A work by Piero Dorazio, titled "Totale: giallo," dated 1963.
A work by Piero Dorazio, titled "Totale: giallo," dated 1963.

Roma/New York, 1953–1964

David Zwirner is pleased to present Roma/New York, 1953–1964, an exhibition exploring the significant intellectual and artistic cross-pollination between artists in the centers of Italian and American art in the 1950s and 1960s, on view at the gallery’s 537 West 20th Street location, curated by gallery partner David Leiber.

Read More

Image: Piero Dorazio, Totale: giallo, 1963. © 2023 Piero Dorazio, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome

Dates
January 12February 25, 2023
Gallery Hours
Tues—Sat 10am–6pm
Artist
Including, Afro, Carla Accardi, Franco Angeli, Luigi Boille, Alberto Burri, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Piero Dorazio, Tano Festa, Giosetta Fioroni, Philip Guston, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Jannis Kounellis, Conrad Marca-Relli , Gastone Novelli, Achille Perilli, Robert Rauschenberg, Mimmo Rotella, Salvatore Scarpitta, Mario Schifano, Toti Scialoja, Mark Tobey, Cy Twombly
“In both Italy and America, the arts function as a national redemption, offering themselves as a simulacrum of life, capable of triggering a discussion about the discontents of a society devoted to rampant technology and marketing. Thus, the heartening and seductive form of art operates to challenge reality and nurture the mirage of a future ‘civilization’ with a reassuring character.… It was between 1945 and 1964 that Italian art turned to American art in regard to its investigators, collectors, and dealers. And similarly, American artists refocused on a culture whose roots and history could not be wiped out by the Fascist era.”

 

—Germano Celant, curator, Roma-New York: 1948–1964, at the Murray and Isabella Rayburn Foundation, New York, 1993—the inspiration for this exhibition

A photo of Members of the “Crack” artist group, Piazza del Popolo, Rome, 1960; from left to right: Giulio Turcato, Achille Perilli, Gastone Novelli, Fabio Mauri, Mimmo Rotella, Piero Dorazio, and Gino Marotta.

Members of the “Crack” artist group, Piazza del Popolo, Rome, 1960 (detail); from left to right: Giulio Turcato, Achille Perilli, Gastone Novelli, Fabio Mauri, Mimmo Rotella, Piero Dorazio, and Gino Marotta. Photo by Virginia Dortch. © 2023 The Estate of Virginia Dortch Dorazio / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Virginia Dortch is the author of two books, Balla: An Album of his Life and Work and Peggy Guggenheim and her Friends. She studied Art History and Fine Arts at Columbia University and received a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina. After 1953, she spent two decades living between Europe and New York, becoming acquainted with many figures in the European and American art worlds whom she often photographed.

Members of the “Crack” artist group, Piazza del Popolo, Rome, 1960 (detail); from left to right: Giulio Turcato, Achille Perilli, Gastone Novelli, Fabio Mauri, Mimmo Rotella, Piero Dorazio, and Gino Marotta. Photo by Virginia Dortch. © 2023 The Estate of Virginia Dortch Dorazio / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Virginia Dortch is the author of two books, Balla: An Album of his Life and Work and Peggy Guggenheim and her Friends. She studied Art History and Fine Arts at Columbia University and received a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina. After 1953, she spent two decades living between Europe and New York, becoming acquainted with many figures in the European and American art worlds whom she often photographed.

A photo of members of the “Crack” artist group at Caffè Rosati in Piazza del Popolo, Rome, 1960; from left to right: Mimmo Rotella, Achille Perilli, Fabio Mauri, Gino Marotta, Piero Dorazio, Giulio Turcato, and Gastone Novelli; photographed by Dortch while on assignment for the magazine Metro and published in Metro no. 1, 1960.

Members of the “Crack” artist group at Caffè Rosati in Piazza del Popolo, Rome, 1960 (detail); from left to right: Mimmo Rotella, Achille Perilli, Fabio Mauri, Gino Marotta, Piero Dorazio, Giulio Turcato, and Gastone Novelli; photographed by Dortch while on assignment for the magazine Metro and published in Metro no. 1, 1960. © 2023 The Estate of Virginia Dortch Dorazio / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Members of the “Crack” artist group at Caffè Rosati in Piazza del Popolo, Rome, 1960 (detail); from left to right: Mimmo Rotella, Achille Perilli, Fabio Mauri, Gino Marotta, Piero Dorazio, Giulio Turcato, and Gastone Novelli; photographed by Dortch while on assignment for the magazine Metro and published in Metro no. 1, 1960. © 2023 The Estate of Virginia Dortch Dorazio / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

In the years following the Second World War, with the return of notable artists, writers, and intellectuals from exile and POW camps, Rome emerged as the center of a new Italian avant-garde—one less beholden to the Parisian art scene that had largely defined modernist activity during the first half of the twentieth century.

This page highlights selected works from the exhibition, which focuses in particular on the Italian artists active in this period.

