Opinions

Endangered reviews: Associated Press cuts them, will we succumb to storytelling?

The user-generated Internet has produced one of the most unique cultural paradoxes of our time: the decline of professional reviews in the face of the rampant pervasiveness of amateur reviews, rendered on any product or service that can be purchased ...
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Italian art abroad? Without a system, the Italian Council is not enough

A definition of the scope of the Italian Council cannot be separated from an analysis of the context in which it fits. If, in fact, any activity in favor of the visibility of contemporary Italian art abroad is certainly welcome, it is also true that ...
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But does it make sense to compare Caravaggio and Jago inside a museum?

I have a hard time believing that the Basket of Fruit on Caravaggio is innocent, especially if its supposed clarity should stand out by contrast when looking at it together with Jago's Basket of Arms that the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan has been d...
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Italian Council is driving force and challenge for contemporary art in Italy

The Italian Council is currently Italy's main public instrument for supporting contemporary creativity in the visual arts. It has certainly contributed substantially to bridging a gap in the contemporary art system in Italy with others globally. Perf...
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All are good at making immersive exhibitions on Van Gogh and Klimt: try it with Garofalo

Meanwhile, let's avoid calling them immersive "exhibitions." Federica Schneck says, rightly, that "they pass themselves off as exhibitions when they are shows." What we call "immersive exhibitions," of exhibitions have nothing. One can remain even on...
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Immersive exhibitions are a gateway to art and are not the enemy of reflection

I respond to the article The disaster of immersive shows with the utmost respect for journalist Federica Schneck. Not least because, I admit: the 'culprit' is me-one of those who thinks about and makes immersive shows. I liked the article. The title,...
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The disaster of immersive exhibitions

There is one word that comes back, like a mantra, in Instagram press releases and sponsored carousels: experience. Immersive experience. Unique experience. Digital experience. In recent years, the art world (or rather: the art marketing world) has di...
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Senator, Cenci and Arena: the state of deep crisis in Italian art.

If we relate three recent works by three Italian artists, we can understand what a completely uncritical system has produced over the past two decades: the usual Luna Park lights that Marinella Senatore presented at Art Basel Unlimited, Francesco Are...
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On the Caravaggio exhibition. A reply to the director of the National Galleries of Rome.

I would like to respond to the director of the National Galleries of Ancient Art in Rome, Thomas Clement Salomon, who in a long, dense and interesting interview with Pietro Di Loreto on About Art Online responds to the considerations I had made in my...
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Why do troubled artists fascinate us? A reflection

I found myself recently reflecting on how much the tormented souls of certain artists still exert a certain fascination after centuries, often to a greater degree than those artists whose art expresses perfection. And on how much this fascination is ...
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Why Valery Gergiev should not perform at the Royal Palace of Caserta

Good for Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli to take a stand against Russian conductor Valerij Gergiev's performance at the Reggia di Caserta, and good for the European Commission to remind us that EU Culture Commissioner Glenn Micallef "has repeatedly...
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Avant-garde and modernism: the double soul of twentieth-century Italian art

There is what literary critic Charles Russell called the "binary tradition" of the twentieth century: avant-garde and modernism. The former is driven by an unshakeable belief in the progressive reunification between society and the artist (he speaks ...
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Writing critiques is no fun

One of the reasons why it is increasingly difficult to find negative reviews or critiques of any cultural product is the fear of consequences, of possible retaliation. The sampling is vast: one can start with reactions of lesser intensity, such as cr...
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Roberto Longhi today between myth, writing and the challenge of contemporary criticism

In the last decade, studies aimed at rereading the historical and critical work of Roberto Longhi have been several. A sign that Longhi has entered the phase of the historical process that will have to establish or not his definitive canonization. An...
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How 5% VAT on artworks could change the Italian market (and why it makes sense)

It is rare for a measure affecting art to become the subject of wide public debate, just as it is rare for it to make its way into the topics of the day on social media: yet, the announcement of the5 percent VAT on works of art, the long-awaited and ...
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Thinking about the museum of the future

In December 1968, Italian cinemas screened the film 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time. A film in four chapters that chronicles an evolutionary leap in human consciousness and technological capability, set against the backdrop of an alien intel...
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