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Modern Italian Art, Architecture, and Design: Macchiaioli through Arte Povera: A Three Part Course with Dr. Jennie Hirsh

Modern Italian Art, Architecture, and Design: Macchiaioli through Arte Povera: A Three Part Course with Dr. Jennie Hirsh


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Can't make this time? A video recording will be sent to all participants after each event.

This course examines the compelling yet somewhat overlooked topic of Italian modernism, tracing the ways in which different moments align with key moments in the history of this (relatively) young nation beginning with the Risorgimento (reunification) and moving up through the 1970s.  Beginning with the Macchiaioli, Divisionists, and practitioners of Stile Liberty, the course then considers the avant-garde work of figures like Medardo Rosso and Amadeo Modigliani along with that of the Futurists before turning to more classically inflected works by artists like Giorgio de Chirico, Mario Sironi, and Massimo Campigli. We will study smaller movements and labels, such as the Scuola metafisica, Novecento, and Scuola Romana that evolved between the first and third decades of the twentieth century. Finally, we will study different artists connected to the Arte Povera movement. Throughout the course, we will learn about important critics and curators, from Roberto Longhi to Germano Gelant, who shaped the history of art in Italy and beyond while also reviewing the history of the establishment of large-scale Italian  exhibitions, such as the Venice Biennale, Roman Quadriennale, and Milan Triennale.

Led by an expert on modern and contemporary art, architecture, and design, Dr. Jennie Hirsh, this Conversation will offer a closer look at the way in which Italian visual culture does and does not bear affinities with other forms of European modernism. Designed to inform curiosity as well as future travels, participants will come away with an increased knowledge of key figures and the lasting contributions of Italian painters, sculptors, architects, and even designers to art history.

Week One: From the Macchiaioli to Divisionism
This week will focus on Italian artists whose work emerges in tandem with the reunification of Italy beginning in 1860. Specifically, we will explore the work of the Macchiaioli artists such as Giovanni Fattori, Telemaco Signorini, and Silvestro Lega as well as key divisionists, such as Giovanni Segantini, Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, and Angelo Morbelli. In addition, we will consider how singular practitioners, such as Giovanni Boldini and especially Medardo Rosso, created trademark styles all their own. Finally, we will close with a look at examples of Stile Liberty (Italy's version of art nouveau).

Week Two: From Futurism to Fascism

This week we will look at the early twentieth-century Italian art, stretching from the launching of Futurism and the outbreak of World War I up through the interwar period and World War II. First, we will look at the paintings, sculptures, and architectural visions that reflect the manifestoes authored by various futurist figures under the tutelage of F. T. Marinetti, focusing on works of Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Gino Severini, Antonio Sant'Elia, and Benedetta Marinetti, amongst others. Next we will look at interwar artists whose work invokes references to either the classical or Etruscan past, zeroing in on Mario Sironi, Giorgio de Chirico, Massimo Campigli, Felice Casorati, and more.

Week Three: Postwar to Art Povera
This week will round out the course with an investigation of artists who shine in the postwar period. In addition to figures like Alberto Burri and Lucio Fontana, and , we will look carefully at the origins of the so-called Arte Povera movement whose name was coined by the late Italian curator Germano Celant as well as some of its key constituents, including Piero Manzoni, Giuseppe Penone, Marisa Merz, Mario Merz, and Michelangelo Pistoletto.

Jennie Hirsh (Ph.D., Bryn Mawr College) is a Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has held postdoctoral fellowships at Princeton and Columbia Universities, as well as pre-doctoral fellowships from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation, the U.S. Fulbright Commission, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and the Wolfsonian FIU. Hirsh has authored essays on artists including Giorgio de Chirico, Giorgio Morandi, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Yinka Shonibare, and Regina Silveira, and is co-editor, with Isabelle Wallace, of Contemporary Art and Classical Myth (Ashgate 2011).

How does it work?
This is a three-part series held weekly and hosted on Zoom. Please check the schedule for the specific dates and times for each lecture. 

When will I receive the Zoom link?
Your link to enter the Zoom room will be the same for all  sessions. It will be sent to the email address used to place your order 30 minutes prior to each lecture's start time.

Is there a reading list in advance?
Though the course is open to participants with no background on this topic, there are suggested readings for further investigation. These will be provided at the course's conclusion.

How long are the lectures?
Each lecture is 60 minutes long with time for Q&A.

How much is the course?
The course is $105 USD for three lectures.

Is a recording available?
Yes. All registered participants will be sent a recording link within 48 hours of each session's conclusion. It will be available to re-watch for 30 days after the course concludes.

This conversation is suitable for all ages.

90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.

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