“Exercises on Ezra” è un libro d’artista di Enzo Cucchi costruito attorno al nucleo di disegni iterativi e “posturali” sul ritratto di Ezra Pound fatti dall’artista, noché attorno al dittico “senza titolo (Pound)”, lavoro antimemoriale sul poeta, fuoco spaziale e di ricerca della mostra “Antifragile” presso Colli Independent Art Gallery, Roma. Il libro è una raccolta di disegni, frammenti e annotazioni che fanno da coltre al focus centrale di ritratti di Pound, entrando in relazione tra loro anche grazie al testo “Il Grano”, scritto da Giuseppe Cucchi e Brunella Antomarini. Il testo si svolge frammentariamente, ricostituendosi alla fine del volume per una lettura compatta ma intrisa di rimandi alle singole pagine, in una continua relazione con gli elementi visivi.

Fifty years of graphic and editorial production of one of the most visionary artists of his generation—Enzo Cucchi. Starting from the work of one of the leading members of the Italian Transavanguardia movement, this catalog about art books and graphics underlines, thanks to a broad array of images and written contributions, the relevance of these graphic and editorial productions as fundamental aspects of the contemporary artistic practice. “A life without books is possible, but it has no direction,” states Bern Klüser, a gallerist and close collaborator of Cucchi. These words perfectly express the importance that Cucchi gives to his art books and graphics. For the artist, books register the creative evolution of an author, collecting memories of past events and collaborations. But they are also autonomous tools for the propagation of art into everyday reality, becoming objects of affection. Published on the occasion of the namesake exhibition at m.a.x. Museum in Chiasso, Switzerland, this book is the first catalog dedicated solely to Cucchi’s editorial projects and graphics, from the 1970s to the present day, with more than a hundred plates, ordered chronologically, including faithful photographic reproductions as well as detailed information. Cucchi never ceased producing books and graphics, and this catalog bears testimony to his passionate commitment.

Two subversive creators propose a dialogue inspired by a land they both love: Sicily. The artist Cucchi and the architect Sottsass met for the first time in 1999; this book documents the drawings, projects, and sketches they have realized together since then.

Contains a text by Enzo Cucchi, a poetic manifesto. There are two small volumes. Volume I: Original text in Italian with two reproductions of drawings by the artist. 15 pages. Volume II: Translations in English and German with an epilogue by Bice Curiger. 30 pages. An elastic band holds the two volumes together.

The 5 artists in this exhibition all have strong ties to the cultural history of their home country, but this show was more than a representative sampling of contemporary Italian painting. These artists also share a desire to ignite their art with high drama and imagination, and were likewise all instrumental in the return of Expressionism in the early 1980s. Henry Geldzahler’s essay looks at how the artists relate to the impressive cultural history and experience of their land. Chia’s paintings draw on folktales; in them, a peasant-proletarian hero acts as protagonist in a timeless drama. Enzo Cucchi’s cataclysmic landscapes are filed with all the passion and devastation of the Inferno, while Mario Merz looks to the tradition of Italy’s poet-philosophers and Mimmo Paladino conflates African sculptural forms with medieval Siennese painting. The most well known of this group, Francesco Clemente, presents his nightmarish visions of human despair and longing through what Geldzahler calls the artist’s “self-obsessed cosmology”. In addition to Geldzahler’s introductory essay, Judith Russi Kirchner discusses the Chicago tradition of collecting Italian art.

Known in the early 80s as a protagonist of the NeoExpressionist movement Transavanguardia, visionary Italian artist Enzo Cucchi has recently embraced new subject matter–and with it a painting style characterized by new chromatic tonalities. This volume comprises a group of drawings and raw ceramic slabs embellished with symbolic characters relating to maritime subjects, particularly The Adriatic, defined by the artist as “the sea of painting.”

