print September 2000

“Castelli in Aria”

THE FORTRESS OF CASTEL SANT'ELMO, built in Angevin times and enlarged during the sixteenth century, is located on the hilltop of the Vomero, next to the extraordinary monument of the Certosa di San Martino. When you get there you feel as if you've climbed over the clouds. From its many terraces and windows the fortress offers precisely the spellbinding view of the bay that comes to mind when one thinks of Naples. The title “Castelli in Aria: Arte a Napoli di Fine Millennio” (Castles in the air: Art in Naples at the end of the millennium), not only points to the somewhat surreal site of the

print April 1999

Emilio Vedova

Since the end of World War II, Emilio Vedova (who was twenty-six in 1945) has gained recognition, both at home and abroad, as one of the most original and provocative Italian artists. By going beyond realism and figuration and embracing modernist abstraction, he helped free Italian art from the aesthetic burdens of Fascism. In 1964, we find him in Berlin, eager to rekindle the spirit that once animated George Grosz, Otto Dix, Max Beckmann, and the Dadaists. “Plurimi,” a series of works executed between 1961 and 1965, comprises large-scale multifaceted wood surfaces interposed almost as if at

print Summer 1998

Spazio Aperto

IT’S AN ALL-TOO-FAMILIAR STORY. Young artists everywhere seek recognition, yet for Italians, that recognition is rarely achieved through the support of museums or public institutions. Danilo Eccher, who became director of Bologna’s Galleria d’Arte Moderna in January 1996—he was previously the director of the Galleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea in Trento—hopes to change that. He has initiated Spazio Aperto (Italian for “open space”), a one-year program of exhibitions and performances designed to acquaint the public with new developments in contemporary art.

The shows will follow one another in

print March 1998

Christopher Williams

Since the early ’80s, the Los Angeles-based artist Christopher Williams has adapted images from photographic archives, depicted objects in specialized collections, or taken pictures that involve no institutional sources. Although his procedures vary, Williams’ work always addresses a world of references, entailing active spectatorship as well as cognitive processes (it is telling that Williams studied not only with Michael Asher and John Baldessari, but also with Douglas Huebler at Cal Arts). His recent solo show featured five pieces from his ongoing series “For Example: Die Welt ist Schön” (

Gabriele Guercio