For the occasion, a cycle of 21 unpublished small-format engravings, created by Lithos editions of Como, and 6 new sculptures will be presented.
The exhibition, which fits into the trend of "contemporary graphics" with authors who have left important testimonies in the Swiss-Ticino area, is curated by Alessandro Cucchi, son of the artist, and Nicoletta Ossanna Cavadini, director of the max museum and of the Chiasso Workshop Space.
The exhibition, in addition to retracing the fundamental passages of Enzo Cucchi's graphic research, also places the accent on the creative path and on the surprising solutions adopted by the artist, such as the very large and the very small. The formats follow inscrutable rules, faithful to the images contained; often different printing methods coexist. The handwritten characters and lettering alternate with images of heroes from the Marche countryside, animals (dogs, roosters, etc.), hills and houses.
Enzo Cucchi has always shown particular care and passion for graphics and the book-catalogue object. Traditionally, he designs the exhibition catalog and follows it in its handcrafted production in small editions, in the choice of materials, papers and final printing. Cucchi himself imagines the exhibition constituted by a "backbone" of artists' books, object books and graphic documents and by a "teeth" constituted by the new series of engravings, all made of paper, inks, acids and stones. For Cucchi, this is a targeted thematic-anthological opportunity to show all the beauty expressed in the various printing techniques from the XNUMXs to today.
Enzo Cucchi, the most visionary of the artists of the Transavantgarde movement, argues that "if a work wants to be defined as new then it must contain all the old already produced, thought of, suffered and digested and, by rejecting it, it must be produced from that ash, which is solid but as a foundation". That's when his graphics are born, full of echoes from his homeland, from popular culture. The stroke is sometimes nervous, sometimes sinuous, undulating, hanging from thin threads of an intense, disconnected existence, as told by the recent biography written by Carlos D'Ercole, but also careful not to forget that the fragility, the precariousness, when combined with the strong root of the "solid ash" of the past, they become an expressive force, a sidereal energy that transforms man into an artist and interpreter of that uncertainty that even Ettore Sottsass considered a necessary ingredient for those who, as creatives, never want stop understanding.
The exhibition is made possible thanks to the Department of Education and Cultural Activities of the Municipality of Chiasso, with the patronage of the Consulate General of Italy in Lugano, with the support of the Republic and Canton of Ticino - Swisslos Fund, the Egidio and Mariangela Cattaneo Foundation - Monte Tamaro and of AGE SA.
The exhibition, in the "integrated project" mode, will be hosted in Ancona in the Mole Vanvitelliana - Sala Vanvitelli (15 October 2017 - 14 January 2018).
Ph (detail) on the cover: Enzo Cucchi, photographic portrait, June 2017, photo by Carlo Pedroli-Chiasso