Madama Cucchi is an interactive catalogue accompanying the installation by Enzo Cucchi in the Veranda juvarriana at Palazzo Madama in Turin (5 November 2015 – 1 February 2016). It consists of a 70 cm x 100 cm map of Palazzo Madama designed by Cucchi and a cardboard cut-out, or rather, miniature replica of the works on display: three paintings, Per ora… basta, Si… siamo in Italia and Testa dura and a sculpture, Drone Dario. When placed on the map, this cut-out gives an idea of the installation of works in the veranda.

A collection of works chosen for this publication by the artist. Drawn primarily from Katz’s personal collection, they feature portraits of family and friends preserving a dimension of experience that is intimate and pictorially striking. Interview by David Salle; texts by Vincent Katz and Enzo Cucchi.

his publication, edited by Enzo Cucchi and published by NERO, gathers drawings by Alex Katz and words by Vincent Katz. It is a project that takes shape through the intimate relationship between the three subjects. All the drawings are risograph printings of both original sketches for paintings and the artist’s exercises. Two smaller inserts present, on the front, woodcuts showing portraits of two Katz, father and son, conceived by Enzo Cucchi, and on the back two poems by Vincent Katz, one of which is dedicated to Enzo Cucchi.

Introduction ”We are aiming to produce a vehicle of direct confrontation with art, providing not only coverage about artists, but original contributions by them”, writes Bice Curiger in the first issue. In this spirit Enzo Cucchi is the first collaboration artist – with texts by Jean-Christophe Ammann, Marja Bloem and Bice Curiger. Also in this issue texts by Patrick Frey “The World of Gilbert & George,” Oskar Bätschmann “The History of Art, Dead or Alive,” and Dieter Meier “Christian Dior,” Jacqueline Burckhardt “The American Dance Performer Dana Reitz,” Theodora Vischer “Vivian Suter,” Johannes Gachnang “A Trip to Genoa on Meret Oppenheim’s 70th birthday.” And Cumulus from America and Europe by Barbara Kruger and Gianfranco Verna, and a Balkon by Peter Suter. Table of Content Gilbert & George in the Strangeness of their World. Observations tot he Film «The World of Gilbert & George», 1980 by Patrick Frey The History of Art – Dead or Alive? By Oskar Bätschmann Christian Dior, Sculpteur, A Hymn by Dieter Meier The American Dance Performer Dana Reitz by Jacqueline Burckhardt Enzo Cucchi Giulio Cesare Roma! by Jean-Christophe Ammann Elegy by Enzo Cucchi An Afternoon with E.C. by Marja Bloem Vivian Sutter by Theodora Vischer A Trip to Genoa, Les Infos du Paradis by Johannes Gachnang Cumulus from America by Barbara Kruger Cumulus from Europe by Gianfranco Verna Mondrian’s Goldfish by Peter Suter

Foligno, Centro Italiano Arte Contemporanea, 10 marzo – 6 maggio 2012.Castelbasso, Fondazione Malvina Menegaz, 17 marzo – 6 maggio 2012.A cura di Francesco Poli e Italo Tassoni.Castelbasso, 2012; br., pp. 320, ill. e tavv. b/n col., cm 17×23,5. A completamento del progetto Arte Italiana del Novecento, questa seconda mostra esporrà opere di: Mimmo Rotella, Mario Schifano, Piero Dorazio, Getulio Alviani, Enrico Castellani, oggetti di design degli anni’60, Giuseppe Chiari, Eugenio Miccini, Piero Manzoni, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Giulio Paolini, Gino De Dominicis, Franco Vaccari, Enzo Cucchi, Carlo Maria Mariani, Stefano Arienti, Vanessa Beecroft.

