Venue:
Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

Curator:
Luca Massimo Barbero.

Artist:
Giuseppe Capogrossi.

Exhibition description:
With Capogrossi. A Retrospective, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection paid tribute to a major figure in the first generation of post war artists who, with his painting Surface 210 (1957), has been represented in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation since 1958. The distinctive glyph of Giuseppe Capogrossi (1900–1972), like Lucio Fontana’s gesture of piercing the canvas, or the materiality of Alberto Burri’s works, has left an indelible mark on the history of Italian art in the 20th century. This exhaustive retrospective explored Capogrossi’s unique contribution to 20th-century art, tracing the evolution of his signature abstract style of grandiose orchestrations of mark and color, and its numerous variations over the subsequent decades. With his endlessly inventive deployment of his fork-like symbol, Capogrossi became synonymous with the Italian boom of the 50s and 60s, a period of optimism and rapid economic expansion.

Partnerships:
Organized by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in collaboration with the Fondazione Archivio Capogrossi, Rome.

Catalogue:
Barbero, Luca Massimo. Capogrossi. A Retrospective. Venice: Marsilio Editori, 2012.

Two catalogues, in English and Italian, with acknowledgements by Richard Armstrong (Director, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Museum) and Philip Rylands (Director, Peggy Guggenheim Collection), Guglielmo Capogrossi (President, Fondazione Archivio Capogrossi) and Luca Massimo Barbero. The catalogue also contains an introduction by Barbero, essays by Valerio Rivosecchi, Francesca Romana Morelli, Barbero, Francesca Pola, Giorgio Mastinu, Giorgina Bertolino, Sileno Salvagnini, Laura D’Angelo and Paolo Bolpagni, and Capogrossi’s biography by Ileana Pansino. An exhibition history, bibliography and an index of illustrated works by Capogrossi are also included.

Library Location: GUGG PGC 2012.07 (English), GUGG PGC 2012.08 (Italian), and UFFICIO 2012 (Italian).