Gladstone
Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of historical works realized by
Italian artist Mimmo Rotella from 1953 to 1962. Representing a sea change in
the artist’s practice, the compositions on view are some of the first examples
of Rotella’s pioneering décollage and retro d’affiche techniques, methods that
would become integral to Rotella’s artistic pursuit of continually engaging
with mass media’s own promotional materials.
Following
his return to Rome from a residency at Kansas City University in 1952, Rotella
consciously abandoned abstract painting as his primary form of expression.
Stirred by the presence of movie and advertising posters around the city – and
inspired by a cadre of other artists in the Italian capital at this time, such
as Alberto Burri, Robert Rauschenberg, Salvatore Scarpitta, and Cy Twombly –
Rotella began to rip banners and placards from walls and utilize them as the
source material for his now-notorious assemblages. These works take two
distinct forms: in the décollages, Rotella piled and glued advertisements
face-up before tearing away and incising individual layers, thereby creating
intentional and accidental expressionist juxtapositions of bold words, pop
cultural images, and various hues. By contrast, the artist’s retro d’affiches,
using only the posters’ often-untouched versos, showcase a concern with
materiality à la Art Informel, as evidenced by the visible traces of glue,
rust, plaster, and dust present in these compositions.
Hardly a
veneration of popular tastes, Rotella’s works collapse any semblance of
cultural hierarchy onto itself. Famous actors and consumer products all receive
equal billing in the artist’s arrangements. Similar to his American Pop Art
counterparts, Rotella’s excavation of wide-ranging social figures roots the
décollages in the time of their creation, while simultaneously underscoring the
ephemerality of the present moment.
Mimmo
Rotella was born in 1918 in Catanzaro, Italy, and passed away in 2006 in Milan.
Over the course of his career, Rotella was the subject of solo and group
exhibitions at many international institutions, including: Institute of
Contemporary Arts, London; Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Nice; Musée
Tinguely, Basel; Kunsthaus Zürich; Palazzo Grassi, Venice; and Palazzo Reale,
Milan. Rotella’s works are held in numerous prominent public collections
worldwide, including: Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Monderna e Contemporanea, Rome;
Galleria Civica di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin; Centre Georges
Pompidou, Paris; De Menil Collection, Houston; Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung
Ludwig, Vienna; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Staatgalerie,
Stuttgart, Germany; and Tate Gallery, London.
This
exhibition is realized in collaboration with the Mimmo Rotella Institute.
Established in 2012 by Inna and Aghnessa Rotella, the Institute aims to promote
and preserve the art of Mimmo Rotella both in Italy and abroad. Rotella’s heirs
appointed Germano Celant to edit the artist’s multi-volume catalogue raisonné,
of which the first volume was recently published.
A catalogue
with essays by Antonella Soldaini and Veronica Locatelli, both of the Mimmo
Rotella Institute, will be published in conjunction with the exhibition.
Duration: Saturday
March 4 2017 - Saturday April 15 2017
Venue name:
Gladstone 64
Address:
130 E 64th St, New York10065
Cross
street: between Lexington and Park Aves
Opening
hours: Tue–Sat 10am–6pm
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