Cinetica Monocroma Spaziale Astratta

Milano, 25/9 – 21/11, 2014

Jerome Zodo Contemporary is proud to present Kinetics Monochrome Spatial Abstract.

Judging the interest shown by the market, critics and collectors, the impression is that the Italian art calendar is fixed in the 1970s. There are different reasons behind this, starting with affirming the current trend for vintage that is so present today not only in art but also in design, architecture and fashion and with which we tend to identify with, or perhaps take refuge in, a recent past that is still a part of our living memory. It might also be due to the fact that the period between the 1960s and 1970s formed a particularly sparkling moment in our culture: there was a strong desire for change, a cultural and social move towards a form of possible utopia and art was still considered the territory in which to search for the avant-garde. At that time Italy in particular, but Europe in general, was considered the cradle of experimentation, while today it is necessary to look towards other countries in the world, some of which truly far away, to find those same energies of time past.

This Exhibition presented by Jerome Zodo Contemporary is entitled “Kinetics – Monochrome – Spatial – Abstract” and summarises the principal characteristics of all of that art, disconected from realism and image, which acts as a bridge to a new transition towards the imminent season of the conceptual and Arte Povera: Kinetics because it presumes a structure in motion, unstable, and poses the problem of the work as seen by the viewer, a co-protagonist in research; Monochrome, as starting from the famous exhibition Monochrome Malerei in 1959, in Leverkusen, Germany, sees the contemporary knot in absolute colour, a choice shared in Europe as well as in the USA; Spatial, because commencing with the elaboration of the Manifesto in 1948, of the same name, maestro Lucio Fontana opened the doors towards a new level of theoretical and visual sensitivity, in the same epoch in which man would orbit the Earth to land, finally, on the lunar surface; Abstract, to conclude, due to the firm and convinced renouncing of any realistic form, seen as a limit to the work itself and not sufficiently in line with the times.

We can underline Fontana’s role as being the absolute pioneer, the key figure, above all of art in Milan where he worked and where he died in 1968, a decidedly symbolic year at the end of a perhaps unrepeatable decade for our culture.

Furthermore, many of the protagonists of our Exhibition are still working in full swing, following a coherent line, severity and panache, while others have passed away recently. Agostino Bonalumi died exactly one year ago, in September 2013, as did Toni Costa in April 2013, co-founder of Gruppo N; Dadamaino left us in April 2004, having witnessed a growing interest in truly important work, in an epoch in which very few women could be counted as being active in Italian art, and today she is held in the esteem that she deserves. Turi Simeti (1929), Enrico Castellani (1930), Franco Costalonga (1933), Alberto Biasi (1937) belong to the “1930s generation”, the most prolific if we look back over the entire panorama of Italian art. It is only right that they are finally viewed in a completely different key, in the light of current developments, to confirm their cultural role, both complex and articulate.