Kunsthaus Zürich Announces Hot Spots: Rio de Janeiro / Milan - Turin / Los Angeles, 1956 - 1969
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, December 6, 2024


Kunsthaus Zürich Announces Hot Spots: Rio de Janeiro / Milan - Turin / Los Angeles, 1956 - 1969
Edward Ruscha, Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas, 1963. Öl auf Leinwand, 163,8 x 309,2 cm. Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. Gift of James J. Meeker, Class of 1958, in memory of Lee English, Class of 1959, scholar, poet, athlete and friend © Edward Ruscha.



ZURICH.- From 13 February to 3 May 2009, the Kunsthaus Zürich will present ‘Hot Spots’, an exhibition devoted to the artistic avant-garde of the 1950s and 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Milan and Turin, and Los Angeles. The show features outstanding works of art, photography, architecture and design by such world-renowned figures as Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Clark, Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Mario Merz, David Hockney, Ed Ruscha and James Turrell.

The postwar period saw Paris and New York, the traditional capitals of the creative world, joined by fresh hot spots on the artistic landscape.

RIO DE JANEIRO: NEW CONCRETISM, BOSSA NOVA, CINEMA NOVO Rio de Janeiro’s all-pervasive creative atmosphere during the 1950s and early 1960s produced a hotbed of culture. The buzzword was new, as in neoconcretism in art and architecture, bossa nova (new wave) in music, and cinema novo in the film world. A specifically Brazilian design was created, featuring formal concision and an emphasis on construction. The artistic movement known as neo-concretism was Brazil’s first contribution to a universal visual idiom. Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Clark and other pioneers of the geometrical abstract style reinterpreted the work of Piet Mondrian and Max Bill for a new generation, with an increasing focus on issues of space and spatiality.

MILAN/TURIN: FROM THE INFORMALE TO ARTE POVERA
Milan and Turin, in which the new Italian artistic identity emerged between 1958 and 1968, are emblematic of a decisive moment in Italian art. Milan led the way, as Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni developed the monochrome, minimalism, and a painting style which went beyond the frame to occupy space, and thus broke with Italy’s artistic legacy. Turin, a vibrant industrial centre, was next to take up the mantle as Italy’s artistic Mecca, as the Informale gave way to Arte Povera. The new movement was characterized by its use of ‘poor’ materials, whether natural or artificial (as represented by Mario Merz), as well as by its utopian stance on politics and the ecology (as evidenced by Michelangelo Pistoletto).

LOS ANGELES: POP, MINIMALISM, ARCHITECTURE
The postwar art scene in Los Angeles interspersed dreams of felicity with nightmarish visions. The promise of ‘sun and surf’ and happiness in Hollywood was juxtaposed with the exploitation of people and their dreams, as artists in L.A. oscillated between utopian projections and sarcastic responses to popular culture. James Turrell and Robert Irwin, for instance, drawing their inspiration from the light and landscape on the Pacific coast and in the deserts of the southwest, celebrated immateriality and physical liberation, while Ed Ruscha and David Hockney, among others, took southern California’s cults of the body, the automobile, and the star literally and began to play with the symbolic vocabulary arising from these phenomena. This same interplay was also reflected in contemporary Californian architecture, as represented by ‘Case Study Houses’, documented by Julius Shulman in iconic architectural photographs.

The exhibition is a collaboration with the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, where Paulo Venancio Filho and Annika Gunnarson (Rio de Janeiro), Luca Massimo Barbero and Cecilia Widenheim (Milan/Turin), and Lars Nittve and Lena Essling (Los Angeles) conceived it as ‘Time and Place’, a series of three independent presentations. Tobia Bezzola will coordinate curatorship of the show at the Kunsthaus Zürich, which unites three snapshots of as many artistic centres into an impressive triptych. A catalogue will be available at the Kunsthaus Shop and in book stores.










Today's News

December 1, 2008

Museum of Islamic Art Opens in Iconic I.M. Pei Designed Landmark Building in Doha, Qatar

National Gallery in UK to Present Major Exhibition Picasso: Challenging the Past in 2009

The State Museums of Berlin and the Legacy of James Simon

Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga Opened Tracey Emin: 20 Years

Office for Contemporary Art in Norway Opens Whatever Happened to Sex in Scandinavia?

Erhard Klein: Thoroughly Concentrated Opens at Kunstmuseum Bonn

IVAM Installs Five Monumental Sculptures by Gerardo Rueda in Valladolid

Kunsthaus Zürich Announces Hot Spots: Rio de Janeiro / Milan - Turin / Los Angeles, 1956 - 1969

The Museum of Modern Art Salutes Agnieszka Holland with Major Film Retrospective

Peter Freeth RA: My Affair with Resin at the Royal Academy of Arts

People of Today: Faces of Wales at National Portrait Gallery in London

Tallest Building in China Breaks Ground

Institute of Contemporary Arts Presents Seven International Artists

Painting the Heart of Russia: Nikolai Timkovs Sustaining Vision

Minneapolis Institute of Arts Appoints New Head of Prints and Drawings

New Orleans Museum of Art Offers Free Admission through January 18

The Turner Prize, Only Better

Soldier Billboard in Miami Wynwood District

Going Public '08 - Port City Safari - the Sound of the City

Elihu Vedder's Drawings for the Rubáiyát at Phoenix Art Museum




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful