living art and the art of living

274 Pages·2014·1.79 MB·English

LIVING ART AND THE ART OF LIVING:

REMAKING HOME IN ITALY IN THE 1960s

Teresa Kittler
PhD Thesis
History of Art
University College London
2014

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DECLARATION

I, Teresa Kittler, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where
information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been
indicated in the thesis.

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ABSTRACT

This thesis focuses on the social, material, and aesthetic engagement with the
image of home by artists in Italy in the 1960s to offer new perspectives on this
period that have not been accounted for in the literature. It considers the way in
which the shift toward environment, installation and process-based practices
mapped onto the domestic at a time when Italy had become synonymous with the
design of environments. Over four chapters I explore the idea of living-space as
the mise-en-scène, and conceptual framework, for a range of artists working
across Italy in ways that both anticipate and shift attention away from accounts
that foreground the radical architectural experiments enshrined in MoMA’s
landmark exhibition Italy: the New Domestic Landscape (1972).
I begin by examining the way in which the group of temporary homes made by
Carla Accardi between 1965 and 1972 combines the familiar utopian rhetoric of
alternative living with attempts to redefine artistic practice at this moment. I then
go on to look in turn at the sculptural practice of artists Marisa Merz and Piero
Gilardi in relation to the everyday lived experience of home. This question is
first considered in relation to the material and psychic challenges Merz poses to
the gendering of homemaking with Untitled (Living Sculpture) 1966. I then go
on to explore the home, as it might be understood in ecological terms, through an
examination of the polyurethane microhabitats made by Gilardi. These themes
are finally drawn together by looking at a radically different type of work, Carla
Lonzi’s book Autoritratto (1969). By examining the images interspersed
throughout Autoritratto I consider how this book plays out the lives of fourteen
prominent artists to create the semblance of an everyday shared lived experience.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration p.2

Abstract p.3

Table of Contents p.4

Acknowledgements p.5

List of Illustrations p.6

Introduction p.22

Chapter One
Living Differently Seeing Differently:
Carla Accardi’s Temporary Dwellings, 1965-1972 p.59

Chapter Two
Outgrowing the Kitchen:
Marisa Merz’s Untitled (Living Sculpture) (1966) p.118

Chapter Three
Home as Habitat: Piero Gilardi’s Nature Carpets (1967) p.161

Chapter Four
Picturing Home: Carla Lonzi’s Autoritratto (1969) p.199

Conclusion p.243

Bibliography p.251

Illustrations p.275

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the many individuals and organizations that have
contributed to my research. In the first instance, I am grateful to the AHRC for
generously providing the funds to complete this thesis and a travel grant for
research in Italy. I would like to thank the following archives and art institutions
for making their materials available: Fondazione Merz; Archivio Gilardi; Archivi
Centri Documentazione delle Donne, Rome: Archivio Galleria Civica D’Arte
Moderna, Turin: Fondo De Micheli, Milan; Galleria Nationale D’Arte Moderna,
Rome; Archivio Biblioteca, Fondazione Quadriennale di Roma; Tate Archives.

During the course of my research there have been many people whose assistance
and generosity have enriched the project immeasurably: I thank Mariano Boggia
at the Fondazione Merz; Piero Gilardi for his advice and expertise; Tonino De
Bernardi for his assistance; Alessandra Bonomi for welcoming me in Rome;
Tommaso Trini for his kindness, expertise and conversation; Luisa Mensi and
Ruben Levi for their support with my research on Carla Accardi; Mark Godfrey
for the wonderful experience of working on Alighiero Boetti’s Game Plan (2011)
and Jo Applin for her advice and for the opportunity to share the early stages of
my research on Marisa Merz.

My experience as a research student within the History of Art department at UCL
has been extremely rich and rewarding. I am grateful to the entire faculty.
Friends and colleagues at UCL and beyond have shaped this thesis through their
thoughtful insight, helpful suggestions and conversation: I thank Giulia Smith,
Stephanie Straine, Emilia Terracciano, Flavia Frigeri, Larne Abse-Gogarty,
Cadence Kinsey, Christoph Schuringa and Andrew Witt. To my dearest friends
Hermione and Natalia Calvocoressi and Chiara Marchini, I thank for their
support and encouragement.

Above all, I am most grateful to my supervisor, Briony Fer, for her generosity,
intelligence, and inspiration over the years. Without her, this thesis would not
have been what it is, and I owe her my deepest thanks.

Finally to my family, for their generosity and unswerving support, I thank my
parents Antonia and Josef Kittler and my siblings, Tony, Catherine, Josef and
Marie.

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Introduction

i Photograph of the installation: Gilardi, Piacentino, Pistoletto. Arte
Abitabile, Galleria Sperone, Turin, June-July 1966 © Gian Enzo
Sperone, Courtesy Sperone Westwater, New York

ii Nanni Longobardi with Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Quadro Da Pranzo
(Lunch Painting), 1965. Photograph: Mimmo Jodice, Modern Art
Agency, Naples, 1970. Reproduced in Walter Guadagnini, Storie
dell’Occhio/1 Fotografi ed Eventi Artistici in Italia dal ’60 all’80,
catalogue of the exhibition held at Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bolzano
(14 October–27 November 1988) (Bolzano, Edizioni Cooptip: 1988),
p.147.

iii Michelangelo Pistoletto, Donna seduta di spalle (Seated Woman from
Behind) in Pistoletto’s house on via Cibrario in Turin, 1963.
Photograph: Paolo Bressano. Courtesy Cittadellarte–Pistoletto
Foundation, Biella, Italy

iv La Casa Abitata, Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, 1965. Photograph of
Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, stanza da pranzo (dining room),
1965. Reproduced in Comune di Padova, Assessorato alla Cultura, La
Grande Svolta: Anni ’60 (Milan: Skira, 2003), p.33.

v Installation Photographs: Lo Spazio Dell’Immagine, Palazzo Trinci,
1967. Reproduced in Almanacco Letterario Bompiani, Dieci anni di
mode culturali, Bompiani, Milan, 1968, pp.156–163.

Chapter One:
Living Differently Seeing Differently: Carla Accardi’s Temporary Structures
1965–1972

1.1 From left: Carla Lonzi, Carla Accardi, Giulio Paolini and Luciano
Fabro and Luciano Pistoi in Alba, 1965. Photograph: Studio Accardi
Rome. Reproduced in Carla Accardi and Germano Celant, Carla
Accardi (Milan: Charta, 1999), p.332.
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1.2 From Left: Carla Accardi, Giulio Paolini and Luciano Fabro in Alba,
1965. Photograph: Studio Accardi Rome. Reproduced in Luca
Massimo Barbero (ed), Carla Accardi, Segno e Trasparenza (Milan:
Silvana Editoriale, 2011), p.22.

1.3 Carla Accardi, Tenda, 1965–1966. Paint on Sicofoil, 215 x 220 x
140cm. Private Collection, Turin

1.4 Carla Accardi, Ambiente Arancio, 1966–68 (Installation comprising
stretchers, mattress, sun visor, parasol, Rotolo). Paint on Sicofoil and
mixed media, 251 x 337 x 441 cm. Musée d’Art moderne et
contemporaine, Strasbourg. Reproduced in Luca Massimo Barbero
(ed), Carla Accardi, Segno e Trasparenza (Milan: Silvana Editoriale,
2011), p.39.

1.5 Carla Accardi, Triplice Tenda, 1969–1971. Paint on Sicofoil, 550 cm
(diameter). Photograph: Giorgio Colombo, Milan

1.6 Carla Accardi, Cilindrocono, 1972. Paint on Sicofoil mounted on
Perspex, 120 x 130 cm. Courtesy Studio Accardi, Rome. Reproduced
in Luca Massimo Barbero (ed), Carla Accardi, Segno e Trasparenza
(Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 2011), p.165.

1.7 Carla Accardi, Untitled (Maquettes), 1968 (now lost). Paint on
Sicofoil and wood, variable dimensions. Photograph from installation
at Galleria Marlborough, Rome. Reproduced in Corrado Levi, ‘Carla
Accardi’, Una Diversa Tradizion (Milan: Clup, 1985), p.151.

1.8 Carla Accardi, Untitled, 1970. Pencil on paper, unknown dimension.
Reproduced in Corrado Levi, ‘Carla Accardi’, Una Diversa Tradizion,
(Milan: Club, 1985) p.150.

1.9 Tendopolis, via Ripamonti, Milan, 1967. Press cutting. Reproduced in
Gianni De Martino, Capelloni & Ninfette: Mondo Beat, 1966–1967
(Milan: Costa & Nolan, 2008), pp. 223.

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1.10 Superstudio (Piero Frassinelli, Alessandro Magris, Roberto Magris,
Adolfo Natalini, Alessandro Poli, Cristiano Toraldo di Francia),
Environment project for Italy: New Domestic Landscape, 1972.
Reproduced in the catalogue to the exhibition, p.242.

1.11 Piero Gilardi, Igloo, 1964. Vinyl and Polyurethane, 200 x 200 x
120cm. Photograph: Marco Torello. Reproduced in Claudio Spadoni
(ed) Piero Gilardi, (Milan: Mazzotta, 1999) p.85.

1.12 Emilio Prini, Camping (Amsterdam), 1969. Installation photograph
from Op Losse Schroeven (Situations and Cryptostructures) held at
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 15 March–27 April 1969. Courtesy the
artist and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

1.13 Mario Merz, Igloo di Giap–Se il nemico si concentra perde terreno, se
si disperde perde forza (Giap’s Igloo–If the enemy masses his forces
he loses ground, if he scatters he loses strength), 1968. Metal tubing,
wire mesh, neon tubing, dirt in bags, batteries, accumulators, 120 x
200 x 200 cm. Collection Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée national
d’art moderne, Paris

1.14 Luciano Fabro, In Cubo, 1966. Wood, canvas, linking angle bars of
stainless steel, Velco, dimensions variable. Reproduced in Silvia Fabro
and Rudi Fuchs (eds.), Fabro (Milan: Electa, 2007) pp.199.