A photo of Piero Dorazio (left) with New York-based art dealers Sidney Janis (center) and Leo Castelli (right) at Caffè Paradiso in Venice during the 30th Venice Biennale, 1960.

Piero Dorazio (left) with New York-based art dealers Sidney Janis (center) and Leo Castelli (right) at Caffè Paradiso in Venice during the 30th Venice Biennale, 1960 (detail). Photo by Virginia Dortch. © 2023 The Estate of Virginia Dortch Dorazio / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Piero Dorazio (left) with New York-based art dealers Sidney Janis (center) and Leo Castelli (right) at Caffè Paradiso in Venice during the 30th Venice Biennale, 1960 (detail). Photo by Virginia Dortch. © 2023 The Estate of Virginia Dortch Dorazio / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

A photo of Alberto Burri (third from left) on a bragozzo going to the Island of Torcello near Venice during the 30th Venice Biennale, 1960; also pictured: Nino Franchina (left of Burri), Basilio Franchina (right of Burri wearing glasses), Afro (behind Franchina), Burri’s wife, Minsa Craig (right of Afro), and Gian Tommaso Liverani, owner of Galleria La Salita, Rome (with his shirt unbuttoned).

Alberto Burri (third from left) on a bragozzo going to the Island of Torcello near Venice during the 30th Venice Biennale, 1960 (detail); also pictured: Nino Franchina (left of Burri), Basilio Franchina (right of Burri wearing glasses), Afro (behind Franchina), Burri’s wife, Minsa Craig (right of Afro), and Gian Tommaso Liverani, owner of Galleria La Salita, Rome (with his shirt unbuttoned). Photo by Virginia Dortch. © 2023 The Estate of Virginia Dortch Dorazio / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Alberto Burri (third from left) on a bragozzo going to the Island of Torcello near Venice during the 30th Venice Biennale, 1960 (detail); also pictured: Nino Franchina (left of Burri), Basilio Franchina (right of Burri wearing glasses), Afro (behind Franchina), Burri’s wife, Minsa Craig (right of Afro), and Gian Tommaso Liverani, owner of Galleria La Salita, Rome (with his shirt unbuttoned). Photo by Virginia Dortch. © 2023 The Estate of Virginia Dortch Dorazio / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

A photo of Philip Guston with the hand of the Colossus of Constantine in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome, 1960.

Philip Guston with the hand of the Colossus of Constantine in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome, 1960 (detail). Photo by Virginia Dortch. © 2023 The Estate of Virginia Dortch Dorazio / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Philip Guston with the hand of the Colossus of Constantine in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome, 1960 (detail). Photo by Virginia Dortch. © 2023 The Estate of Virginia Dortch Dorazio / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

“Today, the amenities of Piazza del Popolo include, besides the parking lots within the hemicycles, the writers’ and artists’ café hard by Via Ripetta; and a second café off Via Babuino, where movie and television people gather.”

 

—Milton Gendel, photographer and critic, 1963

A photograph by Milton Gendel, titled "Piazza del Popolo," dated 1954

Milton Gendel, Piazza del Popolo, 1954 (detail)

Milton Gendel, Piazza del Popolo, 1954 (detail)

“I remember my first trips to Rome. Cultural exchanges and discussions took place around Piazza del Popolo, where cafe Rosati had a central role as a meeting point of art world protagonists’”

—Germano Celant, 1993

Installation view from the exhibition "Roma/New York," at David Zwirner, in New York, dated 2023

Installation view, Roma/New York, 1953–1964, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

Installation view, Roma/New York, 1953–1964, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

In 1949, the Museum of Modern Art in New York presented Twentieth Century Italian Art—a major survey that included work by younger artists active at the time, such as Afro. “The museum is looking forward with special interest to reviewing the work of these new artists who,” the press release stated, “during and since the war, have aroused so much interest in this country.”

An installation view of an exhibition titled "Twentieth Century Italian Art," at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, dated 1949

Installation view, Twentieth Century Italian Art, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1949

Installation view, Twentieth Century Italian Art, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1949

An installation view of an exhibition titled "Twentieth Century Italian Art," at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, dated 1949

Installation view, Twentieth Century Italian Art, featuring, at far left, Afro’s Trophy, 1948, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1949

Installation view, Twentieth Century Italian Art, featuring, at far left, Afro’s Trophy, 1948, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1949

Against the backdrop of New York’s emergence as an international art capital and Italy’s postwar economic boom and cultural revival after fascism, Informale and abstract painters working and exhibiting in Rome began to be regularly featured in solo exhibitions in New York galleries—like Eleanor Ward’s Stable Gallery, and Catherine Viviano’s and Leo Castelli’s eponymous spaces. At the same time, several New York-based artists traveled to Italy and exhibited at notable venues in Rome, most especially Irene Brin’s and Gaspero del Corso’s Galleria dell’Obelisco and Plinio De Martiis’s Galleria La Tartaruga.

