Turin

Sandro Chia, In acqua strana e cupa se brilla un punto biano se salta una pupa al volo suo m'affiano (In strange and gloomy water if a white dot shines if a child jumps I will approach her flight), 1979.

Sandro Chia, In acqua strana e cupa se brilla un punto biano se salta una pupa al volo suo m'affiano (In strange and gloomy water if a white dot shines if a child jumps I will approach her flight), 1979.

Turin

Transavanguardia

Castello di Rivoli
Piazza Mafalda di Savoia
November 13, 2002–January 26, 2003

Curated by Ida Gianelli

In the early ’80s, with a new interest in things non–New York School, the Transavanguardia—critic Achille Bonito Oliva’s catchall word for the return to figurative painting—was a big deal. Francesco Clemente’s portable frescoes, Sandro Chia’s great Palio restaurant murals, and Enzo Cucchi’s weird, elongated anatomical drawings were the ones to beat in the go-get-’em atmosphere of the moment. This show, curated by Ida Gianelli, backed by advisers Pier Giovanni Castagnoli, David Ross, Nicholas Serota, and Rudi H. Fuchs (who heavily promoted the three C’s), looks at the period 1979–85 with more historical detachment. Nicola de Maria, always more abstract, and Mimmo Paladino, always more folksy, may turn out to be the dark-horse winners among the original Transavanguardia crew.

— Brooks Adams