Sharon Hecker - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Books by Sharon Hecker
Curating Fascism: Exhibitions and Memory from the Fall of Mussolini to Today, Bloomsbury, 2022
On the centenary of the fascist party in Italy's ascent to power, Curating Fascism examines the w... more On the centenary of the fascist party in Italy's ascent to power, Curating Fascism examines the ways in which exhibitions organized from the fall of Benito Mussolini's regime to the present day have shaped collective memory, historical narratives, and political discourse around the Italian ventennio. It charts how shows on fascism have evolved since the postwar period in Italy, explores representations of Italian fascism in exhibitions across the world, and highlights blindspots in art and cultural history, as well as in exhibition practices.
Featuring contributions from an international group of art, architectural, design, and cultural historians, as well as journalists and curators, this book treats fascism as both a historical moment and as a major paradigm through which critics, curators, and the public at large have defined the present moment since World War II. It interweaves historical perspectives, critical theory, and direct accounts of exhibitions from the people who conceived them or responded to them most significantly in order to examine the main curatorial strategies, cultural relevance, and political responsibility of art exhibitions focusing on the Fascist period. Through close analysis, the chapter authors unpack the multifaceted specificity of art shows, including architecture and exhibition design, curatorial choices and institutional history, cultural diplomacy and political history, and theories of viewership and constructed collective memory, to evaluate current curatorial practice.
In offering fresh new perspectives on the historiography, collective memory, and understanding of fascist art and culture from a contemporary standpoint, Curating Fascism sheds light on the complex exhibition history of Italian fascism not just within Italy but in such countries as the USA, the UK, Germany, and Brazil. It also presents an innovative approach to the growing field of exhibition theory through bringing contributions from curators and exhibition historians, who critically reflect upon curatorial strategies with respect to the delicate subject of fascism and fascist art, into dialogue with scholars of Italian studies and art historians, to address the physical and cultural legacy of fascism in the context of the current historical moment.
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One: Rethinking Historical Exhibitions in Italy
1. Exhibiting Art of the Fascist Ventennio: Curatorial Choices, Installation Strategies, and Critical Reception from Arte Moderna in Italia 1915–1935 (Florence, 1967) to Annitrenta (Milan, 1982), Luca Quattrocchi, University of Siena, Italy
2. Pluralism as Revisionism: Annitrenta at Palazzo Reale, Milan, 1982, Denis Viva, the University of Trento, Italy
3. Interview with Renato Barilli, Curator of Annitrenta Exhibition at Palazzo Reale (Milan, 1982), Raffaele Bedarida, Cooper Union, New York, USA
4. Art, Life, Politics, and the Seductiveness of Italian Fascism: Post Zang Tumb Tuuum at Fondazione Prada (Milan, 2018), Sharon Hecker and Raffaele Bedarida, Art historian and Curator, Italy; Cooper Union, New York, USA
5. Italy's Holocaust on Display: From Carpi-Fossoli to Auschwitz (to Florence), Robert S. C. Gordon, Cambridge University, UK
6. Umbertino Umbertino: The Many Masks of Rome's Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Romy Golan, the Graduate Center, CUNY, USA
Part Two: Exhibitions of Fascism Around the World
7. Exhibiting and Collecting the F-word in Britain, Rosalind McKever, Curator, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
8. Novecento Brasiliano: Margherita Sarfatti, Ciccillo Matarazzo, and the Italian Collection of MAC USP, Ana Gonçalves Magalhães, University of São Paulo (MAC USP), Brazil
9. Contextualizing Razionalismo in the exhibition Photographic Recall (2019): Fascist Spaces in Contemporary German Photography, Miriam Paeslack, University at Buffalo (SUNY), New York, USA
10. Feeling at Home: Exhibiting Design, Blurring Fascism, Elena Dellapiana and Jonathan Mekinda, the Politecnico di Torino, Italy; University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), USA
11. Italian Jewish Artists and Fascist Cultural Politics: on Gardens and Ghettos at the Jewish Museum in New York (1989), Emily Braun, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, USA, interviewed by Raffaele Bedarida and Sharon Hecker
Part Three: Absences
12. Exhibiting the Homoerotic Body, the Queer Afterlife of Ventennio Male Nudes, John Champagne Penn State Erie, the Behrend College, USA
13. “Partigiano Portami Via”: Exhibiting Antifascism and the Resistance in Post-Fascist Italy, Raffaele Bedarida, Cooper Union, New York, USA
14. Looking at Women and Mental Illness in Fascist Italy: An Exhibition's Dialogical and Feminist Approach, Lucia Re, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
15. Silencing the Colonial Past: The 1993 Exhibition Architettura italiana d'oltremare 1870-1940 in Bologna, Nicola Labanca, University of Siena, Italy
16. Recharting Landscapes in the Exhibition Roma Negata: Postcolonial Routes of the City (2014) and the Digital Project Postcolonial Italy: Mapping Colonial Heritage, Shelleen Greene University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Part Four: Curatorial Practices
17. From MRF to Post Zang Tumb Tuuum: The Responsibilities of the Re-hang, Vanessa Rocco, Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, USA
18. The Final Ramp: Addressing Fascism in Italian Futurism at the Guggenheim Museum, Vivien Greene and Susan Thompson, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, USA; Curator and Writer, Brooklyn, USA
19. The Making of MART and the Archivio del Novecento: Interview with Gabriella Belli, Director of the Foundation from the Municipal Museums of Venice
20. Now You See It, Now You Don't: Reconstructing Artists' Studios in Exhibitions on Fascist-Era Art, Sharon Hecker, Art Historian and Curator, Italy
21. Interview with Maaza Mengiste on Project 3541: A Photographic Archive of the 1935-41 Italo-Ethiopian War, Raffaele Bedarida and Sharon Hecker, Art historian and Curator, Italy; Cooper Union, New York, USA
Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 2022
On the centenary of the fascist party in Italy's ascent to power, Curating Fascism examines the w... more On the centenary of the fascist party in Italy's ascent to power, Curating Fascism examines the ways in which exhibitions organized from the fall of Benito Mussolini's regime to the present day have shaped collective memory, historical narratives, and political discourse around the Italian ventennio. It charts how shows on fascism have evolved since the postwar period in Italy, explores representations of Italian fascism in exhibitions across the world, and highlights blindspots in art and cultural history, as well as in exhibition practices.
Featuring contributions from an international group of art, architectural, design, and cultural historians, as well as journalists and curators, this book treats fascism as both a historical moment and as a major paradigm through which critics, curators, and the public at large have defined the present moment since World War II. It interweaves historical perspectives, critical theory, and direct accounts of exhibitions from the people who conceived them or responded to them most significantly in order to examine the main curatorial strategies, cultural relevance, and political responsibility of art exhibitions focusing on the Fascist period. Through close analysis, the chapter authors unpack the multifaceted specificity of art shows, including architecture and exhibition design, curatorial choices and institutional history, cultural diplomacy and political history, and theories of viewership and constructed collective memory, to evaluate current curatorial practice.
