Center For Italian Modern Art To Host “Posters Study Day” In Celebration Of Current Exhibition From Depero To Rotella: Italian Commercial Posters Between Advertising And Art On May 5th From 10am - 6pm ET

Today, The Center For Italian Modern Art (CIMA) announces their bi-annual Study Days program tied to the current exhibition From Depero to Rotella: Italian Commercial Posters Between Advertising and Art, curated by Nicola Lucchi and on view until June 10th, 2023. The show examines the cross-pollination between avant-garde art and commercial posters in Italy, with a particular focus on the interwar years and the early post-World War II era, during the country’s economic boom.

With this Italian Posters Study Day, CIMA’s Research Fellows join prominent scholars from diverse fields—including History of Art and Architecture, Graphic Design and Italian Studies—to investigate the themes at the center of the exhibition within and outside of established critical frameworks.

The conference will take place in person at the Center for Italian Modern Art. Besides the keynote address and three scholarly panels, a group of scholars, designers and design historians will also gather for a special roundtable session to discuss the art of Italian posters and their relations to the different art movements of the interwar and postwar years, the corresponding social milieux, as well as the connection to disciplines ranging from art and architecture to graphic design and fashion. 

The Italian Posters Study Day at CIMA is made possible with the generous support of Swann Auction Galleries.

See full schedule of panels, discussions and lectures below. 

CONFERENCE PROGRAM:

10AM: 

• Conference Registration

• Coffee and light breakfast

• Viewing of the exhibition From Depero to Rotella: Italian Commercial Posters Between Advertising and Art, curated by Nicola Lucchi.

10:30AM: Panel 1  – “FORM”

• Duccio Nobili (Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome, IT): “Some Shades of Red. Albe Stainer and the Legacy of Constructivism”

• Giorgio Di Domenico (CIMA Research Fellow): “Dream Objects: Surrealism and Italian Advertising Art” 

• Jonathan Wajskol (Parsons School of Design): “A G Fronzoni: a Minimalist and a Noncommercial Designer”

• Followed by discussion and Q&A

12:00-1:30PM: Panel 2 — “DEBATES”

• Greg D’Onofrio (Cooper Union; School of Visual Arts): “The Evolution of Italian Poster Design: 1960-1975”

• Michele Galluzzo (University of Bolzano, IT): “What Surrounds These Posters? Mimmo Rotella’s Décollages and the Italian Advertising Landscape Between the 1960s and 1970s”

• Margaret Scarborough (Columbia University): “Oil and Intellectuals: Pasolini Against Advertising”

• Followed by discussion and Q&A

1:30- 3:00PM: 

• Lunch Break

• Light lunch courtesy of CIMA

3:00-4:30PM: Panel 3: FUNCTION

• Marcella Martin (CIMA Research Fellow): “The Fashion of Advertising: Reference and the Limits of Repetition”

• Virginia Spadaccini (University of Chieti, IT): “The Roman Factor: Notes on Fashion Illustration and Advertising 1955-60″

• Wanda Strauven (Columbia University): “Between Posters and Screens, Advertising and Building-Wrapping” 

• Followed by discussion and Q&A

4:30-5:30pm: Roundtable discussion

• Moderator: Angelina Lippert (Poster House)

• Discussants: Gwen Grewal (New School of Social Research), Andrea Trabucco-Campos (Graphic and Type Designer, Creative Director at Gretel), Emiliano Ponzi (Visual Artist and Illustrator)

5:30PM Keynote address

• Luca Cottini (Villanova University): “The Birth of National Industry and the Crisis of Advertising. The Italian 1930s Through the Eyes of Marcello Dudovich”

• Followed by Q&A

ABOUT CIMA:

Founded in 2013, CIMA is a public non-profit dedicated to presenting modern and contemporary Italian art to international audiences. Through critically acclaimed exhibitions—many of them bringing work to U.S. audiences for the first time—along with a wide variety of public programs and substantial support for new scholarship awarded through its international fellowship program, CIMA situates Italian modern art in an expansive historic and cultural context, illuminating its continuing relevance to contemporary culture and serving as an incubator of curatorial ideas for larger cultural institutions. CIMA works to add new voices to scholarship on modern Italian art with annual fellowships that open fresh perspectives and new avenues of research. A visit begins with a complimentary espresso, followed by an informal exhibition tour with one of the resident fellows. Visitors are welcome to linger for additional viewing and conversation.

ABOUT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR NICOLA LUCCHI:

Nicola Lucchi is the Executive Director of the Center for Italian Modern Art; he oversees the institution's fellowship program, the calendar of cultural events, and serves as Managing Editor for the Center’s online scholarly journal. Prior to joining CIMA, Nicola worked as Visiting Assistant Professor of Italian at Dickinson College and Lecturer of Italian at CUNY’s Queens College. He has published scholarly articles, book chapters and catalog essays on Futurism, on the relationship between poetry and the visual arts, and on Bruno Munari, in the scholarly volume Bruno Munari. The Lightness of Art. He has also curated an exhibition on Futurist manifestos and ephemera at Queens College’s Rosenthal Library, and on propaganda art in Italy at NYU’s Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò. He received a PhD in Italian Studies from NYU in 2016.

ABOUT SWANN AUCTION GALLERIES:

Swann Galleries was founded in 1941 as an auction house specializing in Rare and Antiquarian Books and is now the largest specialist auctioneer of Works on Paper in the world. Swann conducts approximately 40 sales a year, with departments devoted to Books, Autographs, Maps & Atlases, Photographs & Photobooks, Prints & Drawings, Vintage Posters, African American Art, Modern & Post-War Art and Illustration Art. The auction house is located at 104 East 25th Street in New York City. swanngalleries.com

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PRESS KIT:

https://shorefire.com/roster/cima

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Mikaela Duhs / Shore Fire Media / mduhs@shorefire.com

Rebecca Shapiro / Shore Fire Media / rshapiro@shorefire.com

Maddie Eventov / Shore Fire Media / meventov@shorefire.com