Five stories on American art to allow you to discover the most important artists and events that influenced the history of art in the second half of the 20th century.
American art from the 1960s to the early 2000s constantly spawned new modes of expression. Artists forged hybrids of painting, sculpture and theatre, moulding them into a single language, they raised mass culture to the rank of subject matter for their work, they shifted the focus from a work of art’s aesthetic to its conceptual features, and they used their artistic practice as a tool for resistance and for fighting their political and cultural battles.
Five authoritative figures, Flavio Fergonzi (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa), Annie Cohen-Solal (historian and writer), Flavio Frongia (Università Roma Tre), Huey Copeland (University of Pennsylvania) tell a multifaceted story made of encounters, ideas, intuitions, friendships and political commitment.
The cycle of encounters is organised in collaboration with the Florence University’s SAGAS Department (History, Archaeology, Geography, Art and Performance Arts) with the support of Professors Giorgio Bacci and Tiziana Serena.
Calendar of Events
8 June, 18.00
Flavio Fergonzi (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa)
Going Beyond Painting: American art in the ’50s and ’60s
(The event will be held in Italian)
15 June, 18.00
Annie Cohen-Solal (Historian and writer)
How the gallerist Leo Castelli impacted the US Art World in the ’60 and ’70
22 June, 18.00
Antonello Frongia (Università Roma Tre)
Mirrors, Windows and Images: a journey through art and photography in the United States, 1961–2001
(The event will be held in Italian)
29 June, 18.00
Huey Copeland (University of Pennsylvania)
Mastery and Deformation: African American Art as Modern Cultural Critique
20 July, 18.00
Luca Farulli (Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden, Università di Siena)
Theodore W. Adorno and the laboratory of the Arts in the 1960s
(The event will be held in Italian)
On top: Richard Prince, Untitled (Cowboy) (det.), 1992, Minneapolis, Walker Art Center. © Richard Prince. Courtesy the artist and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
