Paper Media: Boetti, Calzolari, Kounellis

This August 28th Magazzino Italian Art Foundation presents Paper Media: Boetti, Calzolari, Kounellis at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art in New Paltz. This exhibition is the first in the United States to focus on paper works by artists related to the Arte Povera movement. It conveys the work of masters Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, and Jannis Kounellis carefully selected from the Olnick Spanu Collection.

The show considers the significance of drawing and print within each artist’s practice, as well as in Italian art and culture in the 1960s and 1970s more broadly. Curated by Magazzino’s inaugural Scholar-in-Residence, Francesco Guzetti, the exhibition represents the culmination of his research concerning the drawing practice of the Arte Povera movement.

The show brings together ten rarely seen works on paper from the Olnick Spanu Collection. As with many of the artists associated with Arte Povera, working with various drawing and printing techniques was fundamental to the practices of Boetti, Calzolari, and Kounellis. In a new development for the period, these artists regarded their works on paper as finished pieces rather than preparatory steps to create an artwork. From Calzolari’s alchemical experimentation with unconventional materials such as rose petals and salt to Kounellis’ iteration of a new alphabet of signs and images, works on view will speak to the artists’ embrace of formal and material experimentation and intensive questioning of what it meant to be an artist.

“We are so thrilled to collaborate with the Dorsky Museum to present this exhibition to both the SUNY New Paltz and Hudson Valley communities,” states Vittorio Calabrese, Director of Magazzino Italian Art Foundation. “A core mission of Magazzino since our founding has been to share Italian art and engage with the dynamic art world in this region. We could not be happier to work with the Dorsky Museum to exhibit these rare works, which share an intimate perspective into the greater practice of Arte Povera masters Boetti, Calzolari, and Kounellis.”

Cover images: Senza titolo (invito Stein), 1966-1967, Paper, camouflage fabric, Plexiglass, cork, P.V.C. pipe, Eternit (fiber cement), wire mesh, copper, aluminum, plywood, electrical wire.

All images courtesy of the Olnick Spanu Collection