In offering fresh new perspectives on the historiography, collective memory, and understanding of fascist art and culture from a contemporary standpoint, Curating Fascism sheds light on the complex exhibition history of Italian fascism not just within Italy but in such countries as the USA, the UK, Germany, and Brazil. It also presents an innovative approach to the growing field of exhibition theory through bringing contributions from curators and exhibition historians, who critically reflect upon curatorial strategies with respect to the delicate subject of fascism and fascist art, into dialogue with scholars of Italian studies and art historians, to address the physical and cultural legacy of fascism in the context of the current historical moment.
Routledge, 2022
This book takes an interdisciplinary, transnational and cross-cultural approach to reflect on, cr... more This book takes an interdisciplinary, transnational and cross-cultural approach to reflect on, critically examine and challenge the surprisingly robust practice of making art after death in an artist's name, through the lenses of scholars from the fields of art history, economics and law, as well as practicing artists.
Works of art conceived as multiples, such as sculptures, etchings, prints, photographs and conceptual art, can be—and often are—remade from original models and plans long after the artist has passed. Recent sales have suggested a growing market embrace of posthumous works, contemporaneous with questioning on the part of art history. Legal norms seem unready for this surge in posthumous production and are beset by conflict across jurisdictions. Non-Western approaches to posthumous art, from Chinese emulations of non-living artists to Native American performances, take into account rituals of generational passage at odds with contemporary, market-driven approaches.
The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, the art market, art law, art management, museum studies and economics.
Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 2021
Lead in Modern and Contemporary Art is the first edited volume to critically examine uses of lead... more Lead in Modern and Contemporary Art is the first edited volume to critically examine uses of lead as both material and cultural signifier in modern and contemporary art. The book analyzes the work of a diverse group of artists working in Europe, the Middle East, and North America, and takes into account the ways in which gender, race, and class can affect the cultural perception of lead.
Bringing together contributions from a distinguished group of international contributors across various fields, this volume explores lead's relevance from a number of perspectives, including art history, technical art history, art criticism, and curatorial studies. Drawing on current art historical concerns with materiality, this volume builds on recent exhibitions and scholarship that reconsider the role of materials in shaping artistic meaning, thus giving a central relevance to the object and its physicality.
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2018
Postwar Italian Art History Today brings fresh critical consideration to the parameters and impac... more Postwar Italian Art History Today brings fresh critical consideration to the parameters and impact of Italian art and visual culture studies of the past several decades. Taking its cue from the thirty-year anniversary of curator Germano Celant’s landmark exhibition at PS1 in New York – The Knot – this volume presents innovative case studies and emphasizes new methodologies deployed in the study of postwar Italian art as a means to evaluate the current state of the field. Included are fifteen essays that each examine, from a different viewpoint, the issues, concerns, and questions driving postwar Italian art history. The editors and contributors call for a systematic reconsideration of the artistic origins of postwar Italian art, the terminology that is used to describe the work produced, and key personalities and institutions that promoted and supported the development and marketing of this art in Italy and abroad.
University of California Press, 2017
Medardo Rosso (1858–1928) is one of the most original and influential figures in the history of m... more Medardo Rosso (1858–1928) is one of the most original and influential figures in the history of modern art, and this book is the first historically substantiated critical account of his life and work. An innovative sculptor, photographer, and draftsman, Rosso was vital in paving the way for the transition from the academic forms of sculpture that persisted in the nineteenth century to the development of new and experimental forms in the twentieth. His antimonumental, antiheroic work reflected alienation in the modern experience yet showed deep feeling for interactions between self and other. Rosso’s art was transnational: he refused allegiance to a single culture or artistic heritage and declared himself both a citizen of the world and a maker of art without national limits. In this book, Sharon Hecker develops a narrative that is an alternative to the dominant Franco-centered perspective on the origin of modern sculpture in which Rodin plays the role of lone heroic innovator. Offering an original way to comprehend Rosso, A Moment’s Monument negotiates the competing cultural imperatives of nationalism and internationalism that shaped the European art world at the fin de siècle.
Johan & Levi Editore, 2017
Artista amato dagli artisti, a cominciare da Boccioni che ne elogia la carica sovversiva, Medardo... more Artista amato dagli artisti, a cominciare da Boccioni che ne elogia la carica sovversiva, Medardo Rosso (1858-1928) è autore di un’opera rivoluzionaria che non ha cessato di influenzare ogni nuova generazione di scultori. Precursore di tendenze che hanno trovato pieno sviluppo solo nel Novecento, Rosso ha avuto una fortuna postuma straordinaria, lasciando segni indelebili su artisti come Brancusi, Giacometti e Moore, ma anche su numerosi contemporanei: Fabro ha dichiarato un sostanziale debito nei suoi confronti, e Anselmo, di fronte alle sculture in cera, riconosce come la materia forgiata da Rosso vibri dall’interno, quasi avesse un cuore pulsante.
Fin dagli esordi, Rosso si pone un obiettivo irriverente: dematerializzare la scultura monumentale, che da eterna e celebrativa si fa con lui antieroica e capace di cogliere la fugacità del momento. Rivoluzionario lo è, però, anche nel travalicare le barriere geografiche in un’epoca in cui l’arte è fortemente definita dai confini nazionali. Cresciuto all’indomani dell’Unità d’Italia e disilluso dalle mancate promesse del Risorgimento, lascia il paese nel 1889 per trasferirsi a Parigi dove trascorrerà buona parte della sua vita. Emigrato per scelta e cosmopolita per vocazione, la sua personalità indomita lo rende ostile ad appartenenze di sorta, ma ricettivo verso ogni stimolo della modernità, dai nuovi canali di comunicazione ai progressi della fotografia, che gli consentono di attingere a una varietà di fonti visive e, a sua volta, di far circolare la propria opera come mai prima. Lavorando su piccola scala, inoltre, Rosso rende la più statica e pesante delle arti un prodotto facilmente trasportabile, in linea con le strategie poco ortodosse che elabora per promuovere il proprio lavoro.
Questo saggio è il primo a collocare l’attività di Rosso in una prospettiva storica e transnazionale offrendo un’alternativa al racconto canonico sulla nascita della scultura moderna. Se da sempre si è assegnato a Rodin il ruolo di isolato ed eroico innovatore, Sharon Hecker restituisce il giusto peso a un artista che ha anticipato molte pratiche divenute oggi comuni nel vocabolario artistico globale.
Medardo Rosso by Sharon Hecker
Edited by Università di Pisa License Creative Commons Odradek. Studies in Philosophy of Literatur... more Edited by Università di Pisa License Creative Commons Odradek. Studies in Philosophy of Literature, Aesthetics and New Media Theories is licensed under a Creative Commons attribution, non-commercial 4.0 International.
