INFORMEL
Jean Dubuffet and European Art from 1945-1970
December 18, 2005 – April 9, 2006
Opening: December 17, 2005, 6 pm
Foro Boario
via Bono da Nonantola, 2
41100 Modena
ITALY
Phone +39 320 0452126
Fax +39 059 238966
e-mail info@mostre.fondazione-crmo.it
http://www.mostre.fondazione-crmo.it
Jackson Pollock’s personal letters offer fascinating insight into his appreciation for the art of Jean Dubuffet, considered by Pollock to be one of the masters of abstract art. The dialogue between American artists and collectors and the emerging European informel art of Dubuffet and his contemporaries provides a unique slant to the upcoming exhibition, Informel. Jean Dubuffet and European Art from 1945 –1970, at the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena.
After the success of the exhibition Action Painting. American art 1940-1970 (November 2004-February 2005), the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, once more in partnership with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, offers an exciting opportunity to explore the art of the same period in Europe, from 1945 to 1970. The complex and often contradictory currents of Informel art are impossible to condense into a single exhibition; nevertheless, at the Foro Boario, some of the most important groups of paintings defining the main currents of the movement can be viewed together for the first time, offering fresh insights into this dynamic period.
Luca Massimo Barbero, Associate Curator of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, has selected exceptional paintings from the Guggenheim Foundations museums in New York, Venice and Bilbao to be shown in this exciting upcoming exhibition. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum owns some of the most significant works completed by Jean Dubuffet in this period, and these crucial paintings form the axis upon which this remarkable exhibition is created. The explosive art of the CoBra group revolves around this nucleus, including exceptional paintings by Karel Appel and Pierre Alechinsky from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Visitors will discover the thickly layered color of the gestural painting of Jean-Paul Riopelle, Georges Mathieu and Pierre Soulages. Within this extensive exhibition they will locate the artistic response from Italy’s foremost informale artists, such as Alberto Burri, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Lucio Fontana, Bice Lazzari, Afro Basaldella and Gastone Novelli and others.
The curator’s vision is to provide the public of Modena and other visitors with an overview of the European personalities who contributed to the radical change in painting after World War II, from the “point of view” of the great American collections. This is a unique opportunity to discover which European artists major American collectors purchased. The works included throughout the exhibition will provide visitors with a sense of the choices made by American collectors during this period. In addition, precious graphic documents, drawings and catalogues shall be on display and together with these extraordinary paintings will following the investigative line that was so successful for previous exhibitions produced by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena.
The Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena is traditionally conscientious of the educational purpose of its exhibition program and in particular to the various discourses within contemporary art.
Once again the public is offered free admission to the show, as well as complimentary guided tours and training workshops for teachers. We are very proud to be the only such example among such important exhibitions in Italy.