Viaggio in Italia

Since the 1960ies Neue Galerie Graz am Landesmuseum Joanneum supports, presents and collects contemporary art, on a national as well as an international level.

From 1963 to 1992 Neue Galerie had organized in Graz international biennials that had as their subjects different current themes of contemporary art. The first of these nowadays legendary "trigon" exhibitions showed works from Austria, Italy and Ex-Yugoslavia - the intention was to revive the historical cultural space of "Inner-Austria" (In later years also guest countries such as Germany, France, Great Britain, Spain, Ex-Czechoslovakia and Hungary were included).

Works from these exhibitions were bought for the collection as far as the funds permitted. In 1992 - after the collapse of Yugoslavia - Neue Galerie showed in an extensive exhibition with the title "Identity:Difference. Platform Trigon 1940-1990. A Topography of Modernity" (curators: Christa Steinle, Peter Weibel) a retrospect view of this series of exhibitions. The aim was to investigate the artistic contributions of these countries to the construction of modernity.

Alternating with the trigon biennials the trigon personal shows took place, presenting relevant artists from the Trigon countries, among them the Italians Gianni Colombo, Getulio Alviani, Bruno Munari, Mauro Reggiani, Aldo Mondino and Mimmo Germanà. Works for the collection were bought from these exhibitions, too.
From 1966 to 1992 Neue Galerie also organized in Styria once a year the "International Weeks of Painting" with artists from the Trigon countries. Art works from these workshops also remained in the collection. The artists' selection for both of these series of exhibitions was made by re-knowned art theoreticians. For Italy they were: Umbro Apollonio, Lea Vergine, Achille Bonito Oliva, Maurizio Calvesi, Amnon Barzel and Chiara Bertola.
The collection of Italian art works from the 1960s to the 1990s in the Neue Galerie stems to a great degree from the above-mentioned exhibitions. On the occasion of another personal show with works of Gianni Colombo (13.06. - 31.08.2008) this part of the collection will be scrutinized for the first time from a historical distance and a selection will be presented at our venues with the title "Viaggio in Italia. Italian Art 1960 - 1990 from the collection of Neue Galerie Graz" (13.06.2008 - 25.01.2009). We had the great fortune to win Volker W. Feierabend with his VAF Foundation as a partner, whose important loans strengthen and complement the collection of Neue Galerie and provide missing positions.  Christa Steinle

The following categories will structure the exhibition consisting of c. 150 works:

"The Image as Object"
Alberto Biasi, Agostino Bonalumi, Nicola Carrino, Enrico Castellani, Dadamaino, Sandro De Alexandris, Daniela De Lorenzo, Agenore Fabbri, Luciano Fabro, Lucio Fontana, Walter Fusi, Vincenzo Missanelli, Marcello Morandini, Paolo Scheggi, Mario Surbone, Giuseppe Uncini, Giorgio Villa, Giancarlo Zen

"Optical Phenomenons and Structures"
Getulio Alviani, Giovanni Anceschi, Marina Apollonio, Mario Ballocco, Davide Boriano, Giovanni Campus, Meo Carbone, Ennio Chiggio, Toni Costa, Franco Costalonga, Claudio D'Angelo, Gabriele De Vecchi, Piero Fogliati, Marcolino Gandini, Franco Gringnani, Marcello Landi, Ugo La Pietra, Enzo Mari, Manfredo Massironi, Mario Merz, Gruppo MID, Bruno Munari, Antonio Scaccabarozzi, Paolo Scirpa, Grazia Varisco, Dario Zaffaroni

"Sign, Writing and Image"
Limatola Ableo, Vincenzo Agnetti, Alighiero Boetti, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Roberto Crippa, Emilio Isgrò, Maurizio Nannucci, Gastone Novelli, Giulio Paolini, Emilio Tadini, Paolo Tessari

"Absolute Painting"
Rodolfo Arico, Mimmo Conenna, Vittorio D'Augusta, Bruno Di Bello, Marco Gastini, Giorgio Griffa, Riccardo Guarneri, Victor Lucena, Mario Nigro, Oscar Piatella, Paolo Piva, Mauro Reggiani, Guido Sartorelli, Vincenzo Satta, Rudolf Stingel, Guido Strazza, Claudio Verna, Gianfranco Zappettini

"Painting and the Poetry of Objects"
Pier Paolo Calzolari, Maurizio Cannavacciuolo, Marco Cingolani, Mimmo Conenna, Daniele Degli Angeli, Beppe Dellepiane, Mimmo Germanà, Massimo Kaufmann, Aldo Mondino, Mimmo Paladino, Claudio Parmiggiani, Giuseppe Penone, Concetto Pozzati, Antonio Riello, Marco Rotelli, Francesco Somaini, Luciano Trojanis

"New Media"
Gianni Colombo, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Franco Vaccari, Guido Sartorelli

The exhibition is acompanied by a catalogue.