“La critica è una riserva di incredulità verso l’arte, verso il mito della sua oscurità.” Che cos’è l’arte? Qual è la sua funzione? Che importanza ha l’uso del colore? Che significato ha l’impiego di diversi materiali? Quali sono i problemi che cerchi di risolvere e di formulare attraverso la tua arte? Che rapporto esiste tra la tua arte e la realtà che ti circonda? L’arte è informazione o comunicazione? Da Joseph Beuys, Andy Warhol, Bruce Nauman, Sol LeWitt, Robert Morris, Robert Ryman, Joseph Kosuth, Jannis Kounellis a Giulio Turcato, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Luciano Fabro, Vito Acconci, Giulio Paolini, Alighiero Boetti, Mario Merz, Sandro Chia, Enzo Cucchi, Francesco Clemente, Mimmo Paladino: i grandi artisti contemporanei raccontano ad un critico d’arte d’eccezione la loro idea dell’arte. Il libro riunisce una novantina di interviste di Achille Bonito Oliva ad artisti italiani e internazionali a partire dagli anni Settanta a oggi. Un’occasione unica per conoscere il mondo dell’arte contemporanea attraverso le parole degli stessi protagonisti.

Nello straordinario spazio della Certosa di Padula, la più grande d’Europa, luogo sublime, ricco di storia, cultura e spiritualità, ha trovato vita “Le Opere e i Giorni”, manifestazione culturale ideata da Achille Bonito Oliva e dalla Soprintendenza ai Beni Artistici e Storici di Salerno, finanziata con fondi europei dalla Regione Campania. La straordinaria manifestazione ha rianimato la bellezza delle antiche celle certosine, dei giardini e dei meravigliosi camminamenti, mostrando la genesi e lo sviluppo dell’opera d’arte nel tempo: dal momento creativo alla realizzazione, dall’allestimento all’esposizione. Il percorso artistico si è svolto nel triennio 2002-2004 su tre temi, uno per ciascun anno: il Verbo, lavori sui linguaggi dell’arte; il Precetto, inteso come osservazione della consuetudine monastica, come regola per il processo creativo dell’artista; la Vanitas, come caducità della bellezza, punto cardine della regola certosina, ma essenza stessa dell’arte contemporanea e sfida al tempo nel rapporto tra creatività, morte e vita. Le mostre hanno visto la partecipazione di Mario Airò, Ghada Amer, Arresa dei conti, Maja Bajevic, Nanni Balestrini, Per Barclay, Massimo Bartolini, Betty Bee, Elisabetta Benassi, Carlo Benvenuto, Monica Biancardi, Bianco e Valente, Gregorio Botta, Antonio Caggiano, Maurizio Cannavacciuolo, Pietro Capogrosso, Gianni Caravaggio, Letizia Cariello, Patrizia Cavalli, Loris Cecchini, Sandro Chia, Paolo Chiasera, Enzo Cucchi, Alvin Curran, Ousmane Ndiaye Dago, Nicola De Maria, Mario Dellavedova, Alessandro Diaz de Santillana, Baldo Diodato, Ilaria Drago, Rocco Dubini, Isabella Ducrot, Maurizio Elettrico, Jan Fabre, Federico Fusi, Alberto Garutti, Gianandrea Gazzola, Pia Gazzola, Kendell Geers, Isabella Gherardi, Robert Gligorov, Piero Golia, Anish Kapoor, Thorsten Kirchoff, Mark Kostabi, Dino Innocente, Emilio Isgrò, Benedetta Jacovoni, Mimmo Jodice, Myriam La Plante, Sol LeWitt, H.H. Lim, Rosaria Lo Russo, Renato Mambor, Amedeo Martegani, Fabio Mauri, Dörte Meyer, MK, Gian Marco Montesano con Giulia Basel, Liliana Moro, Paul Morrisey e Veruschka, Hidetoschi Nagasawa, Raffaella Nappo, Moataz Nasr, Luigi Ontani, Tommaso Ottonieri, Nam June Paik, Mimmo Paladino e Toni Servillo, Luca Pancrazzi, Luca Maria Patella, Perino & Vele, Alfredo Pirri, Vettor e Mimma Pisani, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Maria Pizzi, Antonio Rezza con Flavia Mastrella, Lucia Ronchetti, Marialba Russo, Virginia Ryan, Saint Clair Cemin, Renato Salvadori, Franco Scaldati, Franco Scognamiglio, Lorenzo Scotto di Luzio, Elisa Sighicelli, Roberta Silva, Grazia Toderi, Adrian Tranquilli, Marianna Troise, Franco Vaccari, Wainer Vaccari, Franz West con Tamura Sirbiladze, Sisley Xhafa, Alessandra Vanzi, Lello Voce, Giuseppe Zevola, Zerynthia, Gilberto Zorio, Natalino Zullo.

