Mattia Moreni. Catalogue raisonné of the works. Paintings 1934-1999 | Presentation at Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan: Curated by Enrico Crispolti | The last edited work of Enrico Crispolti in 40 years of work

8 April 2016 
Overview

G.A.M. Archivio Mattia Moreni presents

Catalogue raisonné of Mattia Moreni's works, 1934-1999

curated by Enrico Crispolti

edited by Silvana Editoriale

 

Friday 8th April 2016, at 6 PM

Pinacoteca di Brera

Sala della Passione, Via Brera 28, Milan

 

The volume Mattia Moreni. Catalogue raisonné of the works 1934-1999 will be presented to the public on Friday 8th April at 6 pm, at the Sala della Passione of Brera Pinacoteca in Milan. The catalogue, curated by Enrico Crispolti, is published by Silvana Editoriale in Milan and promoted by G.A.M. Archivio Mattia Moreni, with the general coordination of Franco, Roberta and Alessia Calarota, alongside  Poupy Prath Moreni and Silvia Loddo - editors of the sheets - in collaboration with Archivio Crispolti.

Spanning 888 pages, the volume opens with an introduction by Crispolti: an extended historical-critical dissertation on Moreni's creative life, integrated by a review of Moreni's critique by Davide Caroli. The catalogue is divided into 8 thematically historical chapters and includes a wide-ranging anthology of Moreni's poetic writings and critical texts on his work (featuring voices such as Tapié, Restany, Arcangeli, Barilli, and many others), as well as an extended bibliographical apparatus.

The creative life of one of the major representative of the European Painting of the second half of the XX Century, and of a great protagonist of the Action Painting before and of the Neo Expressinism then, is entirely reconstructed through a detailed historical-critical framing.

Through an in-depth historical and critical framework, supported by an extensive anthology of the artist’s own writings, theoretical reflections, and critical commentary, the volume offers the first "reasoned" catalogue of the paintings of Mattia Moreni (1920–1999), a key figure in European art during the second half of the XX century. It reconstructs the various phases of his artistic exploration, consistently grounded in a belief in the communicative potential of the pictorial medium, expressed through modes of powerful iconic impact over more than fifty years.

From his earliest experiments amidst post-Cubism and a form of "mechanistic" abstraction to his central role in the "Informal" movement, and beyond, the volume traces a trajectory that encompasses a vigorous "Neo-Expressionism," provocative "self-portraits", a deeply engaged vision of a "regression of the species" (both physiological and imaginative), and ultimately a densely populated, "comic-book"  repertoire of residual "humanoids" lying in wait.

 This is the documentation of a powerful and exciting imaginative adventure, a warning against a shared destiny - one that still looms large - a collective fate of genetic and mental regressive mutation. 

 

Prof. Enrico Crispolti, Prof. Flaminio Gualdoni and Arch. Antonella Ranaldi present the Catalogue.