a joint project by the Azienda Speciale Palaexpo and the Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani - Treccani Arte
Image: Jim Dine, A Thin Kindergarten Picture, 1974, photo Monkeys VideoLab © Azienda Speciale Palaexpo
In consideration of the large number of objects present in Dine’s works, as well as the diverse techniques he employs, we have decided to draw up a glossary.
The idea was to provide a “snapshot” of the exhibition in the form of a list of lemmata, obtained by giving a name to everything we saw.
We also wanted to pick out uncommon words and familiarise ourselves with them, learning about specific techniques or objects that are frequently referred to generically when mentioned in current speech.
The concept of glossary is also a recurrent element in Dine’s work – his love for colour charts and for work tools arranged as in shop shelves, his painting of a landscape made up of a sequence of different landscapes, his “glossary” of tools arranged around the hips of his three Venuses.
We have consulted experts in a number of fields to help us in our task of naming everything we saw, from art and literature historians to fashion historians, poets, artists, painters, sculptors, printmakers, tailors, hardware retailers, bathroom fittings retailers, carpenters, founders… and offer our heartfelt thanks to all those who responded to our appeal for help:
Andrea Aquilanti, Marina Bindella, Maria Bremer, Beatrice Bulla, Flaminia Bulla, Romolo Bulla, Rosalba Bulla, Andrea Cortellessa, Stefano Chiodi, Gianni Dessì, Riccardo Duranti, Giorgia Gastaldon, Natalia Gurgone, Nicoletta Lancioni, HH Lim, Luigia Lonardelli, Simona Magrelli, Elisabetta Marzatico, Julia McGibbon, Roberto Piloni, Alfredo Pirri, Renato Pischiutta, Giorgia Rissone, Michele AM Russo, Irene Santori, Filippo Savi, Valerio Savi, Ilaria Schiaffini, Stefania and Stefano Seveso, Giovanni Tommasi Ferroni, Chiara Valentini.
The Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana has allocated to each term a definition taken from the online Vocabolario, which is available free of charge on the Portale Treccani. From the Vocabolario it is also possible to see the chosen term within the contexts of other Opere Treccani sections accessible on the same portal (encyclopaedias, biographies, online publications).
As is customary in glossaries, we have listed the terms in alphabetical order. The words in the list appear as marked by the participants: the link leads to their respective lemmata in the Vocabolario Treccani. Some words, mostly non-Italian or technical jargon used by technicians working in a specific sector to identify work tools, are not present in the Vocabolario Treccani and are therefore in gray.
Anyone wishing to offer a remote contribution to this initiative, either suggesting a new word to enrich the glossary or a definition for those words which have already been included, please write to info@treccaniarte.com
GLOSSARY
Bon à tirer
Cacciacopertoni
Camouflage
Combine Painting
Giratubo svedese
Intermedialità
Junk Art
Levachiodi
Litofina
Portarotolo
Portasapone
Portasapone a muro
Portaspazzolino
Portatovaglioli
Pouchoir
Prussiana
Scuola di New York
Slippers
Specchio contenitore