Germano Celant
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{{Short description|Italian art critic (1940–2020)}}
{{More citations needed|date=April 2020}}
Germano Celant (11 September 1940 – 29 April 2020) was an Italian art historian, critic, and curator who coined the term "Arte Povera" (poor art) in the 1967 Flash Art piece "Appunti Per Una Guerriglia" ("Notes on a guerrilla war"),{{cite web |url=http://www.sfai.org/05worklect4.html |title=Santa Fe Art Institute |access-date=30 December 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110107105152/http://www.sfai.org/05worklect4.html |archive-date=7 January 2011 }} Santa Fe Art Institute Lectures 2005 which would become the manifesto for the Arte Povera artistic and political movement. He wrote many articles and books on the subject.
Work
Germano Celant was born in Genoa, Italy. He attended the University of Genoa, where he studied history of art with Eugenio Battisti. IN 1958 he joined Gruppo Studio, a collective formed by Luigi Tola and Rodolfo Vitone. In 1963 he worked as assistant editor for Marcatrè, a Genoa-based magazine about architecture, art, design, music and literature founded by Vitone,See R. Barilli, Rodolfo Vitone. Trent'anni di ricerca e creatività, DeFerrari, Genoa, 1997 p. 47: "On his return from Paris, (R. Vitone) founded the contemporary culture magazine 'Marcatrè' entrusting Mr. Eugenio Battisti with the direction". Eugenio Battisti, Paolo Portoghesi, Diego Carpitella, Maurizio Calvesi, Umberto Eco, Vittorio Gelmetti and Edoardo Sanguineti. In 1967, his manifesto of Arte Povera, Notes for a Guerilla War, was published in Flash Art. The concept of Arte Povera theorized that contemporary art in Italy was different from the one made in America due to the specific historical and socio-political circumstances. Italy was going through an industrial period but was not really making the pop art that coincided with the established economy as opposed to American artists like Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and other artists. Italian artists instead were going for an humanist approach in their work, favouring discarded marerials.
"Arte Povera" was essentially formed around two nuclei: one in Turin, with artists such as Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Giuseppe Penone, Giulio Paolini, Giovanni Anselmo, and Piero Gilardi; and one in Rome, with Alighiero Boetti, Jannis Kounellis, Emilio Prini and Pino Pascali.[https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/13/arts/mario-merz-78-an-italian-installation-artist.htm]{{dead link|date=April 2020}} Celant went on to organize Arte Povera exhibitions at Galleria La Bertesca in Genoa (1967), Galleria De' Foscherari in Bologna (1968), and a three-day performance event called "Arte Povera & Azioni Povere" in Amalfi (1968).
In 1974 Celant authored the first Catalogue Raisonné of Italian artist Piero Manzoni. The book would later be revised and expanded between 1997 and 2003 with the aid of the Manzoni Estate.{{Cite web |date=June 2006 |title=Comunicato Stampa Con Cortese Preghiera di Pubblicazione e Diffusione |url=https://www.pippabacca.it/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/C.s.Tb_.pdf |access-date=1 June 2024 |website=pippabacca.it}}
Celant curated many exhibitions on Italian art, including "Identité italienne: L'art en Italie depuis 1959" (Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1981), "Italian art, 1900–1945" (Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 1989; with Pontus Hultén), and "Italian Metamorphosis 1943–1968" (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1994). In 1997, he was the director of the Venice Biennale and in 2004, he curated the exhibition "Art and Architecture" in Genoa when the city was nominated as European Capital of Culture. From 1977, he was a contributing editor to Artforum and from 1991 he was a contributing editor to Interview.
In 1988, Celant was appointed Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/01/arts/guggenheim-names-curator.html|title=Guggenheim Names Curator|first=John|last=Russell|work=The New York Times |date=1 December 1988|access-date=29 April 2020|via=NYTimes.com}}
From 1993 on Celant served as Artistic Director of the Prada Foundation in Milan, which began as PradaMilanoarte that year. Under his leadership, the foundation over the years presented shows of Walter de Maria, Louise Bourgeois, Anish Kapoor, David Smith, Michael Heizer, Sam Taylor-Wood, and Steve McQueen, among others, in Milan and Venice.Michael Kimmelman (23 March 2008), [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/magazine/23prada-t.html The Patroness] New York Times. In conjunction with the Venice Biennale 2009, Celant organized the second major survey of John Wesley, at the boarding-school buildings on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.Randy Kennedy (8 June 2009), [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/09/arts/design/09wesley.html/ Pop and Rococo Meet and Greet] New York Times. His 2012 show "The Small Utopia: Ars Multiplicata" at Ca' Corner della Regina, Venice, tackled the issue of art in the age of mechanical reproduction and how artists from Marcel Duchamp to Andy Warhol have used multiplication of various sorts. It contained over 600 items, produced between 1900 and 1975, and included design, ceramics, glassware, textiles, film, magazines, books, and sound recordings.Karen Wright (16 July 2012), [http://www.wallpaper.com/art/the-small-utopia.-ars-multiplicata-at-fondazione-prada-venice/5938#66499 'The Small Utopia. Ars Multiplicata' at Fondazione Prada, Venice] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120824011239/http://www.wallpaper.com/art/the-small-utopia.-ars-multiplicata-at-fondazione-prada-venice/5938#66499 |date=24 August 2012 }} Wallpaper.
In 2012 Celant, in collaboration with the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, mounted the survey “Lucio Fontana: Ambienti Spaziali” at Gagosian Gallery, New York.Pilar Viladas (3 May 2012), [https://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/space-man-lucio-fontana-at-gagosian/ Space Man: Lucio Fontana at Gagosian] T.
In 2016 he organised The Floating Piers project by Christo and Jeanne-Claudes work at Lago d'Iseo.
Personal life
Celant was married to fellow curator Paris Murray. In 2006, the couple purchased a Milan paper factory building converted by the architect Pierluigi Cerri into a 10,000-square-foot house.Linda Yablonski (15 October 2010), [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/10/17/t-magazine/17get-interiors.html?ref=multimedia Museo Drive] T.
Death
On 29 April 2020, Celant died in Milan from COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. He was 79.{{cite web|url=https://www.artribune.com/arti-visive/arte-contemporanea/2020/04/morto-a-80-anni-il-critico-darte-germano-celant-creatore-del-movimento-arte-povera/|title=Il virus uccide Germano Celant. Uno dei più grandi critici d'arte al mondo|first=Giulia|last=Ronchi|date=29 April 2020|access-date=29 April 2020}}
References
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External links
- {{IMDb name|0147941}}
{{Arte Povera}}
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Category:Italian male non-fiction writers
Category:Venice Biennale artistic directors