In Venice, Aurelio Amendola's shots tell the story of Burri, Vedova, Nitsch

From May 4 to Nov. 24, 2024, Spazio Vedova in Venice will host large-scale shots by photographer Aurelio Amendola curated by Bruno Corà, chronicling the work of three absolute protagonists of art in the 20th century. The photography exhibition entitled Amendola. Burri, Vedova, Nitsch: Actions and Gestures is produced by Fondazione Emilio and Annabianca Vedova in collaboration with Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini Collezione Burri. In a career spanning more than sixty years, Aurelio Amendola has devoted himself passionately to portraits of artists in their ateliers; an intuition that guided him, at different times and places, to the creation of the photographs dedicated to Alberto Burri, Emilio Vedova and Hermann Nitsch that make up this exhibition, maturing the idea of an exhibition on their actions and gestures. Three works complement the photographic selection: Plastic M1, 1962 by Alberto Burri, Non Dove/Breccia 1988 III (op. 1 - op. 2), 1988 by Emilio Vedova, and finally 18b.malaktion, 1986 by Hermann Nitsch. The relationship between Emilio Vedova and photographer Aurelio Amendola is documented in the sequences devoted to the artist and his work in the studio; in the photos, Vedova’s gestures open up into a boundless variety of interventions, in which grooves, etchings, overlays, sketches and lumps of material keep the pictorial tension constant. Just as only the photographer’s light illuminates Burri as he operates combustion and stops the moment of Nitsch’s actions with its disruptive will to liberate body and spirit.

“In Venice, Fondazione Vedova completes the exhibition experience realized in collaboration with the Ex Seccatoi del Tabacco in Città di Castello, Alberto Burri’s hometown, and the Nitsch Museum in Naples, where Hermann Nitsch worked for a long time, continuing the path traced by the artists also in their constant frequentation between Rome, Venice, other places and different events,” says the curator, Bruno Corà.

“The exhibition highlights the different ”operative“ modes of the three Artists and their expressive attitudes and, at the same time, provides the wider public with a broad spectrum of investigation of the characteristics of a great Italian photographer who with the three Masters established a lasting, mutually fruitful friendship,” continues Alfredo Bianchini, President of Fondazione Vedova.

Notes on the artist

Born in Pistoia (Jan. 19, 1938), during his career as an art photographer, Aurelio Amendola devoted himself to contemporary themes, coming to collect a veritable Gallery of Portraits of the most celebrated masters of the 20th century. Thanks to his long personal acquaintance with many of them, he produces countless monographs accompanied by his shots. He also stands out for famous photographs of Italian Renaissance sculptures and those devoted to the classical tradition. Amendola has also ventured into the poetics of places: the Duomo of Milan, Matera, San Galgano, the sculpture park of the Gori Collection - Fattoria Celle di Santomato, the Vittoriale degli Italiani, and Burri’s Grande Cretto in Gibellina. His works are part of prestigious private and public collections, among them: Fondazione Maramotti, GAM, Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, MAXXI, Fondazione Alberto Burri, Uffizi. Countless awards: Premio Cino da Pistoia (1997); Il Micco (2012); Academic Honoris Causa diploma in Visual Arts and title of Academician of Italy (2014); docufilm Obiettivo sull’arte (2015, directed by Beatrice Corti); prize Una vita per l’arte (Gaeta, 2016). National and international exhibitions include: Milan, Palazzo Reale, 1995; Florence, Medici Chapels, 2007; in 2009, together with other artists, he was received by Pope Benedict XVI in the Sistine Chapel; St. Petersburg, Hermitage Museum, “Michelangelo Scultore,” 2012; Nice, Galleria Sapone, “Alberto Burri,” 2014; Milan, Milan Triennale, “In Atelier. Photographs from 1970 - 2014,” curated by Vincenzo Trione, 2014; Pistoia, Pistoia Musei, “An Anthology,” curated by Paola Goretti and Marco Meneguzzo, 2021 (traveling in 2022 to Castello Svevo in Bari); Florence, Museo Opera del Duomo, “Aurelio Amendola’s gaze between naturalism and abstraction,” 2022; Florida, Palm Beach, Holden Luntz Gallery, 2023; Città di Castello (PG), Fondazione Palazzo Albizzini Collezione Burri, “Amendola. Burri, Vedova, Nitsch: Actions and Gestures,” 2023 (traveling to Venice, Fondazione Emilio and Annabianca Vedova, 2024)

In Venice, Aurelio Amendola's shots tell the story of Burri, Vedova, Nitsch

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