"The Internationalisation of the Art Market in the Age of Nation States, 1750-1914”, Art Crossing Borders, Studies in the History of Collecting & Art Markets, 2019
In 1899 the French poet Jehan Rictus recorded an encounter with Medardo Rosso, Italian sculptor a... more In 1899 the French poet Jehan Rictus recorded an encounter with Medardo Rosso, Italian sculptor and astute marketer, in his diary: Medardo Rosso selling a reproduction to a bourgeois is […] truly […] comedic […] He takes the unlucky guy, turns his nose to the wall enjoining him to stay in this penitent posture […] Then he goes to a big Norman chest that conceals the work he wants to sell […], opens a lid, plunges into the chest, brings out […] a piece of […] plush cloth, […] drapes it on a wooden chest or a seat, […] quickly runs to the window, plays with the curtains of the atelier for the illumination […] And if the restless bourgeois risks glancing at these preparations, Rosso vehemently warns him not to move, reprimanding him 'Per Cristo, don't turn around!' Finally, after half an hour of beseechments […], Rosso, having placed the wax […] on the pedestal decorated by a plush cloth, declares: 'And now look!' The relieved bourgeois turns around […] and […] declares-how superb it is and generally he buys. If he was not convinced he wouldn't dare confess this and would leave with the object anyway.1 1 The full quote is: 'Rosso vendant une reproduction à un bourgeois est étonnant à voir. C'est une vrai scène de comédie inoubliable. Il prend l'infortuné Michet, il le tourne le nez dans la muraille lui enjoignant de rester dans cette posture de pénitence jusqu'à ce qu'il lui dise de se retourner. Puis il va à un grand bahut normand qui recèle l'oeuvre qu'il veut [lui] vendre. Il [en] ouvre un battant de porte, plonge dans le bahut, en retire un morceau de peluche vert ou noir selon, le dispose, le drape sur une caisse en bois, ou une selle, puis vite court à la fenêtre, fait jouer les rideaux de l'atelier pour l'éclairage, la lumière. Et si le bourgeois inquiet risque un oeil vers ces préparatifs, Rosso véhémentement lui enjoint de ne pas bouger, ce en le tutoyant: "Per Cristo, né té [sic] retourné [sic] pas!." Enfin après une demi-heure d'adjurations et de recommandations, Rosso ayant situé la cire qu'il veut vendre sur le piédestal orné d'une peluche déclare: "Et mainténant [sic] régarde!." Le bourgeois se retourne soulagé et devant tant de précautions déclare-que c'est superbe et généralement achète.
The Italian Ministry of Culture has declared several works by Medardo Rosso (1858–1928) to be of ... more The Italian Ministry of Culture has declared several works by Medardo Rosso (1858–1928) to be of ‘national cultural interest’ and therefore not exportable. This decree is based on the premise of Rosso’s ties to Italy, his country of birth and death, and on the Ministry’s belief in his relevance for Italian art, culture and history. However, Rosso’s national identity has never been secure. Claims for his ‘belonging’ to Italy are complicated by his international career choices, including his emigration to Paris and naturalization as a French citizen; his declared identity as an internationalist; and his art, which defies (national) categorization. Italy’s legal and political ‘notification’ of Rosso’s works represents a revisionist effort to settle and claim his loyalties. Such attempts rewrite the narrative of art history, limiting the kinds of questions that get asked. They shed light on Italy’s complex mediations between claims to emerging modernism and claims to a national art. This article assesses the long-term effects of transnational travel and relocation on Rosso’s national reputation and legacy. I assess his poor fit into national schools and nationally defined movements, and the ways in which his life, career and art challenge ideas about sculpture’s entrenchment in projections of the national. Rosso’s case highlights specific difficulties faced by sculptors as opposed to painters with respect to discourses of national and international identity. His example calls for a more nuanced reading of the definition of ‘home country’ and perceptions of an artist’s national cultural ‘belonging’ as single, unified or homogeneous.
Sharon Hecker The afterlife of sculptures: posthumous casts and the case of Medardo Rosso (1858-1... more Sharon Hecker The afterlife of sculptures: posthumous casts and the case of Medardo Rosso (1858-1928) 2 totally legal but yet always posthumous reproductions). So as to avoid that certain relaxed forms, certain deaf yellows, overlap with our perception of the liveliness of the originals, we herewith give the list of casts by Francesco in public museums, leaving out the more innocuous list of private collections, which are destined moreover to sadden some future exhibition. 3 While this viewpoint rightly encourages proper labeling, it still leaves open questions about Rosso's posthumous legacy, as shown by the case of Tate's cast: there is a need to clarify what constitutes an 'original', 'authentic' Rosso, and where should meaning and value be located for the posthumous casts. Is the value, 'originality', and 'authenticity' of Rosso's work found in the plaster model(s), the casts, or both? How does an owner define posthumous works made from the same models as the lifetime works? Does the existing definition intend to mean that the posthumous cast is in itself not a well cast object, being legally authorized but not made or supervised by the artist? Is there a single standard of quality by which to measure these works? Tate Modern is not alone in this problem. Many public institutions and private collectors own casts by Rosso that are now considered to be posthumous. There is no scholarly or institutional consensus about how to label these casts, or whether to display them or circulate them in exhibitions. Rosso's posthumous casts are frequently traded on the art market through intermediaries such as auction houses. Their attribution as 'authentic' works by Rosso is at times avoided, at times questioned, leaving buyers with an uncertain sense of their status and value. This situation persists because Rosso's materials, casting processes, and his ideas about his legacy are not fully understood. Whereas the art market and the law demand from experts a clear answer to the question of authenticity and attribution, I believe that Rosso's case cannot be limited to a binary question, 'whether a work is genuine or fake, either by the artist in question or not by him'. 4 A more nuanced approach is necessary. The changing perceptions of posthumous casts Posthumous casts are certainly not limited to a single artist or his/her legacy, or even to a single time period in art history. Posthumous reproductions and copies 3 'Di qualità inferiore, fuori da ogni paragone con le opere di Medardo Rosso, questi lavori sono invece di regola confusi con gli originali al punto che anche nelle pubbliche raccolte non di rado li troviamo figurare le une accanto agli altri, senza alcuna indicazione che permetta di distinguere gli autentici dalle copie (legali, legalissime ma pur sempre riproduzioni postume). Per evitare dunque che certe forme rilassate, certe gialle sordità, si sovrappongano nella nostra percezione al vivo degli originali diamo a seguito l'elenco delle fusioni di Francesco conservate nei pubblici musei, tralasciando la più innocua lista dei privati, destinata al più a intristire qualche futura esposizione', Paola Mola and Fabio Vittucci, Medardo Rosso: Catalogo ragionato della scultura,
Curating Fascism: Exhibitions and Memory from the Fall of Mussolini to Today, Bloomsbury, 2022
On the centenary of the fascist party in Italy's ascent to power, Curating Fascism examines the w... more On the centenary of the fascist party in Italy's ascent to power, Curating Fascism examines the ways in which exhibitions organized from the fall of Benito Mussolini's regime to the present day have shaped collective memory, historical narratives, and political discourse around the Italian ventennio. It charts how shows on fascism have evolved since the postwar period in Italy, explores representations of Italian fascism in exhibitions across the world, and highlights blindspots in art and cultural history, as well as in exhibition practices.
Featuring contributions from an international group of art, architectural, design, and cultural historians, as well as journalists and curators, this book treats fascism as both a historical moment and as a major paradigm through which critics, curators, and the public at large have defined the present moment since World War II. It interweaves historical perspectives, critical theory, and direct accounts of exhibitions from the people who conceived them or responded to them most significantly in order to examine the main curatorial strategies, cultural relevance, and political responsibility of art exhibitions focusing on the Fascist period. Through close analysis, the chapter authors unpack the multifaceted specificity of art shows, including architecture and exhibition design, curatorial choices and institutional history, cultural diplomacy and political history, and theories of viewership and constructed collective memory, to evaluate current curatorial practice.