A photo of Galleria dell’Obelisco (left); an exhibition leaflet for Joie de vivre, at L’Obelisco in Rome, dated 1954 (right)

Galleria dell’Obelisco (left); Exhibition leaflet for Joie de vivre, L’Obelisco, Rome, 1954, showing exhibitions organized abroad by L’Obelisco in 1952–1954 (right)

Galleria dell’Obelisco (left); Exhibition leaflet for Joie de vivre, L’Obelisco, Rome, 1954, showing exhibitions organized abroad by L’Obelisco in 1952–1954 (right)

a photo ofEleanor Ward at the Stable Gallery, New York, 1954 (left); Bulletin for Galería La Tartaruga, March 1956. (right)

Eleanor Ward at the Stable Gallery, New York, 1954 (left); Bulletin for Galería La Tartaruga, March 1956. Image © Finarte (right)

Eleanor Ward at the Stable Gallery, New York, 1954 (left); Bulletin for Galería La Tartaruga, March 1956. Image © Finarte (right)

Invitation flyer for Piero Dorazio, Galleria La Tartaruga, Rome, opened January 24, 1957. (left); Galleria La Tartaruga exhibition invitation, 1961 (right)

Invitation for Piero Dorazio, Galleria La Tartaruga, Rome, opened January 24, 1957. Courtesy Archivio Piero Dorazio, Milan (left); Galleria La Tartaruga exhibition invitation, 1961 (right)

Invitation for Piero Dorazio, Galleria La Tartaruga, Rome, opened January 24, 1957. Courtesy Archivio Piero Dorazio, Milan (left); Galleria La Tartaruga exhibition invitation, 1961 (right)

A central protagonist of postwar abstraction, Alberto Burri (1915–1995) is celebrated for his innovative and pioneering use of unconventional media and processes to expand notions of painting. Informed by his experience as a prisoner of war in Texas in the 1940s and his later connection to America as a teacher in Los Angeles in the late 1970s, Burri created a materials-based art that engaged and transformed humble, everyday substances. A profoundly significant antecedent to the arte povera movement, his work also influenced that of artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, who famously visited Burri’s studio in Rome in 1953 with Cy Twombly.

A painting by Alberto Burri, titled Sacco e oro, dated 1953.

Alberto Burri

Sacco e oro, 1953
Oil, burlap, and gold leaf on burlap
34 x 39 3/4 inches (86.4 x 101 cm)
Framed: 34 3/4 x 40 1/2 inches (88.3 x 102.9 cm)

Sacco e oro (1953) is a powerful example of the Sacchi (Sacks) works for which Burri is best known. Highly textured, this work demonstrates the alchemical qualities of both natural and industrial materials—including burlap, wood, resin, zinc oxide, tar, pumice, kaolin, and plastic—to which Burri frequently applied techniques such as sewing, burning, or melting to alter their properties or appearance.

An installation view of an exhibition titled, Alberto Burri: The Trauma of Painting, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 2015.

Installation view, Alberto Burri: The Trauma of Painting, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2015

Installation view, Alberto Burri: The Trauma of Painting, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2015

Installation view of "Room VIII, Palazzo Albizzini," at the Burri Foundation in Città di Castello, Italy
Room VIII, Palazzo Albizzini, at the Burri Foundation in Città di Castello, Italy
Room VIII, Palazzo Albizzini, at the Burri Foundation in Città di Castello, Italy
“I see beauty and that is all. And beauty is beauty and that is all, whether it is a beautiful sacco or whether it is a beautiful legno, ferro or anything else … I am sure that every picture that I make, whatever the material, is perfect as far as I am concerned. Perfect in form and space.”

 

—Alberto Burri

A detail of a work by Alberto Burri, titled "Sacco e oro," dated 1953

Alberto Burri, Sacco e oro, 1953 (detail)

Alberto Burri, Sacco e oro, 1953 (detail)

“Burri uses a sack as a degraded, devalued material, a nothing that becomes an everything.… He removes it from its poor, ephemeral condition and makes it express a culture, Italian culture.… Ultimately, Burri still believes in the protagonism and psychism of things, he sees material as a personage, a mirror of human existence.… At the opposite pole, Rauschenberg gives voice to the reject of information, the newspaper.… In contrast with Burri, Rauschenberg’s materials were meant to abolish the protagonism of the person and to become the mirror of the commodification of the human being.”

 

—Germano Celant, 1993

An installation view from the exhibition "Roma/New York," at David Zwirner, in New York, dated 2023.

Installation view, Roma/New York, 1953–1964, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

Installation view, Roma/New York, 1953–1964, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

A painting by Robert Rauschenberg, called Untitled (Gold Painting), circa 1953.

Robert Rauschenberg

Untitled (Gold Painting), c. 1953
Gold and silver leaf on fabric, newspaper, paint, wood, paper, glue, and nails on wood in artist's frame
10 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches (26.7 x 29.2 cm)
Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, New York

Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly had met in 1951 at the Art Students League of New York. In August 1952, the two traveled by steamer to Italy and settled first in Rome, where their experiences influenced their work throughout the early 1950s. Both artists also exhibited at notable venues in Rome, including at Galleria La Tartaruga.

