Il Guggenheim L'Avanguardia americana 1945-1980
edited by Lauren Hinkson

Il Guggenheim: L'avanguardia americana 1945–1980 examines major developments in American art during a transformative period in that country's history, one marked by economic prosperity, political upheaval, and international conflict, as well as a vibrant cultural flourishing. As a preeminent venue for 20th century American art and a landmark institution in New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum played a significant role in fostering radical artistic practices in the years following World War II. The essays in this volume offer a critical history of the United States' emergence as a global center for modern art in the postwar period. The rise of Abstract Expressionism in the 1940s inaugurated an era during which diverse approaches to art making proliferated: from Pop art's irreverent embrace of vernacular imagery to the intellectual meditations on meaning that characterized 1960s Conceptualism; from the spare aesthetic of Minimalism to the lush visuals of Photorealism in the 1970s. As it examines key moments in the history of American art, Il Guggenheim: L'avanguardia americana 1945–1980 also reflects on the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's role in shaping these developments through its long-standing support of emerging artists. The catalogue is enriched by a selection of "icons" from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection of Venice and from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of New York, revealing the extraordinary cultural value of the joint collections. The volume investigates the intime relation of many protagonists of the American Avant-garde with Rome: from Robert Rauschenberg, who arrived in the city for the first time in 1952 to visit Alberto Burri, to Willem de Kooning, who moved there in 1960, from Sol LeWitt to Mark Rothko and Cy Twombly. Taking a transatlantic perspective, this catalogue illustrates through more than sixty rich reproductions of modern masterworks the international significance of American art.

2012, 28 x 30 cm, 140 pages 100 colours, hardcover
ISBN 978-88-572-1234-0 € 45,00