In offering fresh new perspectives on the historiography, collective memory, and understanding of fascist art and culture from a contemporary standpoint, Curating Fascism sheds light on the complex exhibition history of Italian fascism not just within Italy but in such countries as the USA, the UK, Germany, and Brazil. It also presents an innovative approach to the growing field of exhibition theory through bringing contributions from curators and exhibition historians, who critically reflect upon curatorial strategies with respect to the delicate subject of fascism and fascist art, into dialogue with scholars of Italian studies and art historians, to address the physical and cultural legacy of fascism in the context of the current historical moment.
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One: Rethinking Historical Exhibitions in Italy
1. Exhibiting Art of the Fascist Ventennio: Curatorial Choices, Installation Strategies, and Critical Reception from Arte Moderna in Italia 1915–1935 (Florence, 1967) to Annitrenta (Milan, 1982), Luca Quattrocchi, University of Siena, Italy
2. Pluralism as Revisionism: Annitrenta at Palazzo Reale, Milan, 1982, Denis Viva, the University of Trento, Italy
3. Interview with Renato Barilli, Curator of Annitrenta Exhibition at Palazzo Reale (Milan, 1982), Raffaele Bedarida, Cooper Union, New York, USA
4. Art, Life, Politics, and the Seductiveness of Italian Fascism: Post Zang Tumb Tuuum at Fondazione Prada (Milan, 2018), Sharon Hecker and Raffaele Bedarida, Art historian and Curator, Italy; Cooper Union, New York, USA
5. Italy's Holocaust on Display: From Carpi-Fossoli to Auschwitz (to Florence), Robert S. C. Gordon, Cambridge University, UK
6. Umbertino Umbertino: The Many Masks of Rome's Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Romy Golan, the Graduate Center, CUNY, USA
Part Two: Exhibitions of Fascism Around the World
7. Exhibiting and Collecting the F-word in Britain, Rosalind McKever, Curator, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
8. Novecento Brasiliano: Margherita Sarfatti, Ciccillo Matarazzo, and the Italian Collection of MAC USP, Ana Gonçalves Magalhães, University of São Paulo (MAC USP), Brazil
9. Contextualizing Razionalismo in the exhibition Photographic Recall (2019): Fascist Spaces in Contemporary German Photography, Miriam Paeslack, University at Buffalo (SUNY), New York, USA
10. Feeling at Home: Exhibiting Design, Blurring Fascism, Elena Dellapiana and Jonathan Mekinda, the Politecnico di Torino, Italy; University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), USA
11. Italian Jewish Artists and Fascist Cultural Politics: on Gardens and Ghettos at the Jewish Museum in New York (1989), Emily Braun, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, USA, interviewed by Raffaele Bedarida and Sharon Hecker
Part Three: Absences
12. Exhibiting the Homoerotic Body, the Queer Afterlife of Ventennio Male Nudes, John Champagne Penn State Erie, the Behrend College, USA
13. “Partigiano Portami Via”: Exhibiting Antifascism and the Resistance in Post-Fascist Italy, Raffaele Bedarida, Cooper Union, New York, USA
14. Looking at Women and Mental Illness in Fascist Italy: An Exhibition's Dialogical and Feminist Approach, Lucia Re, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
15. Silencing the Colonial Past: The 1993 Exhibition Architettura italiana d'oltremare 1870-1940 in Bologna, Nicola Labanca, University of Siena, Italy
16. Recharting Landscapes in the Exhibition Roma Negata: Postcolonial Routes of the City (2014) and the Digital Project Postcolonial Italy: Mapping Colonial Heritage, Shelleen Greene University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Part Four: Curatorial Practices
17. From MRF to Post Zang Tumb Tuuum: The Responsibilities of the Re-hang, Vanessa Rocco, Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, USA
18. The Final Ramp: Addressing Fascism in Italian Futurism at the Guggenheim Museum, Vivien Greene and Susan Thompson, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, USA; Curator and Writer, Brooklyn, USA
19. The Making of MART and the Archivio del Novecento: Interview with Gabriella Belli, Director of the Foundation from the Municipal Museums of Venice
20. Now You See It, Now You Don't: Reconstructing Artists' Studios in Exhibitions on Fascist-Era Art, Sharon Hecker, Art Historian and Curator, Italy
21. Interview with Maaza Mengiste on Project 3541: A Photographic Archive of the 1935-41 Italo-Ethiopian War, Raffaele Bedarida and Sharon Hecker, Art historian and Curator, Italy; Cooper Union, New York, USA
Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 2022
On the centenary of the fascist party in Italy's ascent to power, Curating Fascism examines the w... more On the centenary of the fascist party in Italy's ascent to power, Curating Fascism examines the ways in which exhibitions organized from the fall of Benito Mussolini's regime to the present day have shaped collective memory, historical narratives, and political discourse around the Italian ventennio. It charts how shows on fascism have evolved since the postwar period in Italy, explores representations of Italian fascism in exhibitions across the world, and highlights blindspots in art and cultural history, as well as in exhibition practices.
Featuring contributions from an international group of art, architectural, design, and cultural historians, as well as journalists and curators, this book treats fascism as both a historical moment and as a major paradigm through which critics, curators, and the public at large have defined the present moment since World War II. It interweaves historical perspectives, critical theory, and direct accounts of exhibitions from the people who conceived them or responded to them most significantly in order to examine the main curatorial strategies, cultural relevance, and political responsibility of art exhibitions focusing on the Fascist period. Through close analysis, the chapter authors unpack the multifaceted specificity of art shows, including architecture and exhibition design, curatorial choices and institutional history, cultural diplomacy and political history, and theories of viewership and constructed collective memory, to evaluate current curatorial practice.
In offering fresh new perspectives on the historiography, collective memory, and understanding of fascist art and culture from a contemporary standpoint, Curating Fascism sheds light on the complex exhibition history of Italian fascism not just within Italy but in such countries as the USA, the UK, Germany, and Brazil. It also presents an innovative approach to the growing field of exhibition theory through bringing contributions from curators and exhibition historians, who critically reflect upon curatorial strategies with respect to the delicate subject of fascism and fascist art, into dialogue with scholars of Italian studies and art historians, to address the physical and cultural legacy of fascism in the context of the current historical moment.
Routledge, 2022
This book takes an interdisciplinary, transnational and cross-cultural approach to reflect on, cr... more This book takes an interdisciplinary, transnational and cross-cultural approach to reflect on, critically examine and challenge the surprisingly robust practice of making art after death in an artist's name, through the lenses of scholars from the fields of art history, economics and law, as well as practicing artists.