Part of a series sometimes referred to as Elemental Paintings, Rauschenberg’s Gold Paintings were begun in 1953 at the artist’s Fulton Street studio in New York. These small but striking works were created using gold leaf applied to textured grounds of newsprint, paper, and wood.

A photo by Robert Rauschenberg, titled "Bob + Cy," in Venice dated 1952

Robert Rauschenberg, Bob + Cy, Venice, 1952 (detail)

Robert Rauschenberg, Bob + Cy, Venice, 1952 (detail)

An exhibition invitation for Robert Rauschenberg at Galleria La Tartaruga, dated 1959

Exhibition invitation, Robert Rauschenberg, Galleria La Tartaruga, 1959

Exhibition invitation, Robert Rauschenberg, Galleria La Tartaruga, 1959

“I remember a meeting with Dorazio the painter in central Rome in 1954–1955. He said: ‘I saw an exhibition of Rauschenberg that I initially mistook for a show by you in New York!’”

—Alberto Burri

An installation view from the exhibition "Roma/New York," at David Zwirner, in New York, dated 2023.

Installation view, Roma/New York, 1953–1964, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

Installation view, Roma/New York, 1953–1964, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

Taken shortly after Rauschenberg and Twombly arrived in Rome, Cy + Roman Steps (I–V) (1952) is a sequence of five photographs Rauschenberg took of Twombly descending the marble steps of the Basilica di Santa Maria in Aracoeli.

A photograph by Robert Rauschenberg, titled Cy + Roman Steps (I–V), dated 1952.

Robert Rauschenberg

Cy + Roman Steps (I–V), 1952
Gelatin silver print in five (5) parts
Image, each: 14 7/8 x 14 7/8 inches (37.8 x 37.8 cm)
Sheet, each: 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
Framed, each: 24 1/4 x 24 1/4 inches (61.6 x 61.6 cm)
Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, New York
A work on paper by Cy Twombly, titled Sperlonga drawing, dated 1959.

Cy Twombly

Sperlonga drawing, 1959
Oil-based house paint, pencil, and wax crayon on paper
27 1/2 x 39 3/8 inches (69.9 x 100 cm)
Framed: 39 7/8 x 51 1/2 inches (101.3 x 130.8 cm)
Martin Z. Margulies, Miami

American artist Cy Twombly (1928–2011) combined elements of gestural abstraction, mark-making, and writing in a singular body of work that seems to fall between painting and drawing. In 1957, Twombly relocated to Rome, bringing about a clean slate both personally and aesthetically. There, he drew newfound inspiration from Greek and Roman mythology, as well as ancient Mediterranean history and geography. In addition to his large-scale works on canvas, Twombly prodigiously created works on paper throughout his career. Sperlonga Drawing, for example, was made in the summer of 1959 in Sperlonga, a small fishing village on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Rome and Naples where Twombly was renting an apartment with his pregnant wife.

A photo of Cy Twombly in Rome, dated 1959

Cy Twombly, Rome, 1959 (detail)

Cy Twombly, Rome, 1959 (detail)

An exhibition invitation for Cy Twombly at Galleria La Tartaruga, dated 1960

Exhibition invitation, Cy Twombly, Galleria La Tartaruga, 1960

Exhibition invitation, Cy Twombly, Galleria La Tartaruga, 1960

The pristine village and the sea were a major source of inspiration for the artist, who had been fascinated by the sea since he was a young child. It was here that Twombly composed Poems to the Sea (1959), a suite of twenty-four drawings that were inspired by his seaside surroundings as well as his interest in the poetry of Stéphane Mallarmé. Twombly also spent the summer of 1963 in Sperlonga.

An untitled mixed media painting by Cy Twombly, dated 1960.

Cy Twombly

Sperlonga collage, 1959
Paper collage, house paint, and glue on paper
33 1/2 x 24 inches (85.1 x 61 cm)
Framed: 39 7/8 x 30 1/8 inches (101.3 x 76.5 cm)
Kravis Collection
“Fascism, in so far as it relates to Italian artistic and cultural life, assumed to some extent the function of a weight bending and holding a spring in tension. This tension lasted for twenty years, imposing upon Italian artists and intellectuals, if not silence … [then] outrageous reticence and conformity. Fascism ultimately toppled, and the spring flew up.”

 

—Alberto Moravia, writer, in a text for the catalog accompanying Twenty Imaginary Views of the American Scene by Twenty Young Italian Artists, Galleria dell’Obelisco, 1953

A painting by Toti Scialoja, titled Ininterrotto, dated 1958.

