Emilio Vedova (born in Venice, 1919-2006) is considered one of the most influential Italian artists of the second half of the XNUMXth century. He was a politically engaged artist who believed that revolutionary art should be abstract. He has pushed painting into new territory with his visceral and gestural works that engage the viewer and redefine the space they inhabit. His expressive strokes and paint stains convey a violent and violent reaction to the post-war political reality.
“My works are not creations but earthquakes” says Vedova “not paintings, but breaths of air…”
Self-taught, it is difficult to place him within the framework of a specific artistic movement. In 1942 he joined the Milanese anti-fascist group Corrente, which also included fellow artists Lucio Fontana and Renato Guttuso among others. In 1946 he was one of the co-signatories of the Beyond Guernica manifesto, which urged artists to confront reality without being naturalists. He then returned to Venice, where his work became progressively more abstract. In the late 50s, he was associated with the French Informel and later with action painting and the resurgence of Expressionism, but he always defied categorisation. From 1963 to 1965, Vedova worked in Berlin where he crossed paths with leading contemporary artists such as Georg Baselitz. From 1965 to 1969 (and later in 1988), he succeeded Oskar Kokoschka as director of the Internationale Sommerakademie in Salzburg. He exhibited at the legendary documenta exhibitions I, II and III (1955, 59 and 64) in Kassel. Vedova was also one of the most frequent exhibitors at the Venice Biennale, in 1952 he had a room dedicated to his work, in 1960 he won the first prize for Italian painting and, in 1997, the Golden Lion award for the career of he.
Vedova's work is anchored in the city of Venice, where he was born and spent most of his life. In his study notes of 1980 he wrote: "Now the fog is falling, an atmosphere thought propitious / I have always found the Venice of the mists - Do you know what it means to be born in Venice?". Vedova's abstract compositions are rooted in the tradition of Venetian painting. The sixteenth-century master Tintoretto in particular had a great influence on his work. The art historian Carlo Bertelli wrote: “[Widow] attacked Tintoretto with the fury of a Kokoschka”. Vedova was fascinated by the Mannerist painter's bold brushstrokes, accentuated gestures and dramatic use of light, but also by his character.
Widow spent the winter of 1951-52 in Paris and visited Chartres. The exhibition includes two paintings inspired by the stained glass windows of Chartres Cathedral. The immersive experience of diffused light and color has triggered a long-term exploration of what Vedova has defined: “time / light / space / sign”. A decade later actual glass became a component of this work. In 1984, the philosopher Massimo Caccari declared: “no photographic reproduction could ever give a vague idea of such a physical quality and consistency of details in Vedova's works. To understand his production in recent years, it was necessary to consider, together with the architecture of the churches and the Baroque figures; his experience with glass at the end of the 60s: the light that transforms the substance; pure substance pouring into ever-changing transparencies.”
In the late 50s Vedova traveled to Spain, where he was struck by Goya's paintings, especially their political commitment. The poverty of the country led by Franco had a strong impact on him, he subsequently produced in 1961-62 a cycle of works devoted to Spain for an exhibition at the Ca' Giuistinian during the 1962 Venice Biennale. The exhibition includes two seminal works by this series, especially For Spain '61 / '62 – 1/6, 1961-1962, a mixed media work with a particularly Dadaist influence.
In 1960, Vedova created sets and moving costumes for Luigi Nono's opera Intolleranza '60. This led to the first Plurimi in 1961-63: folding wood and metal panels, painted on all sides. Since then she has experimented with more different media and larger scales, incorporating light, metal and glass. About Plurimi's art historian, Celant writes: "With Plurimi's perceptions [...] they are enriched in the multiplication of visual and physical perspectives and, after throwing representation into crisis with spurious and intense signs, he reaches the point of demolish the unity of the painted perimeter, disordering its existence to propagate the violence of creative disunity in all places”.
Between 1977 and 1983, Vedova produced a cycle of paintings entitled Cosiddetti Carnevali. This group of works was shown as a group only a decade later at the monographic exhibition of the Castello di Rivoli. In his diary Vedova writes: “I am fascinated by the carnival […] for its gestural expressiveness for its fantastic element, the “imposed” (that which is irregular), for its dynamics, its irrationality and its passion . I love its "organic" and emotional quality, its lack of restraint and drama, its ambiguity, its "liberating power", when everything is allowed and possible, within a few hours. “For Vedova, carnival allows us to experience freedom, exaltation and torment in an endless confrontation with the world and ourselves. In … So-called Carnivals … '77 / '83 – n. 7 (1977-1983) the interplay between black and white and the two plaster masks seem to express a duality that is present throughout her work – symbolizing a torn self in a divided world.
An entire floor of the gallery is dedicated to the 80s, a decade widely recognized as the high point of the artist's career. In the 80s Vedova broadened his palette, incorporating brighter colors, moving away from the more sober tones of the previous decade. In 1980, Vedova traveled to Mexico, where the colors and vast landscapes left a lasting impression on him.
The following year, Vedova began a cycle of paintings entitled Teleri, a term borrowed from Teler, typical of 1984th and 1985th century Venetian art. The exhibition presents works from two particularly significant series by Teleri: Da Dove (XNUMX) and Di Umano (XNUMX) ). In these works the splashes of yellow, green and red give energy to the pictorial plane and increase its emotional strength.
Emilio Vedova is represented in collections throughout the world, notably at the Albertina, Vienna, Austria; Les Abattoirs Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Toulouse, France; Berlinische Galerie and Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany; Museo Nacional De Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Museum of Contemporary Art of Universidad de São Paulo, Brazil; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, United States; Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA and Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy.
Vedova participated in the documenta exhibitions of 1955, 1959 and 1982. In 1951, he was awarded for young painters at the first Biennial of São Paulo. In 1959 he returned to the São Paulo Biennale, shortly before a major show at the Palazzo Grazzi, Venice, which then traveled to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. After participating in the Venice Biennale in 1950, 1952 and 1954, he won the first prize for Italian painting at the 1960 Biennale and in 1997 the Golden Lion award for his career.
The major solo exhibition of his work was held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Washington (1965); Carrillo Gil Museum, Mexico City (1980); Correr Museum, Venice (1984); Bayrische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich (1986); Castello di Rivoli, Turin (1998); Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (2007); National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome (2007); Berlinische Galerie, Berlin (2008), Museo Novecento, Florence (2018).
Notable group exhibitions include Paintings, Sculptures, Environments from Expressionism to the Present Day, Ludwig Museum Cologne (1986); Berlinart 1961-1987, Museum of Modern Art, New York (1987); The Italian Metamorphosis (1943-1968), Guggenheim Museum, New York (1994); A history of Italian art in the twentieth century, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2001); Figure and images of the Italian twentieth century, National Museum of Art, Beijing (2006), Italics: Italian Art between tradition and Revolution 1969-2008, François Pinault Foundation – Palazzo Grassi (2008), In-finitum, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice ( 2009)); Georg Baselitz – Emilio Vedova, Art of another kind, Salomon Guggenheim Museum, New York (2012); Georg Baselitz – Emilio Vedova, Küppersmühle, Duisburg, Germany (2016), post-war, Museum der Kunst, Munich (2016/17).
