ITALIAN ART: FROM CONTEMPORARY ART TO POST-MODERNISM
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Bibliography
- Delivery method
- Teaching methods
- Contacts/Info
General knowledge of Italian, European and Extra-European geography and of European and Extra-European history of the centuries mentioned above. It is not compulsory, but the knowledge of the history of different European countries literatures will be an important support to understand many of the topics.
The final examination consists of a verbal test which includes three questions on wide ranging topics and on specific ones based on the bibliography required at n. 6 (i.g.: Which artistic trend is Lucio Fontana part of? What is meant by the saying Scuola di Piazza del Popolo and what are its characteristics? Which is the artistic trend Enrico Castellani has been considered a forerunner?). They will cover the complete program through the time frame considered. The student will be asked to emphasize relationships and connections between different topics delivered during lessons.
The result is expressed with a 30-point scale that can be divided into failing (0 to 17) and passing (18 to 30 cum laude) grades. The mark is based on a general assessment on the answers to the three questions. They all have the same value. The final mark will be revised considering the global knowledge of the student.
The fundamental principles are: the knowledge acquired, considering the communications skills required by the Bachelor’s Degree course, the correct positioning of phenomenon, events and objects in space and time, the ability in formal reading (with special care of the historical criteria and data and not the emotional ones), including a critical judgment (with references to the contemporary cultural heritage) and suggestions of proper comparisons, the communication skill using the proper language, as suggested during lessons.
The course of Arte italiana: dal Contemporaneo al Postmoderno belongs to the group of humanistic teachings which characterize the course of study of the Bachelor's Degree in Communication Sciences.
The student will be able to know the outlines of the Italian History of Art from the XXth century to the first decades of the XXIth century, and to contextualize them also in the light of the reception methods, in Italy, of the wider European and international debate. After an introduction relating to the historical Avant-gardes of early XXth century, the focus will be on the the Neo avant-gardes of the second half of the XXth century and the contemporary art tendencies.
Main topics of discussion will be the changes in the relationships and in the concept itself of art patronage and those related to the public perception of art and artists, as well as the origin and succeed of the dynamics of art market.
Among the learning abilities expected to be acquired can be pointed out the capability of visual analysis, especially considering the opposition between figurativism and the abstract/ informal and conceptual art, the development of communication skills using the proper language; the developement of a comparative attitude, considering the correct geographical, chronological and cultural context. The student will be able to investigate the art work (particularly considering the stylistic elements), connecting it with the geographical and chronological context, analyzing with precision its art language, describing it with terminological precision.
The acquired knowledge can contribute to the growth of the general skills of synthesis and processing of data and concepts derived from different sources.
The course provide for the acquisition of cross skills, as correct use of language, communicative competences and developement of comparative capabilities of judgment.
The following topics will be delivered during lessons:
Methodological introduction.
Italian Fin de siècle.
Between Sezession and Avant-gard: from Liberty (with a special focus on the development of the phenomenon in Varese) to the Roman Secession.
Historical Avant-gardes in Italy.
From the “return to the order” of the Novecento group to the Cavour Street School.
The Lictory aesthetics, Rationalism and Abstractionism in Como.
Italian art between the two World Wars: from the Scuola romana to the Arte Concreta Movement (MAC).
Art movements after the Second World War between Abstractionism, Informalism and Realism: Fronte Nuovo delle Arti, Gruppo Forma 1, Pittori Moderni della realtà, Gruppo degli Otto, Classic Abstractionism, material, gestural and sign Informalism.
Nuclear art and Eaismo movement; Existential Realism, Spatialism; Estroflessione current.
Lucio Fontana and Yves Klein.
Pop Art in Italy: the Piazza del Popolo School.
Italian Arte Povera movement and the reception of the international debate on Neo Dada and Minimal Art.
Italian Kinetic and Programmed Art and international Optical Art.
Visual Poetry, Fluxus, Performance Art, Happening, Wiener Aktionismus, Art installation, Body Art, Video Art.
From Land Art to Sustainable art.
Neo-Expressionism: Italian Transavanguardia and “return to painting” and German Neuen Wilden.
Italian Analitical painting.
Hyperrealism and Photorelism.
Definition of Post-Modern.
Anachronism; Pittura colta movement; Hypermanierism; Nuovi-nuovi movement; Magico Primario movement; Metacosa movement.
House museums and foundations.
The debate on contemporary sacred art.
Contemporary revivals and art trends.
Recommended books:
P. De Vecchi – L. Cerchiari, Arte nel tempo, Bompiani/Mondadori 1995 sgg,. related to the chapters corresponding to the period indicated in the various and differently divided editions.
Alessandro Del Puppo, L’arte contemporanea. Il secondo Novecento, Einaudi, Torino 2013.
Renato Barilli, Storia dell’arte contemporanea in Itala. Da Canova alle ultime tendenze 1789-2006, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 2017 (only the chapters relating to the chronology covered in the course).
Massimo Melotti, Vicende dell'arte in Italia dal dopoguerra agli anni Duemila. Artisti, gallerie, mercato, collezionisti, musei, Franco Angeli, Milano 2017.
Educational supports available on the e-learning platform: all the slides presented during lessons (in PPTX format).
The course, in compliance with the present provisions, will be delivered with frontal lessons in presence through the Teams platform and with audio recorded powerpoint files (downloadable from the e-learning platform), for the total amount of 56 hours. They will be all conducted by the tenured professor of the course, encouraging, as much as possible, interaction between the lecturer and students. At the end of each lesson students can ask for clarifications and further explanations of the topics proposed by chat or e-mail, according to the type of lesson delivered.
The listening of lessons is highly recommended to take advantage of all the interdisciplinary connections (political history, historic geography, history of literature, etc.) and critical interpretations of the phenomenon which will be proposed by the teacher lesson by lesson and which can not be fully developed in the handbooks available.
Consultation hours: using the Teams platform or at the professor’s office (Collegio Cattaneo, Via Jean Henry Dunant, 7 Varese). You have to require a prior appointment by sending your e-mail to m.ferrario12@uninsubria.it. The appointment will be fixed within one week.
Before and after lessons it is always possible to have informal consultations or to require an appointment with professor Ferrario.