Following the closure of its two recent exhibitions, Louise Bourgeois “The Fabric Drawings” – currently on show in London where it is attracting numerous visitors – and Emilio Vedova Scultore, which received considerable attention from the press and public acclaim, the Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova continues with its programme of events for the Magazzino del Sale, on the Zattere, with a further examination of Vedova’s work, in an exhibition entitled “Emilio Vedova 1961 & 1984”. This makes use once again of the exhibition system envisioned by Renzo Piano, whose project for the Magazzino was presented at the Italian Pavilion of this year’s Architecture Biennale in Venice.

The exhibition, which opens on 4th December 2010 and closes in April 2011, will display in parallel some works from the 1960s from the “Ciclo ‘61“ (1961) and “Ciclo ‘62“ (1963) series and two series of paintings from the 1980s from the “Scarabocchi dell’anima“, (1982) and Di umano ’84 -IV“ (1984) series for the purposes of comparison and increased effect. The first series will constitute a fixed presence in relation to the 16th-century structure of the building, while the other two will alternate within the architectural space, entering and leaving it at regular intervals.

The desired interpretation is to verify the continuity of a linguistic discourse Vedova ceaselessly maintained in every period of his research through the emotive and gestural interstices of his painting. A constant interplay of colours and gestures that established themselves on the bare canvas to enunciate the anguished awareness of a critical and political being. A further ever-changing and dazzling presentation resulting from the alternation of pictures before the public gaze which, dipping into the important visual heritage left by the artist, enables a further confirmation of his contribution to the history of modern and contemporary art.

Emilio Vedova

Born in 1919 in Venice into a family of artisans and workers, Emilio Vedova began working intensely as a self-taught artist in the 1930s, producing figures and architectural forms. In 1942, he joined the anti-novecento movement, “Corrente”. In 1946, in Milan, he was one of the signatories of the “Oltre Guernica” (”Beyond Guernica”) manifesto. In the same year, he was one of the founders in Venice of the “Nuova Secessione Italiana” (”New Italian Secession”) which later became the “Fronte Nuovo delle Arti” (”New Front for the Arts”). In 1948, he took part in his first Venice Biennale, an event that would often see him as one of its protagonists. In 1952, a personal room was dedicated to him, and in 1960 he received the Gran Premio for painting. In 1997, the Biennale awarded him its Leone d’Oro alla carriera (Golden lion for lifetime achievement).
It was at the start of the 1950s that he produced his famous cycles of works: “Scontro di situazioni”, “Ciclo della Protesta”, “Cicli della Natura”. In 1954, at the São Paulo Biennale, he won the Morganti Foundation prize, which enabled him to witness the difficult reality of the country, something that was to affect him considerably. He also received the Solomon R. Guggenheim Fondation Award for Italy (1956) and the Premio Internazionale “Lissone” (1958). After 1961, he worked on the “Plurimi”: first the Venetian ones and then the Berlinese ones, made in Berlin between 1963 and 1964, of which the seven “Absurdes Berliner Tagebuch ‘64” present at Documenta in Kassel in 1964, where he also exhibited in 1955, 1959 and 1982. From 1965 to 1967, he worked on “Spazio/Plurimo/Luce” for the EXPO of Montreal. In these years, he undertook an intense teaching activity in North American universities, and subsequently at the Sommerakademie in Salzburg and the Accademia in Venice.
His artistic career was marked by a constant search and innovative force. During the 1970s, he produced his “Plurimi Binari” from the “Lacerazione” and “Carnevali” cycles, and in the 1980s painted the large “teleri” cycles, followed by the “Dischi”, “Tondi”, “Oltre” and “…in continuum…”.
Among the many awards he received during his lifetime were the International Grand Prix at the Rijeka Drawing Biennale (1978) and the Grand Prix d’Honneur at the International Graphic Art Biennale of Ljubljana (1990). In 1993, from the Accademia dei Lincei he received the prestigious Premio “Antonio Feltrinelli” and in 2003, the Premio Nonino. In 2005, the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia conferred an honorary degree upon him. Among the most recent major personal exhibitions of his work were the large anthological show at the Castello di Rivoli in 1998 and, following his death in 2006, at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna di Roma and at the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin.

Exhibitions programme for 2010- 2011

Anselm Kiefer
Magazzino del Sale, May 2011 - November 2011
From May to November 2011, and in the wake of the closure of Emilio Vedova 1961 & 1984, an exhibition dedicated to Anselm Kiefer will follow. The artist returns to Venice 15 years after the impressive anthological exhibition dedicated to him at the Museo Correr in 1997. The exhibition, curated by Germano Celant, will consist of a layout designed specifically for the space in the Magazzino del Sale, offering references to the history of the location and to themes dear to the artist, shown through the use of enormous pictures, books and display cases referring to the myths of landscape and ancestral stories, ranging from the Old and New Testament to the Kabbalah.

Emilio Vedova “Continuum”
Studio Vedova, May 2011 - November 2011
Also from May to November 2011, and running in parallel with the special Anselm Kiefer project for the Magazzino del Sale at the Zattere, the Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova will present Emilio Vedova’s “Continuum” (1987), in the artist’s former studio at the Zattere (no. 50); this consists of a black and white cycle of works which, overlapping and interweaving, form vibrations of surface and form, colour and sign. Almost an accumulation of infinite layers forming a wall of musical scores in which the surface of one enters into a dialogue with its neighbour, hiding or underlining it, creating a sort of infinite and random depth. A materialization of the pictorial energy exceeding the limits of the painting to produce a continuous radiation which, as in Kiefer’s installation, extends to the intensity of the architecture.