Half a century of what is considered Italian pop art is on display in the United States.
These are 25 works from the collection of BFF Banking Group, based in Milan.
The exhibition, 'Contemporary Echoes: Rediscovering Italian Art from 1950-1980 - Artworks from the BFF Collection', in collaboration with the American Association International Arts and Artists (IA&A), opens in New York, Chelsea, on February 28 and will remain held until March 28th.
Then it will move to Washington DC from April 5th to June 2nd.
It had the patronage of the Ministry of Culture, and of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
Contemporary Echoes is inspired by the volume, Italian and American Art - An Interaction - 1930s - 1980s', and is edited by historian and critic Renato Miracco.
The focus is on ten Italian artists of the time who established a dialogue with the American reality, in particular Valerio Adami, Franco Angeli, Enrico Baj, Alberto Burri, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Mario Ceroli, Piero Dorazio, Giò Pomodoro, Mario Schifano and Emilio Tadini.
"The objective - Miracco explained to ANSA - is to highlight the languages of what was Italian pop art, the result of the fusion between American and English art. After the futurist experience, from 1930 to 1980, there was a exchange, an interaction between the Italian artistic reality and that of the USA. Burri and Robert Rauschenberg met several times in Rome in the early 1950s. As a sign of their friendship, their debate and their artistic motivations, Rauschenberg gave Burri one of his first 'fetishes' during the meeting in 1953.
Schifano created a series of works with televisions inspired by Andy Warhol. He also concentrated on the use of some brands such as Campbell and his soup cans, or Coca Cola.
The dialogue between the two realities also explores the difficulties on both sides in expressing the change of the era".
Miracco explained that the starting point of this 'fascination' between the two countries began in 1948, when Peggy Guggenheim brought her collection to the Venice Biennale for an exhibition on American Expressionists.
It was Jackson Pollock's debut in Europe and the first time a new generation of American artists, such as William Baziotes, Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still, exhibited outside the United States.
Although Italian artists were attracted to the United States, some works contained messages condemning some controversial topics at the time.
The Vietnam War for example.
Franco Angeli, in his untitled work from 1965 and with the representation of what is one of the US symbols, the American Eagle,
"Our collection - Massimiliano Belingheri, CEO of BFF Banking Group, underlined to ANSA - is made up of around 250 works, all contemporary and this initiative is a tool to share part of our cultural heritage with society. He explained that Contemporary Echoes follows the success of the traveling exhibition 'Art Factor - The Pop Legacy in Post War Italian Art', which visited several European cities and which will end in the Bank's new headquarters in Milan, scheduled to open in autumn 2024.
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