In 1961, a solo exhibition by Argentine-Italian artist Lucio Fontana met with a scathing critical response from New York art critics. Fontana (1899--1968), well known in Europe for his series of slashed monochrome paintings, offered New York ten canvases slashed and punctured, thickly painted in luridly brilliant hues and embellished with chunks of colored glass. One critic described the work as "halfway between constructivism and costume jewelry," unwittingly putting his finger on the contradiction at the heart of these paintings and much of Fontana's work: the cut canvases suggest avant-garde iconoclasm, but the glittery ornamentation evokes outmoded forms of kitsch. In Lucio Fontana, Anthony White examines a selection of the artist's work from the 1930s to the 1960s, arguing that Fontana attacked the idealism of twentieth-century art by marrying modernist aesthetics to industrialized mass culture, and attacked modernism's purity in a way that anticipated both pop art and postmodernism. Fontana painted expressionist and abstract sculptures in the pinks and golds of mass-produced knick-knacks, saturated architectural installations with fluorescent paint and ultraviolet light, and encrusted candy-colored monochrome canvases with glitter. In doing so, White argues, he challenged Clement Greenberg's dictum that avant-garde and kitsch are diametrically opposed. Relating Fontana's art to the political and social context in which he worked, White shows how Fontana used the materials and techniques of mass culture to comment on the fate of the avant-garde under Italian fascism and the postwar "economic miracle." At a time when Fontana's work is commanding record prices, this new interpretation of the work assures that it has unprecedented critical relevance.

Lucio Fontana: Between Utopia and Kitsch

Arts & Photography

White, Anthony

History & Criticism

Mit Pr

A new view of Fontana showing how the artist combined modernist aesthetics with outmoded forms of kitsch.
In 1961, a solo exhibition by Argentine-Italian artist Lucio Fontana met with a scathing critical response from New York art critics. Fontana (1899–1968), well known in Europe for his series of slashed monochrome paintings, offered New York ten canvases slashed and punctured, thickly painted in luridly brilliant hues and embellished with chunks of colored glass. One critic described the work as “halfway between constructivism and costume jewelry,” unwittingly putting his finger on the contradiction at the heart of these paintings and much of Fontana's work: the cut canvases suggest avant-garde iconoclasm, but the glittery ornamentation evokes outmoded forms of kitsch. In Lucio Fontana, Anthony White examines a selection of the artist's work from the 1930s to the 1960s, arguing that Fontana attacked the idealism of twentieth-century art by marrying modernist aesthetics to industrialized mass culture, and attacked modernism's purity in a way that anticipated both pop art and postmodernism.
Fontana painted expressionist and abstract sculptures in the pinks and golds of mass-produced knick-knacks, saturated architectural installations with fluorescent paint and ultraviolet light, and encrusted candy-colored monochrome canvases with glitter. In doing so, White argues, he challenged Clement Greenberg's dictum that avant-garde and kitsch are diametrically opposed. Relating Fontana's art to the political and social context in which he worked, White shows how Fontana used the materials and techniques of mass culture to comment on the fate of the avant-garde under Italian fascism and the postwar “economic miracle.” At a time when Fontana's work is commanding record prices, this new interpretation of the work assures that it has unprecedented critical relevance.

Lucio Fontana: Between Utopia and Kitsch (October Books)

The MIT Press

Italian Modern Art in the Age of Fascism (Routledge Research in Art and Politics)

This book examines the work of several modern artists, including Fortunato Depero, Scipione, and Mario Radice, who were working in Italy during the time of Benito Mussolini’s rise and fall. It provides a new history of the relationship between modern art and fascism. The study begins from the premise that Italian artists belonging to avant-garde art movements, such as futurism, expressionism, and abstraction, could produce works that were perfectly amenable to the ideologies of Mussolini’s regime. A particular focus of the book is the precise relationship between ideas of history and modernity encountered in the art and politics of the time and how compatible these truly were.

Reference

Routledge

Energy and Urban Spatial Form: A Selected Bibliography (A1713)

Vance Bibliographies

Art is produced, circulated, consumed and disseminated within an economic system - it depends on money for its creation, for the livelihood of its makers, and for its distribution. In this sense, art can be understood as an enterprising activity. However, profit-making is rarely the primary goal of artists, and indeed the entanglement of art with enterprise generates significant aesthetic, conceptual, philosophical and ethical challenges for contemporary art practice. Social enterprise has emerged from this complex terrain with the promise of an alternative model of economic organisation in the arts. Grace McQuilten and Anthony White argue that artists can, and have, engaged critically in the commercial market, by way of this model. Art as Enterprise brings a fresh perspective to the debate about the roles of contemporary art in consumer capitalist society.