Toti Scialoja

Ininterrotto, 1958
Sand, vinavil, and hemp on canvas
44 3/4 x 57 1/4 inches (113.7 x 145.4 cm)
Framed: 46 5/8 x 59 inches (118.4 x 149.9 cm)
A photo of Forma 1 artists Pietro Consagra, Mino Guerrini, Ugo Attardi, Carla Accardi, Achille Perilli, Antonio Sanfilippo, Giulio Turcato, and Piero Dorazio (sitting below), dated 1947

Forma 1 artists: Pietro Consagra, Mino Guerrini, Ugo Attardi, Carla Accardi, Achille Perilli, Antonio Sanfilippo, Giulio Turcato, and Piero Dorazio (sitting below), 1947

Forma 1 artists: Pietro Consagra, Mino Guerrini, Ugo Attardi, Carla Accardi, Achille Perilli, Antonio Sanfilippo, Giulio Turcato, and Piero Dorazio (sitting below), 1947

Best known for her calligraphic abstractions, Carla Accardi (1924–2014) co-founded the influential postwar artist group Forma 1 (Form 1, 1947–1951) with fellow artists Pietro Consagra, Piero Dorazio, Mino Guerrini, Achille Perilli, Antonio Sanfilippo, and Giulio Turcato. The group’s manifesto aimed to reconcile Marxist politics with abstract art.

A painting by Carla Accardi, titled Integrazione n. 7, dated 1957.

Carla Accardi

Integrazione n. 7, 1957
Casein on canvas
40 1/2 x 82 1/4 inches (102.9 x 209 cm)
“The need to bring Italian art up to the level of contemporary European trends forces us to take a clear stance against stupid and narrow-minded nationalist aspirations of any kind and against the useless, gossipy province that is Italian culture today.”

 

—Forma 1’s “Formalist Manifesto,” published in a single issue of Forma magazine, March 1947

A painting by Carla Accardi, titled Negativo n. 8, dated 1955.

Carla Accardi

Negativo n. 8, 1955
Casein on canvas
46 3/4 x 33 1/4 inches (118.8 x 84.5 cm)
Framed: 47 1/2 x 34 1/4 inches (120.7 x 87 cm)
Olnick Spanu Collection, New York
A painting by Carla Accardi, titled Integrazione n. 9, dated 1958.

Carla Accardi

Integrazione n. 9, 1958
Casein on canvas
51 3/8 x 57 3/8 inches (130.5 x 145.7 cm)
Framed: 52 x 57 5/8 inches (132.1 x 146.4 cm)
“Once we printed and published Forma Uno and presented a group exhibition, we generated a lot of interest in Rome. We were the first group after the war.… First and foremost, I wanted to be a contemporary artist, I wanted to find out what ‘contemporary’ meant.… When I made these black-and-white paintings, I used to begin with a drawing. I would make temperas on paper from which, slowly, there would evolve a world of signs, structures, and integrations.”

 

—Carla Accardi in conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist, 2016

An untitled mixed media work on paper by Jannis Kounellis, dated 1960.

Jannis Kounellis

Untitled, 1960
Mixed media on paper on canvas
60 3/4 x 73 1/4 inches (154.3 x 186.1 cm)
Framed: 63 x 75 1/2 inches (160 x 191.8 cm)
Martin Z. Margulies, Miami
Installation view the exhibition "Roma/New York, 1953–1964,"  at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2023

Installation view, Roma/New York, 1953–1964, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

Installation view, Roma/New York, 1953–1964, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

A painting by Franz Kline, titled Charcoal Black and Tan, dated 1959.

Franz Kline

Charcoal Black and Tan, 1959
Oil on canvas
112 x 82 1/2 inches (284.5 x 209.6 cm)
Framed: 114 3/4 x 84 7/8 inches (291.5 x 215.6 cm)
Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection / New York State Office of General Services
A photo of Piero Dorazio (right) visiting Franz Kline (left) in his West 14th Street studio, New York, 1960.

Piero Dorazio (right) visiting Franz Kline (left) in his West 14th Street studio, New York, 1960 (detail). Photo by Virginia Dortch. © 2023 The Estate of Virginia Dortch Dorazio / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Piero Dorazio (right) visiting Franz Kline (left) in his West 14th Street studio, New York, 1960 (detail). Photo by Virginia Dortch. © 2023 The Estate of Virginia Dortch Dorazio / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

American-born Conrad Marca-Relli (born Corrado Marcarelli; 1913–2000), is associated with the New York School of abstract expressionist artists during the 1950s. The large-scale works he created throughout his career invariably combine oil painting with collage elements, featuring strong colors and textured surfaces which sometimes include metal and vinyl material. A restless traveler, Marca-Relli often traveled to Europe as a child with his ather and was given his first art lessons in Italy. Visits to Rome and Paris in 1947 resulted in the artist’s first important works, which were shown in his first solo exhibition in New York that year. Marca-Relli served as a key ambassador between both communities, introducing various Rome and New York-based dealers and artists to one another and helping establish many of the relationships that would persist throughout this period.

