Page 66 - PROTAGONIST 122

Pages 62-63, Tutto by Italian artist Alighiero Boetti on display Page 65, glimpses of ITALIA Minimal exhibition, at Tornabuoni Art

The gallery opened the new space with ITALIA Minimal: an exhibition

of carefully selected masterpieces created by Italian pioneers of visual
experimentation between the late 1950s and ‘70s.

Tornabuoni Art gallery was established in 2009 in Paris 8 ar- an important boom in Italian design: industrially prefabricated
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rondissement, the central district of Paris cultural life and art materials and mass-produced structures deeply influenced both
market, a few steps from the Grand Palais and the Champs modern art and architecture.
Elysées. In 2017, when this building required renovations, the The word “minimalism” was born in the United States as a
gallery moved to the Passage de Retz, a 17 -century townhouse definition of radical response to Pop Art. Despite the fact that
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in the Marais. this movement is associated primarily with the US, in 1965 Don-
After three years, Tornabuoni Art has returned to its original ald Judd, one of the greatest exponents of this movement, iden-
space, in a completely renewed and expanded gallery spreading tified Enrico Castellani as the “father of minimalism”, author
over three floors. The renovation was carried out by Studio Ar- of a profound change in the way of making art and approaching
chea, the celebrated Italian architecture firm that has designed, the canvas. “Minimal” art in Italy is perceived as a response to
among other projects, the Liling world ceramic Art City in China, the chaos of the social and political context of these years that
the Albania national stadium as well as the Cantina Antinori in materialized in rigorous and essential forms, in a will to return
Tuscany. Archea’s designs solidify Tornabuoni’s vision of bring- to zero.
ing the Italian avant-garde to a broad international audience. For the inauguration of its renewed exhibition space, Torn-
The choice of launching the Parisian gallery in the 8 arron- abuoni Art decided to pay homage to the Italian post-war artists
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dissement 10 years ago was encouraged by the district cultural who studied infinite possibilities for a new beginning by making
atmosphere. Today, this area is becoming increasingly dynamic a tabula rasa of colour, drawing, two-dimensionality, and the
and international, particularly thanks to new major contempo- long-standing division between painting and sculpture. The ma-
rary art galleries that have joined the surrounding historic art terials recall the industrial and cultural rebirth that character-
galleries and auction houses. The neighborhood constitutes a ized the Italian peninsula and Milan in particular in those years.
growing cultural hub. This tendency “to minimally reduce” art became a conver-
The gallery opened the new space with ITALIA Minimal: an gence of all the possibilities of language, capable of bringing to-
exhibition of carefully selected masterpieces created by Italian pi- gether tradition and modernity, materials and techniques typical
oneers of visual experimentation between the late 1950s and ‘70s: of the complexity and diversity of the Mediterranean and Italian
Vincenzo Agnetti, Alighiero Boetti, Agostino Bonalumi, Alberto cultural heritage.
Burri, Enrico Castellani, Mario Ceroli, Gianni Colombo, Dada- These ideas, explored by ITALIA Minimal, still feel relevant
maino, Lucio Fontana, Emilio Isgrò, Jannis Kounellis, Sergio Lom- today: in an era marked by momentous traumas that are radically
bardo, Piero Manzoni, Paolo Scheggi, and Giuseppe Uncini. transforming relationships, contexts and balances between hu- Page 65, glimpses of ITALIA Minimal exhibition, at Tornabuoni Art
While there was no homogeneous and structured minimalist manity and the environment, space and time, the real and the
movement in Italy, many artists of this time were interested in virtual, people and politics, we look to art to help us reflect upon
minimalist ideas – in particular the search for pure form, so cur- our world, to help us understand where we are amid the flux of
rent at the time of the Space Race – which they approached in changing realities. In their various pursuits of the absolute, these
different ways. The birth and expansion of these new languages Italian artists attempted to find pure form, a sublime perfection,
are to be contextualized in Italian post-war period, where politi- so exacting that it is dizzying. This is why today we return to
cal upheavals and the student revolution brought radical chang- looking at the compelling and passionate works of these visual
es to artistic expression. The 1950s and 1960s also witnessed pioneers: they give us new eyes to do so.

64 Art Protagonist Protagonist Art 65