close. The world was changing, 1968 was approaching. We knew or felt that we had to get ready for a different 'space', a 'place' we could manage on our own [...]."
Therefore, this exhibition project intends to present the artistic personalities who accompanied the Group 63 writers in those days, sharing with them poetical principles and language devices, as well as the common need of getting in touch with modern life.
The exhibition is thus focused on visual artists and develops from the Group 63 intention to interact with the contemporary research accomplished in the field of visual arts (as well as in music and performing arts).
Hence, the idea of putting each work on show in relation to a literary passage.
The 26 artists on display have been selected among the most representative ones in the milieu that in the early Sixties had nullified all previous artistic expressions and gone through two parallel paths: the one in Milan, more closely related to Europe and heir of Piero Manzoni’s and Enrico Castellani’s radical realism, ready to start again tout court; the other one in Rome, founded by the School of Piazza del Popolo, intent upon bringing into contact informal abstraction with everyday life phenomenology, thanks its privileged relationship with the USA.
What comes to light from this situation is a common language grounded on the harmonious development of all arts, in general. A sort of cultural osmosis of different disciplines having in common the same desire to go beyond informal art existential anxiety and try to make a difference by exploring contemporary sensibility, as well as the changes that society has suffered and overcome.
Abstract art and spatialism, nuclear art and nouveau réalisme, Azimut and pop art, programmed, conceptual, optical and process art confront one another in the Sixties in order to verify on the spot, not only the modes of perception but also the new conditions of life and concerns of contemporary man.
The awareness that a generation shift has occurred and the intolerance against the imposition of social norms bring artists and intellectuals to rediscover the formal revolution of historical vanguards.
Their explicit goal is now creating works not for expressing something “different” but something “new”.
“To modify is not enough, we need radical transformation”, wrote Manzoni to Dadamaino in 1961.
Together with Con il Gruppo 63. Artisti exhibition, a simultaneous group show, titled Arte totale: il Gruppo 63, will be held at the Auditorium-Parco della Musica in Rome, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva (October 18 – November 3, 2013).
Both exhibitions will be documented in “Alfabeta 2” special issue of November-December 2013.
The exhibition is thus focused on visual artists and develops from the Group 63 intention to interact with the contemporary research accomplished in the field of visual arts (as well as in music and performing arts).
Hence, the idea of putting each work on show in relation to a literary passage.
The 26 artists on display have been selected among the most representative ones in the milieu that in the early Sixties had nullified all previous artistic expressions and gone through two parallel paths: the one in Milan, more closely related to Europe and heir of Piero Manzoni’s and Enrico Castellani’s radical realism, ready to start again tout court; the other one in Rome, founded by the School of Piazza del Popolo, intent upon bringing into contact informal abstraction with everyday life phenomenology, thanks its privileged relationship with the USA.
What comes to light from this situation is a common language grounded on the harmonious development of all arts, in general. A sort of cultural osmosis of different disciplines having in common the same desire to go beyond informal art existential anxiety and try to make a difference by exploring contemporary sensibility, as well as the changes that society has suffered and overcome.
Abstract art and spatialism, nuclear art and nouveau réalisme, Azimut and pop art, programmed, conceptual, optical and process art confront one another in the Sixties in order to verify on the spot, not only the modes of perception but also the new conditions of life and concerns of contemporary man.
The awareness that a generation shift has occurred and the intolerance against the imposition of social norms bring artists and intellectuals to rediscover the formal revolution of historical vanguards.
Their explicit goal is now creating works not for expressing something “different” but something “new”.
“To modify is not enough, we need radical transformation”, wrote Manzoni to Dadamaino in 1961.
Together with Con il Gruppo 63. Artisti exhibition, a simultaneous group show, titled Arte totale: il Gruppo 63, will be held at the Auditorium-Parco della Musica in Rome, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva (October 18 – November 3, 2013).
Both exhibitions will be documented in “Alfabeta 2” special issue of November-December 2013.