NEW YORK, NY – De Buck Gallery is pleased to announce our group exhibition entitled Rethinking Space: Work from Post-War Italy. The exhibition will be on view at the gallery from April 1 – 16, and an opening reception is scheduled for April 7 from 6-8 PM.
Rethinking Space brings together a number of the most influential artists working in Italy during the post-war years, a time of immense innovation and creativity, to provide an overview of the most prominent movements of the era. The shared minimalist and geometric values of these artists resulted in a coherent aesthetic and philosophy that is identifiably “Italian” in origin.
Zero, one of the main movements to overtake Europe in the 1950s and 1960s, was defined by an interest in going back to basics in art in the aftermath of the horrors of war. First founded in Germany by Otto Piene and Heinz Mack, the movement quickly caught on in Italy, leading to innumerable beautiful art works by Italian artists throughout this fertile period. With the work of Dadamaino, Turi Simeti , Agostino Bonalumi, and French-born artist Bernard Aubertin, Rethinking Space brings together a significant group of work directly inspired by the Zero movement.
A number of additional movements emerged alongside Zero in Italy – among them Kinetic Art, here represented by Alberto Biasi and Carlo Nangeroni, Analytic Art, as represented by Pino Pinelli, and Pop Art, as represented by Mimmo Rotella. Together, these artists and movement represent the astounding burst of artistic genius that emerged in Italy during the post-war era, a microcosm of the wider reach of the global art world. From the graceful silence sought after by the Zero artists to the visual effects attaching by the Kinetic artists, and the innovative techniques of Pino Pinelli and Mimmo Rotella, Rethinking Space unites the various strands of Italian art of the 1950s and 1960s and beyond to provide a complete overview of one of the most fruitful times in twentieth century art history.
