NYC: Luxembourg and Dayan Gallery – Domenico Gnoli.
The Domenio Gnoli; Paitings 1964-1969
exhibition at the Luxembourg and Dayan Gallery until June 30 show canvases that
are at once theatrical and humble, intimate and remote, humorous and
melancholy, artist Domenico Gnoli uncovered a universe of meanings to be found
in the details of everyday objects.
Above: Red
Dress Collar, 1969. Acrylic and sand on canvas.
Luxembourg and Dayan Gallery – Domenico Gnoli. Gnoli’s meditations on the material trappings
of bourgeois
Italian life directly challenged the politically charged
discourse proffered by artists of the burgeoning Arte Povera movement by
suggesting that identity is constructed primarily around consumerism and
commercial choices. Supra-realistic, subtly colored, luminous and large, his
paintings suggest that subjectivity can be expressed through the width of a
pinstripe, or that the social values of an entire decade can be located in a
lady’s leather handbag (below). Regarded as a precocious genius pruned too soon by
fate, Gnoli died in 1970 at the age of 36, a scant three months after an
acclaimed solo exhibition at Sidney Janis Gallery in New York established him
as a major talent.
Above. Corner, 1968. Acrylic and sand on canvas.
Luxembourg and Dayan Gallery – Domenico Gnoli. Alluding
to the power, charm and bitter-sweetness of such timeless moments, Gnoli wrote,
“I always use given and simple elements, I don’t want to add or subtract
anything. I haven’t even ever wanted to distort: I isolate and represent. My
themes are derived from current events, from familiar situations, from daily
life; because I never actively intervene against the object, I can feel the
magic of its presence.” The exhibition also includes a
small group of drawings
from “What is a Monster?,” a series in which Gnoli investigated the
possibilities of a modern day bestiary. The works on view have been loaned from
important private collections and museums, including the Fundación Yannick yBen Jakober in Majorca; the Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf; the
Fondazione MAXXI and the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in
Rome; and the Fondazione Orsi in Milan.
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