Georg Baselitz and Emilio Vedova
It is with great pleasure that we announce the collaboration between the Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova and the Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac. Our first joint project will be a double exhibition combining a new series of works by Georg Baselitz with works from the 1980s by Emilio Vedova.
The Venetian painter Emilio Vedova (1919-2006) was one of the most prominent representatives of Italian informel. He first took part in the Venice Biennale in 1947, and devoted his whole life to the development of non-representational painting. Works by Vedova were shown at exhibitions including the legendary documenta exhibitions I, II and III (1955, 59 and 64) in Kassel. By the end of the 1950s, Vedova had become established in the international art scene as a classic of abstract painting.
From the beginning of the 1980s, Vedova became an important integrative figure for an up-and-coming generation of neo-expressive artists 鈥� as was demonstrated in 1982 by his renewed participation in documenta (7), as well as by many publications and solo exhibitions in the ensuing years.
"The central contrast between the two non-colours black and white is a decisive characteristic of Vedova's 艙uvre [...]. This polarisation, later often complemented by a further strong colour such as red or blue, complies with an inherent wish for clarity of expression, and prevents blurring into diverse nuances. Moreover, the black levels enhance the intensity of the overall effect, defining the formal orientation, which might otherwise easily be obscured by colour values" (Carla Schulz-Hoffmann, 1986). In this context, the contrast with American-style Abstract Expressionism is interesting: while Jackson Pollock, for instance, introduced in his Drippings a neutralising element, so that the work in its overall structure could be continued indefinitely, Vedova remains at the centre of the picture, the dimensions of which are always accessible to him, in keeping with the size of his own body. Characteristic of Vedova's painting is l鈥檜biquit脿 del centro, the omnipresent centre.
This concentration on the centre is also an important aspect of Georg Baselitz's new series Ma grigio. "Each picture shows two pairs of legs, vaguely suggested in blurred shades of grey on a black ground, attempting a wild but spasmodic dance. They are cut off above the calves, and the feet are in high-heeled shoes. This 'windmill commotion', alternating between cheerful exuberance and expressionless staccato, is abruptly stopped, since the edges of the pictures prevent uninterrupted rotation. Here Baselitz pushes the abstraction of the figurative to a new level. If previously, despite alterations, the unity of the figure was to a certain extent retained, here it has become obsolete. It can no longer be made to fit a definable form with some relation to reality; the individual parts become ciphers for a purely notional idea. The centre of the picture, where the legs would have to collide, remains vague, sometimes lightly covered by pale grey, runny streaks of paint, sometimes appearing like a dark opening" (Carla Schulz-Hoffmann, 2015).
Baselitz鈥檚 unusual chain of association for this series ranges from Lucio Fontana's Attese pictures dating from the 1950s and '60s, through Gustave Courbet's provocative painting L'Origine du monde (1866), right up to the Mexican dancers and Frida Kahlo. On the other hand, this series is based on Baselitz's intensive reflection on the "problem of the empty centre" in scenes of the Annunciation from past centuries.
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It is with great pleasure that we announce the collaboration between the Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova and the Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac. Our first joint project will be a double exhibition combining a new series of works by Georg Baselitz with works from the 1980s by Emilio Vedova.
The Venetian painter Emilio Vedova (1919-2006) was one of the most prominent representatives of Italian informel. He first took part in the Venice Biennale in 1947, and devoted his whole life to the development of non-representational painting. Works by Vedova were shown at exhibitions including the legendary documenta exhibitions I, II and III (1955, 59 and 64) in Kassel. By the end of the 1950s, Vedova had become established in the international art scene as a classic of abstract painting.
From the beginning of the 1980s, Vedova became an important integrative figure for an up-and-coming generation of neo-expressive artists 鈥� as was demonstrated in 1982 by his renewed participation in documenta (7), as well as by many publications and solo exhibitions in the ensuing years.
"The central contrast between the two non-colours black and white is a decisive characteristic of Vedova's 艙uvre [...]. This polarisation, later often complemented by a further strong colour such as red or blue, complies with an inherent wish for clarity of expression, and prevents blurring into diverse nuances. Moreover, the black levels enhance the intensity of the overall effect, defining the formal orientation, which might otherwise easily be obscured by colour values" (Carla Schulz-Hoffmann, 1986). In this context, the contrast with American-style Abstract Expressionism is interesting: while Jackson Pollock, for instance, introduced in his Drippings a neutralising element, so that the work in its overall structure could be continued indefinitely, Vedova remains at the centre of the picture, the dimensions of which are always accessible to him, in keeping with the size of his own body. Characteristic of Vedova's painting is l鈥檜biquit脿 del centro, the omnipresent centre.
This concentration on the centre is also an important aspect of Georg Baselitz's new series Ma grigio. "Each picture shows two pairs of legs, vaguely suggested in blurred shades of grey on a black ground, attempting a wild but spasmodic dance. They are cut off above the calves, and the feet are in high-heeled shoes. This 'windmill commotion', alternating between cheerful exuberance and expressionless staccato, is abruptly stopped, since the edges of the pictures prevent uninterrupted rotation. Here Baselitz pushes the abstraction of the figurative to a new level. If previously, despite alterations, the unity of the figure was to a certain extent retained, here it has become obsolete. It can no longer be made to fit a definable form with some relation to reality; the individual parts become ciphers for a purely notional idea. The centre of the picture, where the legs would have to collide, remains vague, sometimes lightly covered by pale grey, runny streaks of paint, sometimes appearing like a dark opening" (Carla Schulz-Hoffmann, 2015).
Baselitz鈥檚 unusual chain of association for this series ranges from Lucio Fontana's Attese pictures dating from the 1950s and '60s, through Gustave Courbet's provocative painting L'Origine du monde (1866), right up to the Mexican dancers and Frida Kahlo. On the other hand, this series is based on Baselitz's intensive reflection on the "problem of the empty centre" in scenes of the Annunciation from past centuries.
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