Installation view of Marca-Relli works at the show "Roma/New York, 1953–1964,"  at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2023

Installation view, Roma/New York, 1953–1964, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

Installation view, Roma/New York, 1953–1964, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

Part of a series of works made in painted vinyl collage, Cristobal (1962) is inspired by the structure and textures of cargo ships, so much so that the artist has referred to the work as “the side of a freighter.” The titles of these works, which also refer to shipping and the naval world, reflect Marca-Relli’s itinerant life. The title of the present work may reference the Spanish cruiser Cristóbal Colón, which sank in 1898. Cristóbal Colón is also the name used to refer to Christopher Columbus in the Spanish language.

A detail from a photo of the artist Conrad Marca-Relli in 1960.

Conrad Marca-Relli, 1960 (detail). © Peter A. Juley & Son Collection, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Conrad Marca-Relli, 1960 (detail). © Peter A. Juley & Son Collection, Smithsonian American Art Museum

A painting by Conrad Marca-Relli, titled Cristobal, dated 1962.

Conrad Marca-Relli

Cristobal, 1962
Painted vinyl collage
74 3/4 x 64 inches (189.9 x 162.6 cm)
Framed: 75 1/4 x 64 1/2 inches (191.1 x 163.8 cm)

In 1967, Marca-Relli was given an acclaimed retrospective at The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Reviewing the show in The New York Times, John Canaday observed the sobering and increasing subtlety of the artist’s style since 1959, describing “His success in bringing relentlessly energetic forms into static position without deadening them, his strong echoes of classical architecture as filtered through the Italian Renaissance, and his increasing interest in high polish.… The combination of sculpture and painting does a great deal to make this show as beautiful as it is.”

A work by Conrad Marca-Relli titled "Cunard L-8-62," dated 1962

Conrad Marca-Relli, Cunard L-8-62, 1962

Conrad Marca-Relli, Cunard L-8-62, 1962

An exhibition poster for Conrad Marca-Relli’s retrospective at The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, dated 1967

Exhibition poster for Conrad Marca-Relli’s retrospective at The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1967

Exhibition poster for Conrad Marca-Relli’s retrospective at The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1967

“Conrad Marca-Relli’s achievement has long been to raise collage to a scale and complexity equal to that of monumental painting.… He has been identified with the second generation of abstract expressionists, yet while employing directness and boldness of the New York School, he has equally espoused traditional values of European painting—polish, elegance and finish—which have been almost universally rejected by other members of his generation.”

 

—William C. Agee, art historian, 2016

A painting by Conrad Marca-Relli, called Untitled, dated 1967.

Conrad Marca-Relli

Untitled, 1967
Collage and mixed media on canvas
18 1/8 x 13 5/8 inches (46 x 34.6 cm)
Framed: 19 x 14 3/8 inches (48.3 x 36.5 cm)
A work by Conrad Marca-Relli, titled "Death of Jackson Pollock," dated 1956.

Conrad Marca-Relli, Death of Jackson Pollock, 1956. Courtesy Archivo Marca-Relli, Parma. Marca-Relli was close friends with Jackson Pollock, who also lived nearby in East Hampton, NY. It has been written that in the artist’s painting Death of Jackson Pollock, a horizontal band of forms represents Pollock’s body following his death in a car crash in 1956.

Conrad Marca-Relli, Death of Jackson Pollock, 1956. Courtesy Archivo Marca-Relli, Parma. Marca-Relli was close friends with Jackson Pollock, who also lived nearby in East Hampton, NY. It has been written that in the artist’s painting Death of Jackson Pollock, a horizontal band of forms represents Pollock’s body following his death in a car crash in 1956.

One of the leading figures in postwar Italian art, Afro Basaldella (1912–1976), known as Afro, developed international acclaim for his innovative style of abstraction marked by an effortless spontaneity. Featuring bold palettes and jubilant gestures, his paintings deftly synthesize tenets of neo-cubism and Art Informel. Following the inclusion of his work in the influential 1949 exhibition Twentieth-Century Italian Art at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Afro arrived in New York City in 1950 and found runaway success in the United States through a number of prominent traveling museum exhibitions that introduced Italian avant-garde painting to audiences across the country.

A painting by Afro, titled La persiana 2, dated 1954.

Afro

La persiana 2, 1954
Oil and mixed media on canvas
31 3/8 x 47 1/8 inches (79.7 x 119.7 cm)
Framed: 41 x 56 3/4 inches (104.1 x 144.2 cm)

“Whether in Italy, Europe or the United States, it was the melancholy beauty of Afro’s paintings whose origins could be traced to 16th Century Italian painters, and had also absorbed a number of modern European tendencies, that imbued his work with resonances that defied nationalities and borders alike.”

 

—Edith Devaney, curator, 2021

A photo of Afro Basaldella in his studio, dated 1963

Afro Basaldella in his studio, 1963

Afro Basaldella in his studio, 1963

A work on paper by Willem de Kooning, called Untitled, dated 1959.

Willem de Kooning

Untitled, 1959
Ink on paper
39 1/4 x 27 1/2 inches (99.7 x 69.8 cm)
Framed: 43 1/2 x 31 3/4 inches (110.5 x 80.7 cm)
The Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation, New York

A pivotal member of the abstract expressionist movement that emerged from the New York School of painters, Dutch-born artist Willem de Kooning (1904–1997) is best known for his large-scale canvases that are at once boldly gestural and formally cohesive.

