Reserve

edited by Germano Celant

The second volume of the catalogue raissoné on the works of Mimmo Rotella (Catanzaro, 1918 - Milan, 2006), edited by Germano Celant, is in part the most extensive systematic cataloguing project of his entire oeuvre. The publication is made possible by a collaboration with the Mimmo Rotella Institute, founded in 2012 by Inna and Aghnessa Rotella and directed by Antonella Soldaini, and with the Fondazione Mimmo Rotella, directed by Aghnessa Rotella.

In this volume, the scientific analysis and verification are carried out on the works made between 1962 and 1973, when the artist consolidated his décollage practice in its most graphic and pop aspects and began exploring photomechanical image reproduction techniques. He used photography and the artypo, up to defining a more automatic and immediate process in his effaçages and frottages. Across a timeline, the catalogue highlights the various stages that have distinguished his practice, thus allowing an inclusive and documented reading of this period. Starting from advertising images, both regarding cinema or products of mass consumption, Rotella continued with his experiments on décollages, now no longer informal but rather informed by new icons of mass society. The works made in the early 1960s were shown at important international events attentive to the most innovative contemporary trends, including “New Realists” (New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, 1962) and the XXXII Venice Biennale in 1964. At both, Rotella’s works were compared to Pop Art, especially from the US, which draws upon an imagery more akin to the Italian artist’s.

His interest in the printing process also grew at this time: this gave life to his first photo overlaps – obtained by projecting the selected image on primed canvas – and then the artypos, which are the posters normally destined for the shredder, since they are used to warm up the press and various images are overprinted on them. In line with the free principles of the 1968 movements, the artist focused on glossy magazines for details, often laden with powerful eroticism, for his effaçages and frottages, resulting from the use of solvent on newspaper cut-outs. “Approaching photography and art is crucial in the 1960s, when artists broke free from canons and embraced the inclusiveness already present in earlier art, from Futurism to Dadaism and Surrealism. Rotella also took part in discovering photography as a visual instrument and, aware of the expressionist pitfalls that in the 1950s had combined colour with reproduced images, he attempted an  image photographed […]. Speaking through the pure informative specificity, the artistic shift was reduced to a minimum” (Celant).

Germano Celant is internationally known for his theories on Arte Povera. He has also authored over 100 publications, including books and catalogues, and has curated hundreds of exhibitions in the most prestigious museums and institutions around the world. He was Contributing Editor for the magazine “Artforum”, New York, and since 1991 for “Interview Magazine”, New York; from 1999 to 2018 he directed the art column for the weekly “L’Espresso”, Rome; since 2000 he has collaborated with the monthly design magazine “Interni”, Milan. In 1987 he won the Frank Jewett Mather Award for his activity as an art critic; in 2004 he was given a Laurea honoris causa in Architecture from the Università degli Studi di Genova, School of Architecture; finally, in 2013 he received The Agnes Gund Curatorial Award on behalf of the Independent Curators International, New York. From 1989 to 2008 he was Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; from 1995 to 2014 he was Director and, since 2015, Artistic and Scientific Superintendent of the Fondazione Prada; in 1997 he was Director of the 47. Venice Biennale; in 2004 he was Artistic Supervisor in planning 100 cultural events for “Genova 2004, Capitale Europea della Cultura”; since 2005 he is Curator at the Fondazione Aldo Rossi, Milan, and since 2008 he is Artistic and Scientific Curator for the Fondazione Annabianca e Emilio Vedova, Venice. From 2009 to 2011 he was the scientific supervisor for Art and Architecture at the Milan Triennale. He curated the exhibition “Arts & Foods. Rituali dal 1851”, Padiglione d’Arte di Expo 2015, at the Milan Triennale. In 2016 he was Project Director of “The Floating Piers”, a work by Christo and Jeanne-Claude at Lake Iseo. In 2018 he curated the shows “Post Zang Tumb Tuuum. Art Life Politics: Italia 1918-1943” at the Fondazione Prada, Milan, and “Mimmo Rotella Manifesto” at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome.