New York’s Lévy Gorvy Gallery champions Vincenzo Agnetti in a solo exhibition for the Modern Italian Artist; it is the first in over twenty-five years.
As an innovative character of the Italian Avant-Garde movement, Vincenzo Agnetti assumed prominence as a member of the artist-run gallery and journal Azimut(h) from the 1950s through the 70s. The work which Agnetti produced navigated a thin line between socio-political comment, and poetic vision of indefatigable richness.
The show Territories, which opened on July 6, is a pseudo-roadmap of the artist’s development both artistically and philosophically. Fresh from its London exhibition this Spring, this show bewilders as much as it enchants with a bold and unabashed stenciled typography, its multi-media, and laser etched aphorisms that require a severe contemplation.
After the Future: The Postwar Italian Avant-Garde, is also on display which includes work that illuminates how the Milan-Turin axis became the epicenter for the incubation and generation of new stark international artistic conventions. Including work by Alighiero Boetti, Alberto Burri, Enrico Castellani, Jannis Kounellis, and several other prominent characters of the avant-garde, it provides a powerful open dialogue of a time that was so imperative to the development of new Italian art.
Territories explores the ruminations Agnetti’s philosophy of content integrated by form, material, and linguistic propositions, resulting in often mysterious abstractions that are nearly as impenetrable as rich theoretical investigations of esoteric thought. This influential body of work pushes the boundaries between what is art, and what is philosophy.
Truly a captivating show, but perhaps, for only the associated members bourgeoisie – and even then, possibly even too bourgie for most of them – save for maybe the most erudite and learned among them. I encourage all who are interested in impermeable riddles pertaining to society, culture and philosophy to attend this show. However, if happens to go over your head you can at least take solace in knowing that you are not the only one…
