"I carried it around with me everywhere for at least 2 weeks, and it almost single-handedly aroused my passion for contemporary art."
Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera, 1962-1972
Forrest Nash of CONTEMPORARY ART DAILY states, "This is the catalogue to an exhibition called Zero to Infinity, which, in my lifetime at least, was the first and most-major presentation of Arte Povera to American audiences. I ordered the catalog at the recommendation of my art teacher when I was 15, and it had a big impact on me. I carried it around with me everywhere for at least 2 weeks, and it almost single-handedly aroused my passion for contemporary art.
The idea that these things, which I immediately loved, were not only being made but were fodder for multi-million-dollar museums, were things to be guarded by security, that these things were considered extremely high culture, was extremely fortifying and exciting to me. I started taking art seriously and studying it and making it after that. The texts are mostly interesting, but there is a dialogue between Marisa Merz and her friend Bea that really stands out for me."
The idea that these things, which I immediately loved, were not only being made but were fodder for multi-million-dollar museums, were things to be guarded by security, that these things were considered extremely high culture, was extremely fortifying and exciting to me. I started taking art seriously and studying it and making it after that. The texts are mostly interesting, but there is a dialogue between Marisa Merz and her friend Bea that really stands out for me."
(text below taken from here...)
"Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera, 1962-1972" focuses on one of the most innovative and influential art movements of the postwar era. Arte Povera came of age in the context of the economic boom of the "Italian miracle" and the subsequent student and workers' revolts of 1968. The work of Arte Povera was motivated by an urge to revolt not only against the primary achieved by painting in the postwar period, but also against certain aspects of the emerging consumer culture.
This exhibition and its accompanying catalogue provide a highly comprehensive retrospective of the Arte Povera movement as a historical and aesthetic phenomenon that crossed a wide range of disciplines, including sculpture, installation, drawing, and photography as well as film and performance. The exhibition traces Arte Povera's genesis within the artistic, cultural, and political context of Italy to its positioning within the broader international context of postwar artistic practices, a moment marked by the participation of the Arte Povera group in the 1972 "Documenta V" exhibition in Kassel. This brilliant and crucial new catalogue is designed by the Walker Art Center's award-winning Design Department, and includes a wide range of essays by international scholars and curators, as well as rare historical documentation, in an unprecedented re-examination of the Arte Povera movement.
Featured artists include: Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Piero Gilardi, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Emilio Prini, Gilberto Zorio. Essays by: Richard Flood, Frances Morris, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Robert Lumley, Corinna Criticos, Karen Pinkus, Francesco Bonami, Giorgia Bottinelli, Judith Kirshner, and Germano Celant.
Contemporary Art Daily: "A Daily Journal of International Exhibitions." One of the best daily updated ART SITES currently on the internet. Hands down! So many images posted here on YHBHS have been directly sourced from Forrest Nash's site. CONTEMPORARY ART DAILY's extensive archives of shows, as well as art venues (from Berlin to Los Angeles) makes it an extremely valuable resource! Every morning, it's the first place I look.....
I look forward to having a conversation with Forrest about art for an upcoming post for YHBHS in 2011. Happy New Years Everyone. The YHBHS Card Catalog still has about 7 more postings, so sorry about running into January, but there was simply too many excellent books and generous postings from talented people..... I hope that you have enjoyed the series as much as I have!
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