From Bacon to Beatles

From Bacon to Beatle
New images in Europe in the years of rock.
16th November 2011 – 8th January 2012

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The exhibition From Bacon to Beatles. New images in Europe in the years of rock is organized by Società per le Belle Arti ed Esposizione Permanente in Milan with Chiara Gatti and Michele Tavola’s curatorship and today it shows for the first time the history of figurative research that, between 1950s and 1960s, stemmed from Giacometti’s teaching, from Bacon and from other great masters of the age. The research was celebrated at that time by the great exhibition New Images of man mounted at Moma in New York in 1959 and it stood out for very different results as regards the ways of a certain realism of social inspiration, mixing suggestions of expressionistic nature with languages often between informal and pop.
The path, which is the reflection of a new man’s existential situation and at the same time of a climate rich in changes like that of the fabulous 1960s, wants to bring the atmosphere in those days back through a group of 70 works, among sculptures and paintings, often large-sized, lent by Italian and foreign public and private collections that have to be admired – on the occasion – armed with headphones and with background music linked to the sound revolution that acted at the same time of the aesthetic one.

Ideally included between an historical antecedent linked to the first studies on the shape made by Giacometti and 1968, breaking year that inaugurates a completely new socio-cultural cycle, the path of the exhibition analyzes the authors’ research who shared a similar attention for the optic stratification of the reality with the historical masters, among whom there is Bacon, but also Dubuffet, Appel or Cesàr: memory layers that are added and superimposed in the work exposed, in which visions, places, objects and bodies are overlapped – sometimes at a fast pace. In this context appears the idea of the “story”, that is the inner relationship among the images, almost to evoke a narrative and emotional situation collected by exponents of different trends and active in every corner of Europe. Starting from Hamilton, Hockney Blake’s Great Britain; this last author created the famous cover of Sgt. Pepper’s, made thank Paul McCartney’s suggestion and winner of Grammy Award for the best album cover in 1968 (acquired by Permanente in its collections on the occasion).

Then, from Errò, Arroyo or Samuel Buri’s France, but with respect for the Italian history, from Schifano to Adami, from Romagnoni to Baj. The Italian affair lived in close relationship with the European breathing movement (widely represented in the exhibition) saw the historical Lissone’s Prize as important showcase that, between 1946 an 1967, was advantaged observatory of the news developing in the international art world. Finally an example of Richard Hamilton’s series of Swinging in London presses, inspired by the merchant Robert Fraser with Mick Jagger’s arrest for possession of drugs, is not to be missed. Hamilton some other times connected his name to the musical scene of the age because of the friendship with Paul McCartney and the creation of the cover of the Beatles’s White Album, published in November 1968. 1950s mark a revolution in the figurative art and make the critics speak about New Image and Nouvelle Figuration, so both in the new and in the old world breaks a great sound revolution out that is parallel to the visual one.

So the expositive path will be accompanied by musical fascinations mixed with comments on the works exposed, thank the audioguides created by Storyville, in a travel included between the Elvis Presley’s debut, who recorded his first tracks for Sun Records in 1954, and the publication of Let it Be, last Beatles’ album, who broke up in 1970.

It was the art of that period, among the works of this exhibition and the songs published in the same years there is a clear emotional and sentimental relationship. Looking at these masterpieces exposed on this occasion listening to the same songs listened in the years in which the pictures and sculptures were created, is the best way to explain, more than the words of every critic, and it produces unrepeatable emotions. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue edited by Skira Editore, in which there is every work exposed in the exhibition.

Press office Società per le Belle Arti ed Esposizione Permanente
Cristina Moretti | phone: 02 6551445 | ufficiostampa@lapermanente.it

Press office exhibition
Studio de Angelis | phone: 02 324377 | 02 3270133 | stampa@deangelispress.it

Press office Skira Editore
Lucia Crespi | phone: 02 89415532 | lucia@luciacrespi.it