The return to painting and the persistence of the image. The New Italian Way
Abstract:
The research project aims to examine the unique season of contemporary artistic experience, which began in Italy and elsewhere in the aftermath of the 1970s. The focus is on the return to a figuration which, in the post-modern era, is characterised by mannerist quotations. The central focus of the research is the particular movement of creative activity that emerged in the mid-1980s, as the "Nuova maniera italiana", promoted and supported by the critic Giuseppe Gatt. If the focus of the project is to shed light on this particular conjuncture of research, which involved the languages of painting and sculpture and extended to the fields of music, dramaturgy, design and architecture, the structure of the project deepens into a broader analysis. Following a philological course, it aims first of all to investigate the cultural background of the scope of figuration, as a pole of development and alter ego of the languages of abstraction during the 20th century, in order to reconstruct and understand the developments and outcomes that such a line of attention assumed in the artistic system in the aftermath of the experimentalism of the neo-avant-gardes. The "New Mannerism" is a part of that season of "reflux" that opened with the 1980s and needs to be read and reconsidered in relation to the long wave of transition processes advanced by post-modernity in which phenomena such as the Transavanguardia, Hypermanierismo, Anacronismo, Pittura Colta, the Nuovi Nuovi, the Neoclassici, Magico Primario or Figuration Libre find their place. The aim of this project is to explore the motivations, social implications, staying power, and critical fortune and misfortune of this climate and the plots that it traces up to the developments in the pages of topical or even non-topical issues. The aim is to fill a historiographical gap which, from manuals to online resources, is reflected in the difficulty of finding an in-depth bibliography of reference that restores the climate of that season in an organic manner, with the help of sources, documents, interdisciplinary contributions and readings which are also oriented towards international comparison.
In coordination with the participating research units, a precise methodological approach will be followed for this investigation, oriented towards the analysis of expressive languages, the context of reference, the protagonists, implying both the artists, also drawn from peripheral territories, and critics who endorsed or theorised the onset of these creative processes. The work of the research group, moving around the priority focus on the "Nuova Maniera", will follow a programme divided into phases, the results of which will flow into the creation of a database, a digitised archive in progress, aimed at the knowledge of, and dissemination of what intended to be a heritage of material and immaterial culture.
In coordination with the participating research units, a precise methodological approach will be followed for this investigation, oriented towards the analysis of expressive languages, the context of reference, the protagonists, implying both the artists, also drawn from peripheral territories, and critics who endorsed or theorised the onset of these creative processes. The work of the research group, moving around the priority focus on the "Nuova Maniera", will follow a programme divided into phases, the results of which will flow into the creation of a database, a digitised archive in progress, aimed at the knowledge of, and dissemination of what intended to be a heritage of material and immaterial culture.
Dettagli progetto:
Referente scientifico: Fiorillo Ada Patrizia
Fonte di finanziamento: Bando PRIN 2022
Data di avvio: 17/10/2023
Data di fine: 17/10/2025
Contributo MUR: 72.920 €
Co-finanziamento UniFe: 15.146 €
Partner:
- Università degli Studi di FERRARA (capofila)
- Università del SALENTO
- ACCADEMIA DI BELLE ARTI ROMA
- Università degli Studi di BOLOGNA