Through a detailed historic-critical framing, supported by an extensive anthology of his writings, “poetry” and criticism, this volume offers the first “reasoned” cataloguing of the paintings of one of the protagonists of European art in the second half of the 20th century, Mattia Moreni (1920–1999), reconstructing the various moments of his work that, for over half a century, never lost confidence in the communicative possibilities of painting as a “means”, in a style of powerful iconic impressiveness.
From his earliest experiences amidst post-cubism and “mechanistic” abstraction to the centrality of his great “informal” season, and beyond, from a vigorous “neo-expressionism” and provocative “self-portraits”, to an enthusiastic “regression of the species” (as physiological as it was imaginative), all the way up to his very full “comic-book” repertoire, of residual “humanoids” lying in wait. This is the documentation of a powerfully exciting imaginative adventure, a warning against a shared destiny – that still looms large – of a collective regressive genetic and mental mutation.
Contents
Introduction
Enrico Crispolti
Understanding and placing Moreni
Enrico Crispolti
Critique overview contribution
Davide Caroli
Catalogue raisonné of paintings
Entries by Poupy Prath Moreni and Silvia Loddo
in collaboration with Archivio Crispolti
Guide to the use of the catalogue and chapter introductions
Enrico Crispolti
1. Early studies and early expressionism
1934-1946
“Poetics” and critical texts
Carlo Mollino, Albino Galvano, Italo Calvino, Lalla Romano, Guido Seborga
2. Through post-cubism, and abstractionism
1946-1952
“Poetics” and critical texts
Attilio Rossi, Luigi Carluccio, Guido Ballo, Mario Ballocco, Augusto Morello
3. Reincarnation of signs. Informal art and beyond
1953-1964
“Poetics” and critical texts
Francesco Arcangeli, Michel Tapié, Alberto Martini, Mattia Moreni, Pierre Restany, Giuseppe Marchiori, Will Grohmann, Enrico Crispolti, Maurizio Calvesi
4. “Watermelons” and “Furs”
1964-1977
“Poetics” and critical texts
Francesco Arcangeli, Renato Barilli, Hans Platte, Enrico Crispolti, Dino Buzzati, Raffaele De Grada, Mattia Moreni, Pierre Restany
5. “Atrofiche” and “grandi Marilù”
1972-1994
“Poetics” and critical texts
Giulio Carlo Argan, Mattia Moreni, Renato Barilli, Enrico Crispolti, Claudio Spadoni
6. “Regression of the species”
1983-1995
“Poetics” and critical texts
Luisa Somaini, Mattia Moreni, Enrico Crispolti, Renato Barilli, Luciano Caramel, Manuela Crescentini, Daniela Palazzoli
7. “Self-portraits”
1985-1996
“Poetics” and critical texts
Emmanuel Daydé, Nicola Micieli, Mattia Moreni
8. “Humanoids”
1995-1999
“Poetics” and critical texts
Claudio Spadoni, Mattia Moreni, Amnon Barzel, Dario Trento, Luisa Somaini, Enrico Crispolti, Maurizio Calvesi, Klaus Wolbert, Renato Barilli
Bio-bibliography
compiled by Davide Caroli, Silvia Loddo and Archivio Crispolti
