Mazzoleni presents an extensive exhibition dedicated to the fascinating artists of the Post War artistic movement known as Informal Art. This artistic tendency begins after the end of the Second World War and dominates the artistic panorama during the 1950s. The experiments made by the main exponents of the Informal Art lead to iconic artistic forms and opened a world of new possibilities for the new generations of artists until now.
The tragic atmosphere of Post-War Europe is rooted in the early manifestations of this movement, when a new conception of reality emerged. The individual experience of unprecedented solitude, leading to a feeling of existentialist uncertainty. The present is perceived as fragmentary, disturbing and contingent, but at the same time, fascinating. The artist is urged to exploit his artistic vitality in order to encourage a form of art, that cannot be considered purely as a tendency or a movement, but as a critic and creative reaction against a particular historic period with the aim of renovating reality.
The term informal (intended as non-formal) is used for the first time by the French critic Michel Tapié in 1951. In Europe, the consolidation on Informal art emerges as an antithesis of another tendencies, such as the Geometric Abstraction, Post-Cubism and Social Realism. The Informal language is characterised by an emphasis of the individual creative freedom and an intensification of the emotive and vital tensions, through pictorial and sculptural practises that exalt the expressive force of the artistic materials and the gestural energy.
This non-systematic exhibition aims to illustrate the significant Post-War artistic landscape through a careful selection of artworks realised during the decade 1960 – 1970. The artworks by Italian artists are on display in dialogue with those of foreign artists such as Joan Miro, Hans Hartung Karel Appel, Jean Paul Riopelle, Serge Poliakoff and George Mathieu. Artworks by Victor Vasarely have been included in the exhibition to offer an optical-geometric counterpoint.
Regarding Italy, there are artists who were part of the Gruppo degli Otto such as Emilio Vedova, Afro, Giuseppe Santomaso, Giulio Turcato and Renato Birolli. The Spatialism movement is represented by Lucio Fontana, Roberto Crippa and Tancredi. Concerning the Nuclear movement, the exhibition includes works by Enrico Baj, Piero Manzoni and Agostino Bonalumi. From the Gruppo Origine, two main exponents, Alberto Burri and Giuseppe Capogrossi.The exhibition includes as well exponents from the Gruppo Forma, such as Piero Dorazio and Achile Perilli.