Works of art conceived as multiples, such as sculptures, etchings, prints, photographs and conceptual art, can be—and often are—remade from original models and plans long after the artist has passed. Recent sales have suggested a growing market embrace of posthumous works, contemporaneous with questioning on the part of art history. Legal norms seem unready for this surge in posthumous production and are beset by conflict across jurisdictions. Non-Western approaches to posthumous art, from Chinese emulations of non-living artists to Native American performances, take into account rituals of generational passage at odds with contemporary, market-driven approaches.
The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, the art market, art law, art management, museum studies and economics.
Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, 2021
Lead in Modern and Contemporary Art is the first edited volume to critically examine uses of lead... more Lead in Modern and Contemporary Art is the first edited volume to critically examine uses of lead as both material and cultural signifier in modern and contemporary art. The book analyzes the work of a diverse group of artists working in Europe, the Middle East, and North America, and takes into account the ways in which gender, race, and class can affect the cultural perception of lead.
Bringing together contributions from a distinguished group of international contributors across various fields, this volume explores lead's relevance from a number of perspectives, including art history, technical art history, art criticism, and curatorial studies. Drawing on current art historical concerns with materiality, this volume builds on recent exhibitions and scholarship that reconsider the role of materials in shaping artistic meaning, thus giving a central relevance to the object and its physicality.
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2018
Postwar Italian Art History Today brings fresh critical consideration to the parameters and impac... more Postwar Italian Art History Today brings fresh critical consideration to the parameters and impact of Italian art and visual culture studies of the past several decades. Taking its cue from the thirty-year anniversary of curator Germano Celant’s landmark exhibition at PS1 in New York – The Knot – this volume presents innovative case studies and emphasizes new methodologies deployed in the study of postwar Italian art as a means to evaluate the current state of the field. Included are fifteen essays that each examine, from a different viewpoint, the issues, concerns, and questions driving postwar Italian art history. The editors and contributors call for a systematic reconsideration of the artistic origins of postwar Italian art, the terminology that is used to describe the work produced, and key personalities and institutions that promoted and supported the development and marketing of this art in Italy and abroad.
University of California Press, 2017
Medardo Rosso (1858–1928) is one of the most original and influential figures in the history of m... more Medardo Rosso (1858–1928) is one of the most original and influential figures in the history of modern art, and this book is the first historically substantiated critical account of his life and work. An innovative sculptor, photographer, and draftsman, Rosso was vital in paving the way for the transition from the academic forms of sculpture that persisted in the nineteenth century to the development of new and experimental forms in the twentieth. His antimonumental, antiheroic work reflected alienation in the modern experience yet showed deep feeling for interactions between self and other. Rosso’s art was transnational: he refused allegiance to a single culture or artistic heritage and declared himself both a citizen of the world and a maker of art without national limits. In this book, Sharon Hecker develops a narrative that is an alternative to the dominant Franco-centered perspective on the origin of modern sculpture in which Rodin plays the role of lone heroic innovator. Offering an original way to comprehend Rosso, A Moment’s Monument negotiates the competing cultural imperatives of nationalism and internationalism that shaped the European art world at the fin de siècle.
Johan & Levi Editore, 2017
Artista amato dagli artisti, a cominciare da Boccioni che ne elogia la carica sovversiva, Medardo... more Artista amato dagli artisti, a cominciare da Boccioni che ne elogia la carica sovversiva, Medardo Rosso (1858-1928) è autore di un’opera rivoluzionaria che non ha cessato di influenzare ogni nuova generazione di scultori. Precursore di tendenze che hanno trovato pieno sviluppo solo nel Novecento, Rosso ha avuto una fortuna postuma straordinaria, lasciando segni indelebili su artisti come Brancusi, Giacometti e Moore, ma anche su numerosi contemporanei: Fabro ha dichiarato un sostanziale debito nei suoi confronti, e Anselmo, di fronte alle sculture in cera, riconosce come la materia forgiata da Rosso vibri dall’interno, quasi avesse un cuore pulsante.
Fin dagli esordi, Rosso si pone un obiettivo irriverente: dematerializzare la scultura monumentale, che da eterna e celebrativa si fa con lui antieroica e capace di cogliere la fugacità del momento. Rivoluzionario lo è, però, anche nel travalicare le barriere geografiche in un’epoca in cui l’arte è fortemente definita dai confini nazionali. Cresciuto all’indomani dell’Unità d’Italia e disilluso dalle mancate promesse del Risorgimento, lascia il paese nel 1889 per trasferirsi a Parigi dove trascorrerà buona parte della sua vita. Emigrato per scelta e cosmopolita per vocazione, la sua personalità indomita lo rende ostile ad appartenenze di sorta, ma ricettivo verso ogni stimolo della modernità, dai nuovi canali di comunicazione ai progressi della fotografia, che gli consentono di attingere a una varietà di fonti visive e, a sua volta, di far circolare la propria opera come mai prima. Lavorando su piccola scala, inoltre, Rosso rende la più statica e pesante delle arti un prodotto facilmente trasportabile, in linea con le strategie poco ortodosse che elabora per promuovere il proprio lavoro.
Questo saggio è il primo a collocare l’attività di Rosso in una prospettiva storica e transnazionale offrendo un’alternativa al racconto canonico sulla nascita della scultura moderna. Se da sempre si è assegnato a Rodin il ruolo di isolato ed eroico innovatore, Sharon Hecker restituisce il giusto peso a un artista che ha anticipato molte pratiche divenute oggi comuni nel vocabolario artistico globale.
Edited by Università di Pisa License Creative Commons Odradek. Studies in Philosophy of Literatur... more Edited by Università di Pisa License Creative Commons Odradek. Studies in Philosophy of Literature, Aesthetics and New Media Theories is licensed under a Creative Commons attribution, non-commercial 4.0 International.
"The Internationalisation of the Art Market in the Age of Nation States, 1750-1914”, Art Crossing Borders, Studies in the History of Collecting & Art Markets, 2019
In 1899 the French poet Jehan Rictus recorded an encounter with Medardo Rosso, Italian sculptor a... more In 1899 the French poet Jehan Rictus recorded an encounter with Medardo Rosso, Italian sculptor and astute marketer, in his diary: Medardo Rosso selling a reproduction to a bourgeois is […] truly […] comedic […] He takes the unlucky guy, turns his nose to the wall enjoining him to stay in this penitent posture […] Then he goes to a big Norman chest that conceals the work he wants to sell […], opens a lid, plunges into the chest, brings out […] a piece of […] plush cloth, […] drapes it on a wooden chest or a seat, […] quickly runs to the window, plays with the curtains of the atelier for the illumination […] And if the restless bourgeois risks glancing at these preparations, Rosso vehemently warns him not to move, reprimanding him 'Per Cristo, don't turn around!' Finally, after half an hour of beseechments […], Rosso, having placed the wax […] on the pedestal decorated by a plush cloth, declares: 'And now look!' The relieved bourgeois turns around […] and […] declares-how superb it is and generally he buys. If he was not convinced he wouldn't dare confess this and would leave with the object anyway.1 1 The full quote is: 'Rosso vendant une reproduction à un bourgeois est étonnant à voir. C'est une vrai scène de comédie inoubliable. Il prend l'infortuné Michet, il le tourne le nez dans la muraille lui enjoignant de rester dans cette posture de pénitence jusqu'à ce qu'il lui dise de se retourner. Puis il va à un grand bahut normand qui recèle l'oeuvre qu'il veut [lui] vendre. Il [en] ouvre un battant de porte, plonge dans le bahut, en retire un morceau de peluche vert ou noir selon, le dispose, le drape sur une caisse en bois, ou une selle, puis vite court à la fenêtre, fait jouer les rideaux de l'atelier pour l'éclairage, la lumière. Et si le bourgeois inquiet risque un oeil vers ces préparatifs, Rosso véhémentement lui enjoint de ne pas bouger, ce en le tutoyant: "Per Cristo, né té [sic] retourné [sic] pas!." Enfin après une demi-heure d'adjurations et de recommandations, Rosso ayant situé la cire qu'il veut vendre sur le piédestal orné d'une peluche déclare: "Et mainténant [sic] régarde!." Le bourgeois se retourne soulagé et devant tant de précautions déclare-que c'est superbe et généralement achète.
