The Precarity of the Critic and Their Vulnerabilities
Ancient Problems, and Current Ones
Does art criticism still exist? In what settings does it express itself? What is art criticism today? What are its tools? Is it a profession? To whom is it addressed? What impact does it have? Who and what does it move? What real autonomy does the critic have? The fact that there are so many […]
Conflicts of Disinterest
A Conversation with Andrea Bellini
Andrea Cortellessa Andrea Cortellessa: It is striking that Artribune declared your Storie dell’arte contemporanea (jointlywith a text by Marco Mancuso) the ‘best essay’ of the year; and that also in Il Giornale dell’Arte’s ‘best and worst of 2023’ Laura Cherubini pointed to your work as ‘book of the year’. After all, it is obvious, to […]
The Eyes of Others
A Counterpart Perspective
Luca Bertolo In his article ‘Come siamo silenziosi sullo stato dell’arte’ (‘How Silent We Are on the State of Art’),[1] Gian Maria Tosatti points an accusing finger at the meagre crop of critical texts dedicated to the visual arts in Italy. A few days later came the first two replies. Christian Caliandro provided a list […]
Criticism and the Negative
Some Notes on a Crisis
Stefano Chiodi What Happened to Art Criticism? This question was the title of a 2003 pamphletby James Elkins,[1] which has lost none of its topicality more than two decades since. For the American art historian, criticism has definitively lost its role as a privileged interpreter of artistic novelties and appears reduced to the validation of […]
Watchman, What Is Left of the Night?
Or, Critique of (Critical?) Criticism
Nicolas Martino In an article published in a Sunday edition of Il Sole 24 Ore last September, Gian Maria Tosatti questioned, among other things, the state of art criticism in Italy, provoking a series of reactions and retorts both in that newspaper and other dailies.[1] A debate: hallelujah! This is an important issue and — […]
The Void on the Walls
The Disappearance of Art from Middle-Class Lives
Lorenzo Madaro In his day, Renato Guttuso was known (and recognised) even by blue-collar workers. But who among the public totally detached from active connection to the art of our time knows Francesco Vezzoli, or is familiar with the imaginary of any other successful Italian artist? What has happened to the graphic works by Bruno […]
Pedagogy in Artistic Practice
Una prospettiva sulla scena italiana contemporanea
Francesca Guerisoli Today, it is evident that pedagogy has become a factor in numerous works by Italian artists, as part of their process of conceiving, creating and formalising their projects. Generally, artists are engaged in community-based practices. But rather fewer are those artists for whom, in a systematic sense, the pedagogical project is an integral […]
Autodidacts
The Ways of Art Are Infinite
Giacinto Di Pietrantonio In alphabetical order: Giovanni Anselmo, Stefano Arienti, Gianfranco Baruchello, Jacopo Benassi, Alighiero Boetti, Alberto Burri, Maurizio Cattelan, Giuseppe Chiari, Enzo Cucchi, Dadamaino, Nicola De Maria, Luciano Fabro, Flavio Favelli, Pinot Gallizio, Giorgio Griffa, Goldschmied & Chiari, Ketty La Rocca, Piero Manzoni, Mario Merz, Luigi Ontani, Vettor Pisani, Cesare Pietroiusti, Luca Rossi, Salvo. […]
Art, Research, Education
A New Synergy
Valentino Catricalà, Alessio Tozzi When we talk about the education system, we have to get to grips with a very broad theme which allows us to take several possible paths, bringing together multiple discourses, theories and models. These paths have long been explored by scholars and critics. So, in this text our concern is not […]
Not for Qualifications, but for Passion’s Sake
The Academy of Fine Arts as a Passageway
«Knowing how to be and remain pupils is no small thing — it means almost already being a teacher»Claudio Magris For Jannis Kounellis, “There is no problem with young artists, because if one is a great artist, one is a great artist even at the age of twelve”. He continued “Youth is an extraordinary blessing, […]
