On April 29, Magazzino Italian Art inaugurated the Germano Celant Research Center, honoring the life of this renowned art historian, critic, and curator—one of the most prominent figures in postwar and contemporary Italian art. Magazzino commemorates Celant’s influence, close friendship, and pivotal role in inspiring the museum’s founding.
In 1967, at the age of 27, Celant curated a group exhibition at La Bertesca Gallery in Genoa entitled Arte Povera – IM Spazio which included two exhibitions, one of which presented for the first time the seminal poveristi artists Boetti, Fabro, Kounellis, Paolini, Pascali and Prini. This exhibition marked the beginning of the Arte Povera movement, an artistic investigation of unconventional and commonplace materials that challenged traditional media—echoing a new reality of postwar life and politics in Italy.
“What is happening? Banality is entering the arena of art. The insignificant is coming into being or, rather, it is beginning to imposing itself. Physical presence and behavior have themselves became art.” Germano Celant
Arte Povera was shaped by the careers of twelve revolutionary artists: Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, and Gilberto Zorio all currently on view at Magazzino Italian Art Museum.
The Germano Celant Research Center will serve as a resource for scholars and students. The center offers an extensive library and archives of publications including Italian postwar and contemporary art, Italian design, architecture, and Murano Glass. Currently the Reserch Center library holds over 5,000 publications, with nearly 1,000 books on Arte Povera with many of those being rare books and archival material.