Untitled is a prime example of the work de Kooning made while living in Rome in 1959. The starkly contrasting use of black and the frenetic brushstrokes evoke the grittiness of Roman streets as well as the aged surfaces of ancient marbles. At the time De Kooning made this work, he and the sculptor Chaim Gross worked in nearby studios in Rome (de Kooning, in fact, was working in Afro’s studio), and this was one of the works that De Kooning gave to Gross as part of their fruitful artistic engagement with one another. 

A photo of Willem de Kooning (left) and Afro (right) at de Kooning’s goodbye dinner at the Ristorante Re Degli Amici, Rome, 1960.

Willem de Kooning (left) and Afro (right) at de Kooning’s goodbye dinner at the Ristorante Re Degli Amici, Rome, 1960 (detail). Photo by Virginia Dortch. © 2023 The Estate of Virginia Dortch Dorazio / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Willem de Kooning (left) and Afro (right) at de Kooning’s goodbye dinner at the Ristorante Re Degli Amici, Rome, 1960 (detail). Photo by Virginia Dortch. © 2023 The Estate of Virginia Dortch Dorazio / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

A painting by Piero Dorazio, titled Totale: giallo, dated 1963.

Piero Dorazio

Totale: giallo, 1963
Oil on canvas
73 5/8 x 51 1/8 inches (187 x 130 cm)
Framed: 74 5/8 x 52 3/8 inches (189.6 x 133 cm)

Initially trained in architecture, Piero Dorazio (1927–2005) became one of the most significant figures in postwar Italian art. In 1947, Dorazio, along with Carla Accardi, Giuseppe Turcato, Achille Perilli, and others, founded the aforementioned short-lived but influential group Forma 1, which championed the transformative potential of abstract art over the predominant style of social realism.

A photo of Pierro Dorazio, dated 1965.

Pierro Dorazio, 1965 (detail). Photo by Vicenzo Pirozzi

Pierro Dorazio, 1965 (detail). Photo by Vicenzo Pirozzi

By 1963, when the present work was made, Dorazio's approach had evolved from his earlier artmaking processes. Rather than the tightly woven, nearly impenetrable grids that he developed from the mid-1950s through the early 1960s, Dorazio here applies polychromatic bands of pigment across the surface in a looser configuration. These broader strokes place a further emphasis on transparency within the work, as each band of color shifts in tonality as it interweaves with others like translucent strips of film across the canvas’s expanse.

A detail from a work by Piero Dorazio, titled Totale: giallo, dated 1963.

Piero Dorazio, Totale: giallo, 1963 (detail)

Piero Dorazio, Totale: giallo, 1963 (detail)

In 1965, a grid painting by Dorazio was included in the historic exhibition The Responsive Eye, at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, which featured artists invested in exploring the optical effects of perception in contemporary art, or what came to be known as op art.

Installation view of "The Responsive Eye," at Museum of Modern Art in New York, dated 1965. Dorazio’s painting titled "Construction Eurasia," dated 1964, is visible at far left.

Installation view, The Responsive Eye, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1965. Dorazio’s painting Construction Eurasia, 1964, is visible at far left.

Installation view, The Responsive Eye, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1965. Dorazio’s painting Construction Eurasia, 1964, is visible at far left.

An installation view from the exhibition "Roma/New York," at David Zwirner, in New York, dated 2023.

Installation view, Roma/New York, 1953–1964, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

Installation view, Roma/New York, 1953–1964, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

A painting by Piero Dorazio, titled Vedere oltre, dated 1962.

Piero Dorazio

Vedere oltre, 1962
Oil on canvas
77 1/4 x 58 1/4 inches (196.2 x 148 cm)
Framed: 78 7/8 x 59 7/8 inches (200.3 x 152.1 cm)
“Throughout the world, the new period was beneficial for international commerce, which pulled the major industrial nations toward an exceptional development. A booming Italy went along with the new prosperity, the explosion of consumer goods.… Cars, gadgets, furnishings, household appliances, advertising, television gradually occupied the everyday world of Italian culture.… In 1960, both [Mario] Schifano and [Jannis] Kounellis began their painterly oeuvre by identifying systems of elementary signs as well as letters of the alphabet and street signs. They revealed … a non-sense symptomatic of a fragmentary and shattered culture—that of the media and industry.”

 

—Germano Celant, 1993

A painting by Mario Schifano, titled Particolare di propaganda, dated 1964.

Mario Schifano

Particolare di propaganda, 1964
Enamel, oil, and graphite on canvas in two (2) parts
55 1/2 x 71 inches (141 x 180.3 cm)
Framed: 57 1/4 x 72 5/8 inches (145.4 x 184.5 cm)

Sometimes referred to as “Italy’s Andy Warhol,” Mario Schifano’s (1934–1998) work marks a transitional moment from the post-war period to the new figuration of the 1960s. A radical avant-garde figure, Schifano was one of the few European artists to have been included in the landmark New Realists exhibition at Sidney Janis Gallery in 1962, alongside Yves Klein, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein.

