A Celebration of Italian Contemporary Art
In the western world, few nations can claim to have had such a monumental impact on the art as Italy. From the Romans to the Futurists, Italy has been at the forefront of the art world. With a legacy such as this many developing artists find themselves constantly in the shadow of their ancestors. Enter Ilaria Bernardi and the Italian Cultural Institute. On October 11, the two along with artist Massimo Bartolini the founders of the Magazzino Italian Art Foundation Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu. Together, the group is putting on an exhibition dedicated to post war and contemporary Italian artists.
The exhibition titled Young Italians and is a collection of work of Italian artists all under the age of forty. Bernardi draws parallels between young Italian artists and the mythical Greek hero Telemachus. In the legend Telemachus is the son of the legendary hero of the Trojan War, Odysseus. In Homer’s Odyssey Odysseus spends years trying to return home after the war, and his son Telemachus gazes out to sea awaiting his father’s return. Telemachus grew impatient with his father and left his home to find him. However, by the time Telemachus returns home Odysseus had already returned, and Telemachus had grown up with out him. For Bernardi this story encapsulates the struggles of young Italian artists today. They live in the shadow of their ancestors and long for their glory, until they learn to go out and discover their own legacy.
Massimo Bartolini, one of the panel members is the perfect embodiment of the tale. He left his small Tuscan town of Livorno to move to Milan to discover the “new energies of art.” Before long, he moved to New York where he continued to grow and develop his knowledge of the art world. The other members of the panel Olnick and Spanu have recently opened a museum in the Cold Spring, New York called the Magazzino Italian Art. They seek to inspire cross cultural collaboration between young Italian and American artists.
The Magazzino Italian Art is free to the public, and the Young Italians exhibition was held in the Italian Cultural Institute in New York from September 25 to November 1, 2018.
-William Caterham
