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Enzo Cucchi

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Enzo Cucchi
Enzo Cucchi (right) in a meeting with students at the Academy of Fine Arts of Palermo, in 2014
Born(1949-11-14)14 November 1949(age 74)
Morro d'Alba,Province of Ancona,Italy
NationalityItalian
Educationself-taught
Known forpainting
Musica Ebbra,1982, private collection

Enzo Cucchi(born 14 November 1949) is an Italian painter. A native ofMorro d'Alba,province of Ancona,he was a key member of the ItalianTransavanguardiamovement, along with his countrymenFrancesco Clemente,Mimmo Paladino,Nicola De Maria,andSandro Chia.The movement was at its peak during the 1980s and was part of the worldwide movement ofNeo-Expressionistpainters.

Cucchi's first major Retrospective was held at theSolomon R. Guggenheim Museum,New York 1986 and his works are held in numerous museum collections including theMuseum of Modern Art[1]New York, theTate[2]London and theArt Institute of Chicago.[3]Cucchi lives and works in Rome and Ancona.

Biography[edit]

Enzo Cucchi was born in 1949 in Morro d‘Alba, a farming village in the province of Ancona in central Italy. As anautodidacticpainter Cucchi was lauded in his early years even though he was more interested in poetry. He frequently visited poet Mino De Angelis, who was in charge of the magazineTau.ThroughLa Nuova Foglio di Macerata,a small publishing house, he met with art criticAchille Bonito Oliva,an important figure in the artist's prospective career. In its cataloguesLa Nuova Foglio di Maceratapublished writings of artists such as Cucchi'sIl veleno è stato sollevato e trasportato!in 1976. Frequent trips to Rome in the mid-seventies revived Cucchi's interest in visual arts. He moved to Rome, temporarily abandoned poetry and dedicated himself exclusively to the visual arts. Here Cucchi met with different artists such as Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Mimmo Paladino and Nicola de Maria with whom he began to work in close contact and to establish dialectical and intellectual dialogues.

Achille Bonito Oliva was the first to name this young generation of Italian artists of the seventies as a group: InFlash ArtMagazine, no. 92–93, 1979, he used the termTransavanguardiafor the first time. The official proclamation of the Transavanguardia took place at the 1980Venice Biennial.The term was an idiom for the art of this young generation following theAvant-gardeart of the sixties. These artists no longer sought to evoke discomfort in the spectator by all means and to force him to go beyond the work to grasp it fully.

The members of the Transavanguardia-group have diverse working methods. Their identity as a group is not dependent on rules or any binding language of expression, but they share a preference for motifs gathered from imaginable reality and the free use of past and present. Cucchi uses forms suggestive of the landscape, legends and traditions of his home-region. He shows nature, history and culture in a playful relationship with our technical world, usingsymbolslike a train or an ocean-liner and employing colour in terms of idea, expansion and motion rather than for pictorial sensation. His artwork is often accompanied by poetic texts some of which have been published.

Aside from the numerous Transavanguardia- group-exhibitions, his work has been the subject of solo shows in galleries, museums and cultural sites all over the world.

Works[edit]

In the late 1970s, Cucchi's highly original work conspicuously stood out in a scene dominated by conceptual art. Art critic and dealer Mario Diacono supported him by exhibiting his work in Italy and the United States. Since 1979 Cucchi has maintained a co-operative relationship with gallery owner Emilio Mazzoli in Modena and withBruno Bischofbergerwho had represented him since 1981 and since 1995 exclusively worldwide. Between 1981 and 1985 also Gian Enzo Sperone frequently exhibited Cucchi's work in his galleries in Rome and New York. Consequently, his experimental expressionist style gradually became influential whereas he set out to expand the material qualities in his art by painting or drawing directly on walls, using ceramics, mosaic or painted images as a part of sculpture and by creating free installation spaces.

Cucchi's varied interests have led him beyond the bounds of ordinary exhibitions. He has made outdoor sculptures for the Brueglinger Park inBaselin 1984, and theLouisiana Museum of Modern Artin Humblebaek,Denmarkin 1985, a fountain for the garden of the Museo d’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci inPratoin 1988 and theFontana d‘ItaliaatYork UniversityinToronto.And a fountain in the center square of his home town, Morro d'Alba.

He also contributed to theLucio Amelio's contemporary art collection in theRoyal Palace of Caserta.[4]The Neapolitan gallerist, after theIrpinia earthquakeof 1980, asked to the major artists of that time a work about the earthquake in order to get through that terrible experience; his workSenza titoloconsists in four rusty iron panels, which symbolizes the violence of the passing of time, with a vessel in the middle, a precariousness image typical of his art.[5]

Between 1992 and 1994 he collaborated with architectMario Bottaon the chapel built onMonte TamaronearLugano, Switzerland,where Cucchi assisted with designing the interior of the chapel, mainly the main altar and the executed murals for the apse and nave. Cucchi enjoys close relationships with poets and writers like Paolo Volponi,Goffredo Parise,Giovanni Testori,Ruggero Guarini, Alberto Boatto and Paul Evangelisti. He has made illustrations for their books while they have written on his art. Cucchi has also been active in the field of stage design: He has designed costumes and sets for productions such asRossini‘s andRespighi‘sLa Bottega Fantasticaat theRossini Opera FestivalinPesaroandHeinrich von Kleist’sPenthesilea,both in 1986,Puccini‘sToscaat the Teatro dell‘Opera in Rome, from 1990–1991, Pennisi‘sFuneral of the MooninGibellina,in 1991 and an adaptation ofErasmus‘In Praise of Folly,in 1992. In 1996 he designed the curtain for the Teatro la Fenice inSenigalliaand a mosaic on the sidewalk in front of La Rotonda al Mare ".

Selected exhibitions[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

  • Diane Waldman (1986).Enzo Cucchi.New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Rizzoli.
  • Martin Schwander (1988).Enzo Cucchi. Scultura.Brussels and Munich: Zaira Mis & Bernd Klüser.
  • Zaira Mis (1993).Enzo Cucchi. Idoli.Brussels: Artiscope.
  • Guy Gilsoul and Patrick Floorizone (1999).Cucchi, Ensor/Enzo.Brussels: Artiscope.

References[edit]

  1. ^moma.org
  2. ^tate.org.uk
  3. ^artic.edu
  4. ^""Terrae Motus" collection virtual exhibition ".
  5. ^A cura di Livia Velani, Ester Coen e Angelica Tecce (2001).Terrae Motus, la collezione Amelio alla Reggia di Caserta.Milano: Skira Editore. pp. 159–160.ISBN88-8491-066-8.
  6. ^"Eight Graphic Works - Enzo Cucchi".Biasa.Retrieved2019-10-31.

External links[edit]

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