Luciano Fabro Italia all'asta

cm 335 x 70 x 10

Engaged in the renewal of sculpture from the mid 1960s, and one of the major representatives of Arte Povera as a theorist and a teacher, Luciano Fabro was a leading figure on the artistic scene until his death in 2007. His research focused on hybridizations and the unprecedented combinations of materials, techniques, figurative ideas and conceptual aspects of sculptural language, in a constant conversation with the historical and cultural reality of his time. Italia all’asta is part of one of the artist’s most famous series, that of the so-called Italie, which he began in 1968. The cycle, made using different materials and solutions, fosters an acute reflection on national identity, explored in its various social, political, and historical aspects. In this work, two shapes of Italy, one of which is upside down, are made of sheet iron and hung from a pole propped up against the wall – the northern part of one of the shapes joins the southern part of the other, and vice versa, while the major islands are together at the center. The title plays with the ambiguity between the literary meaning of the word “pole”, and the word “palo” (altarpiece) meaning an artistic element that has an image on it. It is a reference to the Baroque feast, as well as a metaphor for an auction sale. The origin is dated to the mid-1980s, when the major State-owned companies began to be denationalized, and the season of privatization, culminating in the following decade. The events related to Tangentopoli taking place at the same time add a further level of meaning to the work.

No

S. Hecker, Piercing through and holding together: Luciano Fabro’s Italia all’asta and Enfasi (Baldcchino), in Senzamargine. Passages in Italian art at the turn of the millennium, curated by B. Pietromarchi, exhibition catalogue, (Rome, MAXXI Museo nazionale del XXI secolo), Venice, Marsilio Editori, pp. 89-105

Foto Agostino Osio - Alto Piano

Acquisition

Sculpture