The Italian Ministry of Culture has declared several works by Medardo Rosso (1858–1928) to be of ... more The Italian Ministry of Culture has declared several works by Medardo Rosso (1858–1928) to be of ‘national cultural interest’ and therefore not exportable. This decree is based on the premise of Rosso’s ties to Italy, his country of birth and death, and on the Ministry’s belief in his relevance for Italian art, culture and history. However, Rosso’s national identity has never been secure. Claims for his ‘belonging’ to Italy are complicated by his international career choices, including his emigration to Paris and naturalization as a French citizen; his declared identity as an internationalist; and his art, which defies (national) categorization. Italy’s legal and political ‘notification’ of Rosso’s works represents a revisionist effort to settle and claim his loyalties. Such attempts rewrite the narrative of art history, limiting the kinds of questions that get asked. They shed light on Italy’s complex mediations between claims to emerging modernism and claims to a national art. This article assesses the long-term effects of transnational travel and relocation on Rosso’s national reputation and legacy. I assess his poor fit into national schools and nationally defined movements, and the ways in which his life, career and art challenge ideas about sculpture’s entrenchment in projections of the national. Rosso’s case highlights specific difficulties faced by sculptors as opposed to painters with respect to discourses of national and international identity. His example calls for a more nuanced reading of the definition of ‘home country’ and perceptions of an artist’s national cultural ‘belonging’ as single, unified or homogeneous.
Sharon Hecker The afterlife of sculptures: posthumous casts and the case of Medardo Rosso (1858-1... more Sharon Hecker The afterlife of sculptures: posthumous casts and the case of Medardo Rosso (1858-1928) 2 totally legal but yet always posthumous reproductions). So as to avoid that certain relaxed forms, certain deaf yellows, overlap with our perception of the liveliness of the originals, we herewith give the list of casts by Francesco in public museums, leaving out the more innocuous list of private collections, which are destined moreover to sadden some future exhibition. 3 While this viewpoint rightly encourages proper labeling, it still leaves open questions about Rosso's posthumous legacy, as shown by the case of Tate's cast: there is a need to clarify what constitutes an 'original', 'authentic' Rosso, and where should meaning and value be located for the posthumous casts. Is the value, 'originality', and 'authenticity' of Rosso's work found in the plaster model(s), the casts, or both? How does an owner define posthumous works made from the same models as the lifetime works? Does the existing definition intend to mean that the posthumous cast is in itself not a well cast object, being legally authorized but not made or supervised by the artist? Is there a single standard of quality by which to measure these works? Tate Modern is not alone in this problem. Many public institutions and private collectors own casts by Rosso that are now considered to be posthumous. There is no scholarly or institutional consensus about how to label these casts, or whether to display them or circulate them in exhibitions. Rosso's posthumous casts are frequently traded on the art market through intermediaries such as auction houses. Their attribution as 'authentic' works by Rosso is at times avoided, at times questioned, leaving buyers with an uncertain sense of their status and value. This situation persists because Rosso's materials, casting processes, and his ideas about his legacy are not fully understood. Whereas the art market and the law demand from experts a clear answer to the question of authenticity and attribution, I believe that Rosso's case cannot be limited to a binary question, 'whether a work is genuine or fake, either by the artist in question or not by him'. 4 A more nuanced approach is necessary. The changing perceptions of posthumous casts Posthumous casts are certainly not limited to a single artist or his/her legacy, or even to a single time period in art history. Posthumous reproductions and copies 3 'Di qualità inferiore, fuori da ogni paragone con le opere di Medardo Rosso, questi lavori sono invece di regola confusi con gli originali al punto che anche nelle pubbliche raccolte non di rado li troviamo figurare le une accanto agli altri, senza alcuna indicazione che permetta di distinguere gli autentici dalle copie (legali, legalissime ma pur sempre riproduzioni postume). Per evitare dunque che certe forme rilassate, certe gialle sordità, si sovrappongano nella nostra percezione al vivo degli originali diamo a seguito l'elenco delle fusioni di Francesco conservate nei pubblici musei, tralasciando la più innocua lista dei privati, destinata al più a intristire qualche futura esposizione', Paola Mola and Fabio Vittucci, Medardo Rosso: Catalogo ragionato della scultura,
Orizzonte Nord Sud. Protagonisti dell’arte europea ai due versanti delle Alpi – Leading Figures of European Art North and South of the Alps. , 2015
St. Louis, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2016
Medardo Rosso was a pivotal yet enigmatic figure for the origin and development of modern Europea... more Medardo Rosso was a pivotal yet enigmatic figure for the origin and development of modern European sculpture. In his fewer than 50 original subjects cast in plaster, wax, and bronze, he represented emotionally charged glimpses of introverted, sick, laughing, anxious, or smiling heads and figurines, especially of women, children, and the elderly. By modulating sculpture’s surfaces, he made his diaphanously modelled images receptive to subtle changes of light, expressing a radical idea of ‘dematerialising’ the three-dimensional object, as if it were subject to the influence of time and its surrounding atmosphere. Rosso began his career in Milan but spent three decades in Paris and was naturalised as a French citizen before returning to Milan in his final years. He was considered the founder of ‘Impressionist sculpture’, although his works also reflect the influence of Realism and Symbolism. In France, critics believed he was Auguste Rodin’s unacknowledged rival in the birth of modern sculpture and an influence on the 1898 Monument to Balzac. In Italy, he was hailed as the forefather of Futurism, prefiguring their experiments with movement and speed. Today, contemporary artists admire his precocious interest in materials and creative casting that left evidence of artistic process on his works
Plaster Casts: Making, Collecting and Displaying from Classical Antiquity to the Present (Transformationen der Antike), 2007
Nature has fantasia, 2020
in Into the Spotlight: Art at Baloise, ed. Martin Schwander (Hatje Cantz, 2020)
The Taste of Art offers a sample of scholarly essays that examine the role of food in Western con... more The Taste of Art offers a sample of scholarly essays that examine the role of food in Western contemporary art practices. The contributors are scholars from a range of disciplines, including art history, philosophy, film studies, and history. As a whole, the volume illustrates how artists engage with food as matter and process in order to explore alternative aesthetic strategies and indicate countercultural shifts in society.
