Abstractionism. A Journey Through Time – CAMBIO Cultural Center, Italy

An exhibition that tells – through over 60 works including paintings, ceramics and polymaterial materials – the evolution of abstract art in Italy from the Second World War to the 1980s.

The exhibition curated by Nicola Nuti, is intended as a rigorous but accessible investigation, capable of restoring the vitality of an artistic movement that was able to express the anxieties, hopes and transformations of an era.

A historical and stylistic journey through Florence, Milan and beyond.
From the post-war reconstruction to the birth of Florentine Classical Abstraction – a movement founded by Vinicio Berti, Gualtiero Nativi, Mario Nuti, Bruno Brunetti and Alvaro Monnini – the exhibition traverses the cultural tensions of the 1950s, the contaminations with informal art and the ferments of pop art in the 1960s, up to the development of personal and mature visual languages, between geometric abstraction and material experimentation. The exhibition also highlights the important dialogue between Italian abstractionism and the European avant-gardes, including artists such as Manlio Rho, Roberto Crippa, Antonio Corpora, Luigi Montanarini, Pietro Tognetti and Emilio Scanavino, each of whom interpreted abstraction in different, but always innovative and conscious, ways.

Key works and generational comparisons
Among the numerous masterpieces on display, Da un punto (1953) by Gualtiero Nativi deserves special attention, an emblem of the geometric purism that distinguishes Classical Abstractionism in Florence. Next to this, Composizione multipla (1948) by Vinicio Berti stands out, a founding testimony of the abstract movement he promoted. A significant contribution also comes from Roberto Crippa, with Montagne antiche , made in cork collage, which introduces a reflection on matter and formal dynamism. The presence of Andy Warhol, with his famous silkscreen prints dedicated to Marilyn Monroe, opens a visual and conceptual dialogue between pop seriality and Italian abstraction. Finally, the polychrome ceramics of Mario Nuti and Bruno Brunetti extend abstract research to traditional materials, demonstrating a poetics that goes beyond the boundaries of painting to also embrace the applied arts.