Page 57 - Studio International - October 1966

and Scheggi, have certainly been influenced by Fontana;
and I am confident that these two trends are among the
most significant in recent Italian art. At the Biennale, for
instance, one could point to the roomful of lucid, austere
works by Castellani, the exhibits by Bonalumi and
Scheggi, and works like those of Grazia Varisco and
Getulio Alviani, each with its own precise physiognomy,
each asserting a distinct individuality even in the face of
comparable foreign works. Many films, too—for instance
those of Group T, of Anceschi, Colombo, Boriani, De
Veschi, Varisco—were in advance of similar experiments
by the Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel in Paris and by
others elsewhere.
But apart from these experiments in abstract art, with
their affinities with more mature artists such as Dorazio
and Turcato, there is a whole sector of artists which was
concerned with figurative experiments even before the
revival of figurative painting associated with Pop. Its
founder is Enrico Baj, an artist now widely known abroad
for his recreations of nineteenth-century figures (Generali,
Dame, etc.) —these almost always being done with the aid
of mixed collage, making use of 'period' fabrics, decora-
tions and objects. His art, though totally free from
traditional realism, has always had its own satirical and
comic iconography.
Simultaneously there sprang up groups of non- Lucio Del Pezzo
figurative painters, like the large group founded in Naples The signs 1965
by Persico, Del Pezzo, Biasi, Barisani, Bugli and others, Collage and montage
which combined the discoveries of 'new' painting with 39 3/8} x 31 7/8in.
local folk-lore motifs. Of the Neapolitan group the best- Project for an illuminated James Bond Plaque 1965
known, perhaps because of his long residence in Paris, is Bust in plexiglass (illuminatable)
47 1/4 x 31 7/8 in.
Lucio Del Pezzo, who uses three-dimensional elements,
almost always made by himself and then attached to the
picture, giving it the character of high-relief rather than
Mario Persico
Young player falling headlong painting proper. A characteristic is his stress on humour;
into the constellation No. 3 recently he presented a sort of 'puzzle' for grown-ups—a
1961
Oil and collage on canvas box containing the fragments of one of his pictures which
39 3/8 x 31 1/2 in. the spectator was invited to re-assemble as he pleased.