The collection opens by exploring the theoretical intersections of art and food, food art’s historical root in Futurism, and the ways in which food carries gendered meaning in popular film. Subsequent sections analyze the ways in which artists challenge mainstream ideas through food in a variety of scenarios. Beginning from a focus on the body and subjectivity, the authors zoom out to look at the domestic sphere, and finally the public sphere.
Here are essays that study a range of artists including, among others, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Daniel Spoerri, Dieter Roth, Joseph Beuys, Al Ruppersberg, Alison Knowles, Martha Rosler, Robin Weltsch, Vicki Hodgetts, Paul McCarthy, Luciano Fabro, Carries Mae Weems, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Janine Antoni, Elżbieta Jabłońska, Liza Lou, Tom Marioni, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Michael Rakowitz, and Natalie Jeremijenko.
Forum Italicum, 2013
From 1968 to 2005, Arte Povera artist Luciano Fabro made mixed-media sculptural installations fea... more From 1968 to 2005, Arte Povera artist Luciano Fabro made mixed-media sculptural installations featuring the well-known geographical 'boot' of Italy. He placed these curious maps, fitted with ironic titles, in various positions-hanging, tilted, inverted, lying on the ground-and locations. The works have elicited multiple interpretations, ranging from formal, material experiments and anecdotal vignettes to wry references to the darker side of Italian history. Fragmented and united, light and heavy, simple and complex, Fabro's Italie pose deeper questions about the contradictions of Italy's national identity as it struggles to emerge from its past into modern times.
Contemporary Art, Classical Myth (Routledge), 2011
Sharon Hecker explores Luciano Fabro's "Penelope," a work first created on the occasion of the 1... more Sharon Hecker explores Luciano Fabro's "Penelope," a work first created on the occasion of the 1972 Venice Biennale, as an artistic critique that undermines traditional assumptions about this mythological character as a passive persona. Hecker's analysis shows how Fabro's work foreground's Penelope's agency as well as the critical role of the spectator, whose own sensorial experience, like that of Penelope and Ulysses, is essential to understanding the power of this myth and creative acts.
Ceramica e arti decorative del Novecento, 2020
“Servitore di due padroni”. Le sculture di Lucio Fontana al Cinema Arlecchino di Milano (1948). L... more “Servitore di due padroni”. Le sculture di Lucio Fontana al Cinema Arlecchino di Milano (1948).
L’articolo analizza l’insieme delle plastiche ceramiche e in “falsa ceramica” realizzato da Fontana per il Cinema Arlecchino di Milano progettato dagli architetti Roberto Menghi e Mario Righini nel 1948. Le vicende che hanno portato alla realizzazione del sistema dec- orativo (oggi dislocato presso la Fondazione Prada, Milano e in collezioni private) oltre a trarre da un ingiusto oblio l’intervento considerato “decorativo”, appunto, evidenziano come gli artisti siano stati chiamati, insieme agli architetti e agli intellettuali, a fare da motore alla rinascita delle città italiane dell’immediato dopoguerra e come Fontana, tra gli altri, abbia avviato collaborazioni, come nel caso della sala cinematografica, con profes- sionisti di spicco della scena milanese. Inoltre permette di focalizzarsi su una fase cruciale della carriera dell’artista, parallelamente impegnato nei “proclami” astrattisti, ma con- centrato, nel caso dell’ambiente pubblico destinato a distratti spettatori, su una rappre- sentazione ancora realistica in cui il processo esecutivo e la resa materica contribuiscono a connotare uno spazio.
Routledge eBooks, Mar 10, 2022
Sculpture Journal, Volume 33, Number 4, 2021
This article examines how Italian artist Remo Bianco (1922–88) used plastic to manage the traumat... more This article examines how Italian artist Remo Bianco (1922–88) used plastic to manage the traumatic transition from Fascism to the post-war period. It contends that the post-war optimism and enthusiasm associated with plastic that is evident in the art of Bianco’s compatriots (Alberto Burri, Carla Accardi, Piero Gilardi and Gino Marotta) masks a dark undercurrent of the past, one expunged from later narratives of Italian art, but which can be found in Bianco’s works. Beginning by examining plastic as material, signifier and artistic medium, the article analyses plastic’s development and adoption by artists in Italy from Fascism to the post-war period. Unlike his contemporaries, such as Piero Manzoni and Yves Klein, who created sculptural works that engaged with the live human body, or Christo, who packaged objects for their contents to be guessed, Bianco used plastic to wrap and encase objects and humans so as to anxiously yet methodically sort, organize, seal off and safeguard people and things. While Bianco’s use of plastic refers to broader repressed cultural anxieties, his art also expressed personal concerns associated with his troubled sexuality, from disturbed relationships with women to his closeted homosexuality, which he blamed on his rigid upbringing under Fascism. As this article demonstrates, this interweaving of art, history and autobiography fuelled Bianco’s idiosyncratic use of plastic, resulting in a sense of detachment overshadowed by the avant-garde art of his time.
BRILL eBooks, Oct 19, 2020
University of California Press eBooks, Jun 20, 2017
This chapter introduces the modern strategies that Medardo Rosso developed to reach an audience d... more This chapter introduces the modern strategies that Medardo Rosso developed to reach an audience during his Parisian years. He worked mostly on a small scale and cast in his studio rather than having his sculptures cast by commercial foundries. He also began to exploit the new middle-class taste for cheaper sculptural materials, casting works in wax and plaster and selling them as finished pieces. He capitalized on his experience in Italian foundries, where the cire perdue (lost wax) method was regularly employed for casting bronzes, to generate special excitement around his sculptures. Rosso attempted to personalize his relationship with buyers and circumvent the Parisian gallery system that was becoming the intermediary between avant-garde art and a new bourgeois audience.
Routledge eBooks, Oct 15, 2018
Bloomsbury Visual Arts eBooks, 2022
New York New York racconta la straordinaria avventura di un gruppo di importanti artisti italiani... more New York New York racconta la straordinaria avventura di un gruppo di importanti artisti italiani che, dai primi decenni del Novecento attraverso i loro viaggi e contatti con il mondo americano, hanno sub\uecto il fascino di New York e hanno partecipato al fenomeno di graduale internazionalizzazione del mondo e del mercato dell\u2019arte
Bloomsbury Visual Arts eBooks, 2022
Routledge eBooks, Mar 10, 2022
Bloomsbury Visual Arts eBooks, 2022
Bloomsbury Visual Arts eBooks, 2022
Bloomsbury Visual Arts eBooks, 2022
Bloomsbury Visual Arts eBooks, 2022
Italian and Italian American studies, 2023
Italian and Italian American studies, 2023
Bloomsbury Visual Arts eBooks, 2022
This essay examines possible future strategies for exhibitions on Italian fascist-era art, ponder... more This essay examines possible future strategies for exhibitions on Italian fascist-era art, pondering an ethical way to show the art of this epoch in a manner that effectively intertwines its aesthetic intensity with the realities of human tragedy. The author suggests presenting the art alongside photographic and painted representations by artists of their studios as a way to add to the glittering visual dynamics of their artworks the often troubling personal and collective circumstances of each artist's trajectory under fascism. She suggests that this approach could lead viewers to look behind the art's visual power to glimpse the makers in their real or imagined workspaces, eliciting the contradictions, dissonances, complexities, and tragedies of the context in which artists moved and artworks were produced, while mitigating the risk of lionizing, fetishizing, spectacularizing, or romanticizing the artists or their workplaces.
