Paper Media: Boetti, Calzolari, Kounellis.
Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Jannis Kounellis
The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New York
August 28 – December 08, 2019

Premiering August 28, Magazzino Italian Art Foundation and the Samuel Dorsky Museum in New Paltz present Paper Media: Boetti, Calzolari, Kounellis. The first exhibition in the United States to focus on works on paper from the Arte Povera period, the exhibition features a selection of rarely seen works by Arte Povera artists Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, and Jannis Kounellis curated by Scholar in Residence Francesco Guzzetti.

Convening the work of three masters: Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, and Jannis Kounellis, selected from the Olnick Spanu Collection, the exhibition considers the significance of drawing and print within each artist’s practice, as well as in Italian art and culture in the 1960s and 1970s more broadly. Curated by Magazzino’s inaugural Scholar in Residence, Francesco Guzzetti, the exhibition represents the culmination of his research on the drawing practices of Arte Povera artists, as well as the provenance of the works in the Olnick Spanu Collection. An illustrated catalog accompanies the exhibition, focusing on this under-explored area of works on paper from the Arte Povera period and detailing the history of each work on view.

“We are so thrilled to collaborate with the Dorsky Museum to present this exhibition to both the SUNY New Paltz and Hudson Valley communities,” states Vittorio Calabrese, Director of Magazzino Italian Art Foundation.” A core mission of Magazzino since our founding has been to share Italian art and engage with the dynamic art world in this region. We could not be happier to work with the Dorsky Museum to exhibit these rare works, which share an intimate perspective into the greater practice of Arte Povera masters Boetti, Calzolari, and Kounellis.”

Paper Media: Boetti, Calzolari, Kounellis brings together eleven rarely seen works on paper from the Olnick Spanu Collection. As with many of the artists associated with Arte Povera, working with various drawing and printing techniques was fundamental to the practices of Boetti, Calzolari, and Kounellis. In a new development for the period, these artists regarded their works on paper as finished pieces rather than preparatory steps to create an artwork. From Calzolari’s alchemical experimentation with unconventional materials such as rose petals and salt, to Kounellis’ iteration of a new alphabet of signs and images, the works on view speak to the artists’ embrace of formal and material experimentation and intensive questioning of what it meant to be an artist.     

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