A photo of Mario Schifano in his studio

Mario Schifano in his studio, n.d. Courtesy of Mario Schifano Online Archive

Mario Schifano in his studio, n.d. Courtesy of Mario Schifano Online Archive

A photo of Mario Schifano in New York, dated 1963

Mario Schifano, New York, 1963

Mario Schifano, New York, 1963

A detail from a painting by Mario Schifano, Particolare di propaganda, dated 1964.

Mario Schifano, Particolare di propaganda, 1964 (detail)

Mario Schifano, Particolare di propaganda, 1964 (detail)

A detail from a painting by Mario Schifano, Particolare di propaganda, dated 1964.

Mario Schifano, Particolare di propaganda, 1964 (detail)

Mario Schifano, Particolare di propaganda, 1964 (detail)

Featuring Schifano’s signature incorporation of text and visual fragments from logos and advertisements, Particolare di propaganda (1964) reflects the emergence in Rome of a distinct aesthetic informed, in part, by new realism, neo-dada, and avant-garde and experimental cinema in the early 1960s. This second wave of Rome-based artists—which also included Franco Angeli, Tano Festa, Giosetta Fioroni, Jannis Kounellis, and Mimmo Rotella—incorporated the language of urban signs and the richly layered physical quality of the structures and walls of Rome into their compositions, further inflecting them with dispassionate and mediated invocations of American consumerist iconography—in this case, Coca-Cola.

A painting by Mario Schifano, titled Da capo, dated 1961.

Mario Schifano

Da capo, 1961
Enamel on paper on canvas
47 1/4 x 47 1/4 inches (120 x 120 cm)
“Schifano sensed that painting should be seen with a contemporary eye and, after its aura is removed, needs to be hurled into the indistinct flow of words, sounds, and images—what constituted the very lifeblood of post-war culture.”

 

—Luca Beatrice, critic and curator


A painting by Mario Schifano, titled No. 2 dagli Archivi del Futurismo, dated 1965.

Mario Schifano

No. 2 dagli Archivi del Futurismo, 1965
Enamel and graphite on canvas
63 1/8 x 45 1/4 inches (160.3 x 114.9 cm)
Framed: 64 7/8 x 47 inches (164.8 x 119.4 cm)
Installation view the exhibition "Roma/New York, 1953–1964,"  at David Zwirner in New York, dated 2023

Installation view, Roma/New York, 1953–1964, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

Installation view, Roma/New York, 1953–1964, David Zwirner, New York, 2023

A painting by Franco Angeli, titled United States of America, dated 1965.

Franco Angeli

United States of America, 1965
Mixed media and tulle on canvas
80 x 27 5/8 inches (203.2 x 70.2 cm)

Born in Rome in 1932 into a family of artists, Giosetta Fioroni was the only female artist to be part of the Piazza del Popolo School, which also included Mario Schifano. 

La ragazza sovietica (1968) dates from the artist’s “silver period” which began in the early 1960s. Featuring depictions of female faces and figures, these works are rendered in aluminum enamel and graphite, set within ample fields of white. 

A photo of Giosetta Fioroni, dated 1965

Giosetta Fioroni with the work Fascino, Galleria del Cavallino, Venice, 1965

Giosetta Fioroni with the work Fascino, Galleria del Cavallino, Venice, 1965

A pencil and enamel on canvas painting by Giosetta Fioroni, titled Liberty, dated 1964.

Giosetta Fioroni

Liberty, 1964
Pencil and enamel on canvas
57 5/8 x 45 1/8 inches (146.5 x 114.5 cm)
“To see Fioroni's work of the 1960s, especially the paintings in aluminium enamel for which she is best known, is to be confronted with questions of gendered looking: what is it to be a woman in front of the camera, and what is Fioroni doing when she reproduces these images herself? The women in these paintings are lifted from film posters, fashion magazines, Renaissance paintings and newspaper photographs. Hers is a world produced by lenses: in the capture of images by the film camera, fashion shoot or photojournalist and in the projector she used to transfer those images to canvas.”

 

—Anna Dumont, art historian, 2021

A drawing by Giosetta Fioroni, titled Ragazza sovietica, dated 1969.

Giosetta Fioroni

Ragazza sovietica, 1969
Pencil and enamel on paper on canvas
70 1/2 x 55 1/4 inches (179.1 x 140.3 cm)
Framed: 71 3/4 x 56 3/8 inches (182.3 x 143.2 cm)
A painting by Tano Festa, titled Persiana verde n. 6, dated 1962.

Tano Festa

Persiana verde n. 6, 1962
Enamel on shutters on panel
66 7/8 x 39 3/8 inches (170 x 100 cm)

Inquire about works in Roma/New York, 1953–1964

    Read More Read Less

      Read More Read Less