1.15a–b Carla Accardi, Tenda (detail single panel), 1965–1966. Paint on
Sicofoil, dimensions unknown. Private Collection, Turin. Courtesy
Ruben Levi and Luisa Mensi. Photograph: my own

1.16 Carla Accardi, Tenda, 1965–1966. Paint on Sicofoil, 215 x 220 x

140cm. Photograph of the work installed at Galleria Notizie, 21 May
1966. Private Collection, Turin

1.17 Carla Accardi, Tenda, 1965–1966. Paint on Sicofoil, 215 x 220 x
140cm. Private Collection, Turin. Reproduced in ‘Discorsi: Carla
Lonzi e Carla Accardi’ in Marcatrè, 23–25, June 1966, pp.193.

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1.18 Carla Accardi, Verde-argento, 1965. Paint on Perspex on canvas, 200
x 300 cm. Venice, Collection INAIL. Courtesy Studio Accardi, Rome

1.19 Carla Accardi, Rotoli, 1965–1990. Paint on Sicofoil, variable
dimensions. Courtesy Studio Accardi, Rome

1.20 Carla Accardi, 1966. Photograph of the artist’s studio in Via del
Babuino, Rome. Courtesy Studio Accardi, Rome

1.21 Carla Accardi, Rotoli, 1965–1967. Paint on Sicofoil, variable
dimensions. Photograph of the artist in Via del Babuino, Rome, 1967.
Courtesy Studio Accardi Rome

1.22 Carla Accardi, 1940. Photograph of the artist on the balcony of her
family home in Trapani. Reproduced in Carla Accardi and Claudio
Cerritelli, Carla Accardi: Opere 1947–1997 (Milan: Charta, 1998),
p.90.

1.23 Carla Accardi, Rotoli e Coni, 1965–66. Page from the catalogue of the
artist’s solo exhibition at the Notizie Gallery, Turin, 1966

1.24a–c Carla Accardi, Segni rosa, 1967. Paint on Sicofoil, 100 x 80cm. Rome,
Collection of the artist. Carla Accardi, Verde, 1966. Paint on Sicofoil
on canvas, 102 x 150cm. Rome, Collection the artist. Carla Accardi,
Segni arancio, 1966. Paint on Sicofoil, 47 x 68cm. Rome Collection
Giorgio Orfalian. Courtesy Studio Accardi, Rome

1.25 Carla Accardi, Biancoarancio, 1967. Paint on Sicofoil, 154 x 154cm.
Gibellina Museo Civico di Gibellina. Courtesy Studio Accardi, Rome

1.26a–c Alberto Burri, 1962. Photograph of the artist. Courtesy Ugo Mulas.
Reproduced in Walter Guadagnini, Storie dell’Occhio/1 Fotografi ed
Eventi Artistici in Italia dal ‘60 all ‘80, catalogue of the exhibition
held at Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bolzano (14 October–27 November
1988) (Bolzano, Edizioni Cooptip: 1988), pp.28–30.

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1.27 Carla Accardi, Triplice Tenda, 1969–1971. Paint on Sicofoil, 550 cm
diameter. Photograph of Accardi with Marta Lonzi taken in Rome
1970. Courtesy Studio Accardi, Rome

1.28 Carla Accardi, Triplice Tenda, 1969–1971 (Photograph of the work as
it was restored in 1994). Paint on Sicofoil mounted on Perspex, 260 x
200 cm. Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

1.29 Aspetti dell’Avanguardia in Italia (Giacomo Balla, Farfa, Osvaldo
Licini, Atanasio Soldati, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, Carla Accardi,
Piero Manzoni, Enrico Castellani, Getulio Alvian,i Giulio Paolini,
Luciano Fabro). Exhibition held at the GalleriaN otizie, 1966. Pages
from the exhibition catalogue. Reproduced in Luca Massimo Barbero
(ed), Torino Sperimentale 1959–1969 (Turin: Allemandi, 2010),
p.136.

1.30 Gruppo MID’s Progetto Tridimsionale dello Spazio (1967).
Fibreboard, stroboscopic light, spotlight with electric motor, variable
dimensions. Reproduced in Italo Tommasoni,L o Spazio
dell’Immagine e il suo tempo (Milan: Skira, 2009), pp.72–73.

1.31 Carla Accardi, Ambiente Arancio, 1966–68 (Installation comprising
stretchers, mattress, sun visor, parasol,R otolo). Paint on Sicofoil and
mixed media, 251 x 337 x 441 cm. Musée d’Art Moderne et
Contemporain, Strasbourg. Reproduced in Luca Massimo Barbero
(ed), Carla Accardi, Segno e Trasparenza( Milan: Silvana Editoriale,
2011), p.39.

1.32 Photograph of the artist in her studio in Rome, 1966. Reproduced in
Carla Accardi and Germano Celant,C arla Accardi (Milan: Charta,
1999), p.322.

1.33 Carla Accardi, Grande Transparente, 1975. Sicofoil on wooden frame,
160 x 160 cm. Courtesy Studio Accardi, Rome. Reproduced in Carla
Accardi and Germano Celant, Carla Accardi (Milan: Charta, 1999),
p.361.

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