L’esposizione, a cura di Giacinto Di Pietrantonio e Maria Cristina Rodeschini, vuole riproporre l’immagine dell’Italia nel mondo nella molteplicità delle sue espressioni visive: dal cinema all’arte, dalla letteratura al Made in Italy, dalla cultura d’élite a quella popolare, attraverso 200 opere di artisti italiani e internazionali, ma anche di ‘cose e fatti’ – come gli scritti di Rita Levi Montalcini grazie ai quali le è stato assegnato il premio Nobel – dall’Ottocento ai nostri giorni. Tra gli artisti presenti in catalogo, Giorgio de Chirico, Alberto Savinio, Tano Festa, Francesco Lo Savio, Gianni e Joe Colombo, Gianluca e Massimiliano De Serio, Enzo Cucchi, Maurizio Cattelan, Alighiero Boetti, Mona Hatoum, Claudio Parmiggiani, Flavio Favelli, Luciano Fabro, Claudia Losi, Salvo, Gino De Dominicis, Vettor Pisani, Piccio, Alberto Garutti, Aleksandra Mir, Nan Goldin, Kiki Smith, Antonio Riello, Vanessa Beecroft, Mario Cresci, Claire Fontaine, Alterazioni Video, Tobias Zielony, Mimmo Jodice, Giuseppe Bartolini, Giuseppe De Nittis, Giovanni Migliara, Giovanni Iudice, Mario Gozzi, Ippolito Caffi e Francesco Guardi, Gang Song Ryong, Yan Pei-Ming, Renato Guttuso, Emilio Isgrò, Cesare Tallone e Michelangelo Pistoletto.

New York and Zurich: Peter Blum Edition, 1984. Monographs in German and English on the ten portfolios published by Peter Blum Edition between 1981 and 1984 with the following artists: Enzo Cucchi, Martin Disler, Sandro Chia, A.R. Penck, Rolf Winnewisser, Jonathan Borofsky, Francesco Clemente, John Baldessari and Eric Fischl. Each portfolio is reproduced in full, in black and white. Bice Curiger’s short essays are accompanied in most cases with statements by the artists. Preface by Jean-Christophe Ammann; epilogue by Peter Blum.

Life is Paradise gathers for the first time a mostly private collection of contemporary artist Francesco Clementes rarely seen oil, pastel, and watercolor portraits of personalities from the worlds of pop culture, high society, and art. The revealing depictions of friends and acquaintances who have passed through Clemente’s studio include the likes of Lauren Hutton, Henry Geldzhaler, Toni Morrison, Bryan Ferry, Robert Mapplethorpe, William Burroughs, Fab 5 Freddy, Robert DeNiro, Fran Lebowitz, Gus Van Sant, Edit De Ak, John Ashbery, Andy Warhol, the Baronesa Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, Enzo Cucchi, Christy Turlington, Rene Ricard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Allen Ginsberg, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Michael McClure and many, many more.
Interspersed amongst this ravishing collection of surprising portraits are several of Clementes more well known self-portraits, in various mediums, which have become signature pieces for the artist. But its the compelling portraitures of a widely divergent circle–artists, writers, film actors, fashion industry icons, business and society headliners, done by Clemente for amusement or for special commissions–that offer a fascinating insight into another side of Francesco Clemente: the internationally famous artist who for years has been a fixture on the New York scene.

