The Italian Avant-Garde of the 1950s:
From The Collection of the University of Pisa
At Baruch's Mishkin Gallery

November 18 - December 17, 1999

A collection of works on paper representing the vision of Italian avant-garde artists of the 1950s will be on exhibit at Baruch College's Mishkin Gallery from Thursday, November 18 thru Friday, December 17. The drawings, lithographs, etchings, and paintings on paper in the exhibition are drawn from the collection of the University of Pisa and provide intriguing evidence of the international visual dialogue taking place among the modernists of the post-World War II period.

The Opening Reception for this exhibition is Wednesday, November 17, 6 - 8 pm. Free and open to the public.

During the decade when abstract expressionism was the ruling passion among New York artists, the Italians were drawing on the artistic ideas and energy of the Futurists, the Italian rebels who repudiated traditional art as early as 1910, brazenly declaring the Renaissance legacy an impediment to modernism.

Italian artists of the 1950s drew inspiration from Futurist notions of "dynamism," a force that visually and dramatically set art in motion, and from Art Informel, a French movement, which like abstract expressionism, sought to unleash creativity through action

Painting, emphasizing the materiality of paint itself Like their American counterparts, Jackson Pollock, Arshile Gorky, and Willem de Kooning--whose work was exhibited in the Venice XXV Biennale in 195 0-- the Italians were deliberately and self-consciously spurning the past by destroying formal composition in favor of something more spontaneous.

The works in this exhibition range from the frantic action paintings of Emilio Vedova to the cuniform-like markings of Giuseppe Capagrossi to the near figurative nudes of Armando De Stefano. Collectively, they provide ample evidence of modernist ferment and visual dialogue across national borders.

This exhibition is presented jointly by the Mishkin Gallery and the Province of Pisa, Tuscany, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute, the Piaggio Foundation, and the University of Pisa.

The Sidney Mishkin Gallery is located at Baruch College, 135 East 22 Street, New York City.
Gallery hours are:
Monday-Friday, 12 noon-5 p.m.
Thursdays, 12 noon-7 p.m.
Free and Open to the Public.

© 1999 Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College

Zane Berzins (news office)
(212) 802-2881
zberzins@newton.baruch.cuny.edu