Italics celebrates the new partnership between Palazzo Grassi and Electa, together with the future centre of contemporary art punta della dogana, starting from the new era that exploded in 1968, a journey through turbulent years, rich in contradictions, that generated our present, through works by known, new, forgotten, unknown or disregarded artists.
Italics takes up where the celebrated exhibition Italian Metamorphosis, put together by Germano Celant in 1995, left off. Important works from the Pinault collection are the focal point the exhibition hinges on, through Arte Povera, Minimalism, Post Pop, Neo Avanguard and the new generations: from artists of the past (Merz, Kounellis, Pascali, Fontana, Boetti, Zorio, Battaglia) to artists of today (Cattelan, Lambri, Tuttofuoco, Arienti, Beecroft). The collection of contemporary Italian art on view to the public for the first time is illustrated by articles untangling the tensions and artistic trends which have imbued the last 40 years (under the general editorship of Bonami), and also take a look at the principal artists who characterised them (Gingeras). The historical, sociological and cultural background (by Empoli, Guerzoni, Manacorda) is accompanied by a short, but exhaustive, illustrated chronology (Cagol). In 2009 the exhibition will move to the prestigious headquarters of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.