For almost two decades, Clemente has divided his time between New York, Italy, and Madras, India, and his art readily acknowledges the influence of these cultures. Clemente is widely considered one of the foremost contemporary artists in America, and his work is celebrated in art collections all over the world. The portraits in Life is Paradise span Clementes entire career as a visual artist, and showcase his versatility with various mediums. This collection gathers together and examines for the first time in detail a little known element of Clemente’s oeuvre.

Conversazioni notturne, confidenze, svelano le fatiche quotidiane, i momenti difficili, le riflessioni sui movimenti artistici, gli avvenimenti politici, sulle scelte personali cruciali, raccontate da artisti contemporanei senza lirismo ed enfasi. Ventisette autori dai quali, come scrive l’autrice “affiora una voce unica, corale, l’epifania e la sinfonia dell’Arte, espressione d’insieme di un tempo preciso e senza data, come in un quadro di De Chirico, in cui sai sempre che ore sono, ma non c’è il tempo, è tutto sospeso in un attimo interminabile.” Concetta Modica ha ascoltato i loro racconti, riportando l’immediatezza delle parole e lasciando al lettore la possibilità di scoprirli e individuarli uno ad uno. Riesci a riconoscerli? Il loro pensiero è il primo lavoro che puoi scoprire e osservare. Con questo libro si può giocare, come si fa spesso nei musei, ad indovinare il nome dell’artista prima di leggere la didascalia. Testi di Stefano Arienti, Marion Baruk, Stefano Boccalini, Anna Valeria Borsari, Vincenzo Cabiati, Marco Cingolani, Ermanno Cristini, Enzo Cucchi, Mario Dellavedova, Gabriele Di Matteo, Alberto Garutti, Marco Gastini, Emilio Isgrò, Francesco Lauretta, Corrado Levi, Luigi Mainolfi, Giuseppe Maraniello, Amedeo Martegani, Chijoko Miura, Giulio Paolini, Luca Pancrazzi, Alessandra Spranzi, Alessandra Tortarolo, Franco Vaccari, Grazia Varisco, Vedovamazzei, Gilberto Zorio.

The 1980s saw a vibrant overhaul of both figurative and abstract painting, intensified by the raw energies of street art and magnified by the booming art economy and a larger culture of glitz and brashness. The Swiss art dealer Bruno Bischofberger dedicated himself to the art of this young, “wild” generation and thus assembled one of the most significant collections of 1980s art, acquiring key works by John Armleder, Miquel Barcelo, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mike Bidlo, Francesco Clemente, George Condo, Enzo Cucchi, Jiri Georg Dokoupil, Rainer Fetting, Peter Halley, Keith Haring, McDermott & McGough, Muhlheimer Freiheit, David Salle, Salome, Kenny Scharf, Julian Schnabel, Philip Taaffe and Andy Warhol. It is around Bischofberger’s unsurpassed collection of these works that this massive volume is built. Assembled by Thomas Kellein, The 80s Revisited contains nearly 300 color plates of works by these artists, and thus provides a definitive guide to that lively decade.

Friuli Venezia Giulia is a region in the north-east of Italy, bordered by Austria and Yugoslavia, and dotted with vineyards, seaside resorts, Gothic duomos, Romanesque towns, grottoes, contemporary art, and Roman ruins. Many of these elements in the landscape have been around for hundreds of years, but one has not: contemporary art. Yet throughout this region works by Marina Abramovic, John Armleder, John Baldessari, Mike Bidlo, Louise Bourgeois, Paul McCarthy, Enzo Cucchi, Jenny Holzer, Tom Sachs, Andres Serrano, and Lawrence Weiner amongst others have occupied castles, squares, gardens, churches, landmark buildings, basements, and kitchens. The result is a subtly transformed landscape worth visiting, be it in reproduction or in Italy. The book itself is a fantastic object, realized with a semi-flexible plastic cover, held together by screws, and filled with an array of gadgets.