Art as Enterprise: Social and Economic Engagement in Contemporary Art (International Library of Modern and Contemporary Art)

McQuilten, Grace

I.B.Tauris

' Variation' is a term that embraces difference, and is core to the excitement and uniqueness of art practice. This book gives much-deserved attention to the work of artists with exceptional and varied lived experiences - including neurodiversity, diverse mental health, incarceration, and refugee, migrant and Muslim backgrounds - to transform how we understand contemporary visual art. The book' s goal is recognising, appreciating and analysing artistic variation - a process in which artists' voices are central to their stories, including how their lives and works are presented, discussed, framed and theorised. The essays, profiles and images in this hardback, lavishly illustrated volume have been co-produced, and in many cases co-authored, with artists and writers who have direct lived experience of social and cultural variation. These profiles include short texts, many written by the artists themselves, accompanied by high-quality reproductions, to ensure the text is accessible to a range of readers. Interspersed between these profiles is a series of longer texts, co-authored by artists and writers, to provide a layered understanding of the contexts in which the works might be understood. These include essays and interviews that address questions of structural and social marginalisation, while exploring the important role of collectives, supported studios and arts organisations.To understand art-making in Australia, it is essential to listen to the voices of artists who live complex forms of social diversity. Engagingly written and beautifully produced, this book introduces readers to a new picture of contemporary Australian art. Some of the artists featured include:Melbourne-based Lisa Reid is one of over 150 artists at Arts Project Australia, a supported studio that has been working with neurodiverse artists since 1974. Reid' s painting and drawing, characterised by humour and a highly distinctive graphic style, has attracted attention from private collectors as well as institutions, including the National Gallery of Victoria and Canberra' s National Gallery of Australia.Safdar Ahmed is a Sydney-based artist, musician and academic, and a founding member of the Refugee Art Project. This organisation was initially founded to facilitate art workshops for people incarcerated in Villawood detention centre and to amplify their voices through exhibitions and self-published zines.Colombian-born Javier Lara-Gomez began making architectural models out of salvaged materials while incarcerated at Sydney' s Long Bay Correctional Complex during the 1990s. As the artist noted, as he worked, he was ' bringing to life the dream that goes through my mind always when I think about my lovely family' .Geelong-born, Sydney-based artist Wart explores the experience of diverse mental health and the impact of institutionalisation in her art. Of the expressionistic works in her 2019 exhibition, ' Unravelling Moments in a Torn Mind' , Wart explained: ' they' re showing totally how screwed up you can be through colour and shape and mis-forming that shape.' Helen Sheferaw, who came to Australia from Ethiopia, has worked as a printmaker and designer with the support of not-for-profit printmaking studio The Ownership Project and The Social Studio, a fashion social enterprise. Her work documents the hope and trauma of the refugee migration experience, along with a celebration of her Ethiopian culture, from a deeply Christian perspective. Kamilaroi artist Frances Castles was taught by her grandmother in Walgett, New South Wales, to harvest and weave local river grasses. When Castles began working with The Torch, an organisation that supports Indigenous ex-offenders to connect with their culture and create art, she began to nourish knowledge and teach younger Indigenous women how to weave. With her woven baskets and textiles Castles wants a broader audience to ' get a sense of what this country is and what the culture is really about' .

Variations: A More Diverse Picture of Contemporary Art

Harwood, Tristen

Monash University Publishing

Atlas de l'art occidental

Steer, John

CITADELLES

Text in English and Chinese. Plan. Beautifully illustrated. 64p. The Forbidden City was built on the ruins of the Imperial Palace of the Yuan Dynasty. Includes an easy to follow map that identifies each court and the buildings in it as well as text guides. Measures 7.5x11.5 inches. French flaps.

The Forbidden City : A Short History and Guide

Great Wall

Lucio Fontana. En el umbral

Braun, Emily

Candela, Iria

Crispolti, Enrico

GIUNTA,ANDREA

Gottschaller, Pia

Fundación del Museo Guggenheim Bilbao

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