Birth of a Nation: works by Guttuso, Fontana, Schifano for an exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi

Opening on March 16 at Palazzo Strozzi is the exhibition Birth of a Nation. Between Guttuso, Fontana and Schifano: an exhibition that will feature eighty works by artists such as Renato Guttuso, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, Emilio Vedova, Enrico Castellani, Piero Manzoni, Mario Schifano, Mario Merz and Michelangelo Pistoletto to take visitors through the art, politics and society of Italy between the 1950s and the late 1960s.

An exhibition that aims to narrate the birth of the sense of nation through artists who brought political engagement into their art and reinvented the concepts of identity, belonging and collectivity. The art of those years becomes a set of languages, subjects and forms that draw from the news.

Curator Luca Massimo Barbero said, “Birth of a Nation aims to offer a key to an artistic period that was inextricably intertwined with the development of Italy and drew lifeblood from politics, customs and social changes. The rooms summarize the social, political, cultural and social tensions of those years, giving an extraordinarily rich and heterogeneous picture of artistic research that may be surprising to see brought together here by assonances and contrasts, but which photograph a dialogue that is, all the more so today, absolutely vital.”

Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi Director General Arturo Galansino added, “This exhibition is part of the consolidated investigation around the art and culture of modernity conducted by Palazzo Strozzi in recent years. In addition to commemorating the 50th anniversary of the cultural and social ferment linked to Sixty-Eight, the exhibition celebrates the extraordinary creative moment of Italy’s post-World War II period, a period fully rediscovered in its art-historical importance first abroad, both by major museum institutions and by international collectors, and then in our country. Birth of a Nation presents to the vast audience of Palazzo Strozzi the great Italian modern art in a new and original way, above all founded on a historical and didactic approach capable of making modern art accessible to all.”

Starting with four video projections reconstructing Italian history from Unification to 1968, visitors will admire Guttuso’s La Battaglia di Ponte dell’Ammiraglio (1951-1955), Turcato’s Comizio (1950), Baj’s Generale incitante alla battaglia (1961) and Mimmo Rotella’s L’ultimo re dei re (1961).
This was followed by works such as Emilio Vedova’s large canvas Clash of Situations ’59-II-I (1959), Spatial Concept, New York 10 (1962) by Lucio Fontana, Lunar Surface (1968) by Turcato and White Surface (1968) by Enrico Castellani.
Plus Agostino Bonalumi’s extroflexed canvases, Piero Manzoni’s Achrome series, Franco Angeli ’s Corteo (1968) and Mario Schifano’s Compagni compagni (1968).
The exhibition will end with Mappa (1971-1973) by Alighiero Boetti, Tentativo di volo (1970) by Gino De Dominicis and Rovesciare i propri occhi (1970) by Giuseppe Penone.

The exhibition is promoted and organized by Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi with the support of Comune di Firenze, Camera di Commercio di Firenze, Associazione Partners Palazzo Strozzi, Regione Toscana. With the contribution of Fondazione CR Firenze. Main sponsor Banca CR Firenze Intesa Sanpaolo.

For information: www.palazzostrozzi.org

Hours: Through July 22, 2018 daily including holidays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Tickets: Full 12 euros, reduced 9.50 euros.

Image: Renato Guttuso, The Battle of Ponte dell’Ammiraglio (1955; oil on canvas, 300 x 500 cm; Rome, National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art. By concession of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, Renato Guttuso, by SIAE 2018

Birth of a Nation: works by Guttuso, Fontana, Schifano for an exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi

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