Mazzoleni is delighted to be returning to Frieze Masters this October, presenting a selection of works by Giorgio de Chirico, Andy Warhol, Carla Accardi, Mel Bochner, Alighiero Boetti, Salvo, Lucio Fontana, Enrico Castellani, Agostino Bonalumi and Alberto Burri.
Frieze Masters | The Regent’s Park, London | Booth B1
VIP Preview (by invitation): 9 – 10 October
Public Days: 10 – 13 October
Booth highlights include Giorgio de Chirico’s Le muse inquietanti (The Disquieting Muses) (1959) and Andy Warhol’s Disquieting Muses (After de Chirico) (1982). These works will be exhibited together, offering a unique opportunity to explore both the inspiration for Warhol’s work and the subsequent output. This pairing continues the exploration of antiquity’s continual influence on the canon, as examined in Mazzoleni’s upcoming exhibition Mythology Reinterpreted: A Journey through Ancient Inspiration in Modern & Contemporary Art.
“Every time I saw de Chirico’s paintings I felt close to him. Every time I saw him I felt I had known him forever…”
– Andy Warhol
A selection of works by renowned calligraphic abstractionist Carla Accardi (1924 – 2014) will be exhibited in celebration of the centenary year of the artist’s birth. These works demonstrate Accardi’s unique approach to viewer interaction, through her utilisation of a monochromatic artistic language of signs that explores both negative and positive spaces.
American conceptual artist Mel Bochner (b.1940), like Accardi, found the relationships between language, space and colour a great source of inspiration and therefore these themes are reflected in much of his oeuvre. This is exemplified in Blah Blah Blah (2014), part of series of works of the same title, which invites us to consider the role of language in our lives.
“’Blah Blah Blah…’ is the black hole of language”
– Mel Bochner
Alighiero Boetti’s (1940 – 1994) exploration of language takes form in his embroidered works, conveying puzzles with short phrases, inverted sayings, and wordplay, conceived in the 1970s. On this occasion, later embroidered works from the 1990s will be presented, including Un pozzo senza fine (1991).
“Each subject taken to its greatest tension, to its extreme freedom of colour”
– Salvo
While Boetti and Salvo’s (1947 – 2015) careers were closely intwined throughout the 1960s, by the 1970s Salvo had pivoted away from conceptual work, creating hyper-saturated imagined landscapes and cityscapes. Within these landscapes, time is held still through Salvo’s unique ability to capture the light and time through his use of psychedelic colours. This is reflected in Ottobre forse Novembre (2001) where the viewer is transported into a world of the imaginary.
Lucio Fontana’s (1899 – 1968) work transcended the canvas, revolutionising the very essence of the medium. Fontana conceived art as a dynamic dimension of pictorial space, a practice he clarified in his theory of Spatialism. Whilst perhaps best known for his punctured or slashed canvases, similar visual motifs can be found in sculptural works such as Concetto Spaziale, Natura (1899 – 1968) which sees bronze spheres manipulated in a similar manner.
In dialogue with Fontana, Alberto Burri’s (1915 – 1995) work also embodies a release from the canvas and paint, pushing boundaries in the exploration of materials and energetic gestures. This is evident in works such as Nero Cretto (1978), created using Acrovinyl on Celotex, amplifying his belief in the limitless potential of materiality.
“My painting is a reality that is part of myself, a reality that I cannot reveal in words.”
– Alberto Burri
Continuing this release from the canvas, each work by Agostino Bonalumi (1935 – 2013) is born out of a dialogue of internal pressures and external resistance with which the surface of the canvas opposes. Bianco (1973) is of no exception, with the parallel wooden ribs of the work extending the canvas into a three-dimensional space. This extension converges with its monochromatic nature, casting variable shadows, causing changes in colour intensity on the works surface.
Enrico Castellani’s (1930–2017) aluminium cast wall sculptures are part of a series created between 2006 and 2013. These pieces highlight key links to his early explorations with metal and showcase his ability to also push the limits of materiality and space. Starting in the early 1960s, Castellani experimented with materials like brass, zinc, bronze, and other malleable substances, producing small collections of works. His late aluminium series was inspired by his long-standing fascination with mirrored surfaces and earlier experiments with glass featuring a silver interior.
