In Modena, Ad Reinhardt's biting satire on display for the first time in Italy

The art and satire of Ad Reinhardt (New York, 1913 - 1967) arrive in Modena: the exhibition Ad Reinhardt . Art + Satire, which makes a stop in our country after originally being presented in 2015 in Malmö, Sweden. For the first time on display in Italy come the satirical works of Reinhardt, who is best known as an abstract artist (famous are his Black Paintings, the black canvases of the 1960s that inspired artists such as Sol LeWitt, Frank Stella and Joseph Kosuth): there are 250 works that, including politically motivated comics and satirical cartoons, the public can admire in the city of Emilia, selected from the archives of theEstate of Ad Reinhardt in New York. Complementing the exhibition is a slide show of dispositions taken by the artist in 35mm and now digitized, as well as documents, travel diaries, sketches and pamphlets.

Interested in painting and comics since childhood, Reinhardt put his talents to use as early as his school publications and high school work, but as early as the 1930s and 1940s, when he began to mature his own abstract language, he parallel produced more than 3.000 satirical cartoons and illustrations for various U.S. publications, such as the periodicals New Masses, The Student Advocate and The Fight Against War and Fascism, the magazines Glamour, Listen and Ice Cream Field, baseball yearbooks and the anti-racist pamphlet The Races of Mankind. Among the most famous series is How to Look, which appeared in the Sunday edition of PM in 1946 and was animated by a conviction of the artist, who would declare in 1958, “I don’t believe in originality. I believe in the History of Art.” Indeed, the series was intended to defend the development and understanding ofabstract art in the United States.

Reinhardt was also an avid photographer: during his travels in Europe, the Middle East, Japan and Southeast Asia he took more than 12,000 color photographs, which were presented at “non-happenings,” lectures that turned art history lectures into parodies of the artist’s travelogue. Indeed, the photographs were placed in pointed juxtapositions with objects familiar to the audience. This aspect is also addressed in the exhibition, which is curated by Diana Baldon. “Throughout Reinhardt’s work, including the works presented here,” the presentation reads, “an incredible ability to expand the current notion of what the aesthetic domain of art is, and what it can be, is evident.”

Ad Reinhardt. Art + Satire is produced in collaboration with Ad Reinhardt Foundation and Mudam Luxembourg, with thanks to David Zwirner Gallery, New York. Open: Wednesday through Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Admission is free.

Pictured: Ad Reinhardt, Untitled (1943, Published in PM April 23, 1943; ink, pencil and tempera on paper mounted on paper, 11.1 x 13.3 cm; © 2015 Estate of Ad Reinhardt / Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York; Courtesy of David Zwirner, New York / London / Hong Kong)

In Modena, Ad Reinhardt's biting satire on display for the first time in Italy

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