Innovative Trends in 1950s and ’60s Milan. Rodolfo Aricò, Dadamaino, Mario Nigro

A arte Invernizzi
ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH 2017
7-10 December 2017
Innovative Trends in 1950s and ’60s Milan
Rodolfo Aricò Dadamaino Mario Nigro
A arte Invernizzi will present at Art Basel Miami Beach 2017 an exhibition project entitled Innovative Trends in 1950s and ‘60s Milan. This project, curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, is proposing an exhibition concept on Italian art from the 1950s and 1960s: a show entirely devoted to the alternative and innovative forms of painting and interpretation of the surface in the artistic context of Milan, in that segment of time was really at the core of international creativity, and a seminal “workshop” for new artistic tendencies.
The exhibition opens with works from the “Spazio Totale” (1953-1956) series by Mario Nigro (1917-1992). Here the viewer’s eye is guided through the canvas in a spatial extension of structure and colour, with an intertwining of regular and superimposed grids showing through.
Dadamaino (1930-2004) uses the void and an absence of matter as the source of a renewed energy of light and form in her “Volumi” series of 50s. She later redefined this energy in La ricerca del colore (1967), an area of study for testing the various interrelationships between the seven colours of the spectrum.
The desire to question the potential value of the work and to analyse it by means of a reiterated formal artistic reduction is a key aspect of Rodolfo Aricò’s studies (1930-2002). By using shaped canvases and a very precise, conscious use of colour, he captures the results of an investigation that is not just spatial but also dimensional and chromatic, as we see in works like Assonometria orfica (1968) and Segreta (1968).
The artists in this project were some of top Milanese names in post-war Italian art: after exhibiting at the Galleria Salto in Milan in 1949 and 1951, Mario Nigro was invited by Lucio Fontana to the Venice Biennale in 1964, to which he returned with rooms of his own in 1968, 1978, 1982, 1986 and 1993.
Towards the end of the 1950s, Dadamaino, took part in the work of Azimut/h in Milan and was invited with a room of her own to the Venice Biennale in 1980 and in 1990.
Rodolfo Aricò had his first solo show in Milan in 1957 at Galleria Bergamini and was invited to the Venice Biennale in 1964 and 1968, with a room of his own. He returned to the Biennale in 1972, 1982, 1986 and 1995.