Italian and Italian American studies, 2023
Sull'orlo di un cambiamento è dunque l'idea che ha lanciato il n. 5 di «Novecento Transna... more Sull'orlo di un cambiamento è dunque l'idea che ha lanciato il n. 5 di «Novecento Transnazionale». L'urgenza che il numero poneva nella Call for Papers nel maggio 2020 era sintetizzata in una serie di questioni sulle quali riflettere. Come situazioni di crisi o emergenza hanno portato nel passato e portano attualmente gli artisti a fare scelte particolari? Come il museo si misura con gli stati di emergenza? Come, per altro verso, la storia dell'arte e le forme del suo racconto possono non solo dare voce alla crisi, ma anche ripensare le forme e i modi del proprio fare? Quali poetiche e stati della ricerca artistica diventano segni o sintomi di condizioni di crisi sia individuale che storica e culturale? Come l'arte pensa e immagina modelli alternativi e direzioni da intraprendere rispetto alla natura, all'ambiente, all'ecologia e alla sostenibilità? Le proposte e i saggi che abbiamo ricevuto e che ora sono pubblicati in questo numero costituiscono, a nost...
University of California Press eBooks, Jun 20, 2017
Icarus' Flight and Fall: Courage and Vulnerability in Medardo Rosso and Wilhelm Lehmbruck, 2024
In "Courage Lehmbruck und die avantgarde". p. 35-63, Lehmbruckmuseum, Cologne:Wienand, 2024
Mentre i concetti di "originale" e "copia" sembrerebbero essere trasparenti e diretti, la storia ... more Mentre i concetti di "originale" e "copia" sembrerebbero essere trasparenti e diretti, la storia dell'arte, il mercato dell'arte e il diritto dell'arte hanno modi diversi di interpretare il valore e il significato di questi termini. Nel mondo legale, avvocati e giudici continuano a riflettere e a tentare di risolvere la questione dell'originalità attraverso le leggi sulla proprietà intellettuale e le norme giuridiche sui diritti d'autore. Questo saggio fornisce una panoramica storica del cambiamento del significato e dell'importanza di "originale" nell'arte, dai tempi antichi, in cui la copia non era necessariamente considerata inferiore all'originale, all'ossessione odierna di eroizzare l'autorità e l'originalità del singolo individuo creativo. Propone il possibile esaurimento del binario verticale e gerarchico di originale/copia attraverso un rinnovato interesse e valore nelle copie e nel copiare, suggerendo che la stessa parola "originale" potrebbe non essere più rilevante nell'epoca odierna delle appropriazioni, delle copie digitali, dell'arte fatta come multipla, dell'arte postuma, dell'arte concettuale eseguita molto dopo la morte di un artista e dei nuovi NFT. Allo stesso tempo, il saggio sostiene l'importanza che gli storici dell'arte continuino a descrivere le differenze tra "originale" e "copia" e ciò che ogni specifico oggetto contribuisce al suo momento storico.
Lead in Modern and Contemporary Art is the first edited volume to critically examine uses of lead... more Lead in Modern and Contemporary Art is the first edited volume to critically examine uses of lead as both material and cultural signifier in modern and contemporary art. The book analyzes the work of a diverse group of artists working in Europe, the Middle East, and North America, and takes into account the ways in which gender, race, and class can affect the cultural perception of lead.
Bringing together contributions from a distinguished group of international contributors across various fields, this volume explores lead's relevance from a number of perspectives, including art history, technical art history, art criticism, and curatorial studies. Drawing on current art historical concerns with materiality, this volume builds on recent exhibitions and scholarship that reconsider the role of materials in shaping artistic meaning, thus giving a central relevance to the object and its physicality.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: To Be Continued... Silvia Bottinelli (Tufts University, USA) and Sharon Hecker (independent scholar)1. A Most Insidious Poison Taking Advantage of our Necessities: A Brief Historical Introduction to Lead and Lead Poisoning, Christian Warren (Brooklyn College - The City University of New York, USA)2. Lead's Historic Transformations, Spike Bucklow (University of Cambridge, UK)3. In the Backyard at Burcroft: Henry Moore's Experiments in Lead, Rowan Bailey (University of Huddersfield, UK)4. The Weakness of Lead: Materiality and Modern American Sculpture, Marin R. Sullivan (Harry Bertoia Foundation & Cheekwood Estate and Gardens, USA)5. Due Process: Richard Serra's Early Splash/Cast Works, Jeffrey Weiss (The Institute of Fine Arts, USA)6. Exorbitant Matter: Materiality According to Lynda Benglis, Luke Naessens (Princeton University, USA)7. Lead in the Lexicon of Gilberto Zorio's Sculpture, Elizabeth Mangini (California College of the Arts, USA)8. The Stopping Power of Lead: Luciano Fabro, Giuseppe Penone, and Marisa Merz, Sharon Hecker (independent scholar)9. "Mankind needs some lead so as to be somewhat heavier": Beuys, Alchemy, and Duchamp, Claudia Mesch (Arizona State University, USA)10. A Conversation with Remo Salvadori, Sharon Hecker (independent scholar) and Silvia Bottinellii (Tufts University, USA) Critical Introduction by Rosalind McKever (Victoria and Albert Museum, UK)11. Two Views of Anselm Kiefer: In the Studio and In the Museum Kiefer Speaks About Lead with Karl Ove KnausgaardLoaded Lead: Anselm Kiefer in the Collection of the Israel Museum, Sharon Tager and Adina Kamien (The Israel Museum, Jerusalem)12. Anthony Caro: Lead and Wood Sculptures. 1980-1989, Karen Wilkin (independent scholar)13. The New British Sculpture and the Poetics and Pragmatics of Lead, Jon Wood (independent scholar)14. Organizing Against an Invisible Threat. Lead According to Futurefarmers and Mel Chin, Silvia Bottinelli (Tufts University, USA) 15. An Interview with Daniela Rivera: The weight of lead and painting beyond the surface, Silvia Bottinelli (Tufts University, USA) and Sharon Hecker (independent scholar)
Production of the Self: Conversations about Marisa Merz, organized by Lara Demori and Amanda Sroka, 2020
Marisa Merz engaged with aluminum and lead throughout her practice. Yet scholars have rarely mine... more Marisa Merz engaged with aluminum and lead throughout her practice. Yet scholars have rarely mined the artist’s dialogue with these metals, and seldom reflect on how these metals’ meanings are elicited, questioned and denied in Merz’s art.
This paper, the result of a sustained collaboration between Bottinelli and Hecker, discusses the artist’s use of aluminum and lead to add another layer to the understanding of the co-existing and sometimes conflicting meanings in Merz’s sculpture.
https://philamuseum.org/calendar/event-series/production-self-conversations-about-marisa-merz
The Future of Italian Teaching: Media, New Technologies and Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives , 2015