Università Roma Tre

The course traces the relationship between the artistic object and the environment in the second half of the twentieth century. Starting with the questioning of the frame in painting and the pedestal in sculpture, the course will explore the transition from the object to the environment and installation, and it will finally analyse the expansion of the artistic intervention from institutional spaces to nature and public space - from land art to different practices of social participation.

Francesco Poli (ed.), Arte contemporanea. Le ricerche internazionali dalla fine degli anni ’50 a oggi, Electa, Milano 2003 (the essays: F. Poli, Ricerche minimaliste e analitiche, pp. 70-95; F. Poli, Arte e ambiente, pp. 96-121; Maddalena Disch, Process art e arte povera, pp. 121-149).

For an overall view of art between the 19th and 20th centuries, with a vast array of images, it is very useful to consult the following books:

Mary Acton, Guardare l'arte contemporanea, Einaudi 2008
Hal Foster et al., Art since 1900, Phaidon, second edition 2013, years 1965-1975.

All the images presented during the course, as well as the videos, can be found online through a simple search on Google Images or YouTube or on specialized sites such as ubu.com.

The course intends to retrace the relationships between the artistic object and the environment, from the historical avant-gardes to the Seventies of the XX century.
Starting from the questioning of the frame in painting and of the pedestal in sculpture, it will deepen the transition from the object to the environment, with the consequent affirmation of an experiential dimension of space, to get to analyzing the outflow of the artistic intervention from the designated spaces of art in nature and in public space - from Land Art to the various practices of social participation.
In their different nature, the interventions presented during the lectures will allow to highlight the issues connected to the temporalization and the process of practices finding in photography and video documentation the only possibility to leave testimony of their impermanent and de-commodified character.

1) Arte moderna. Dal Postimpressionismo all’Informale, Electa, Milano 2007 (for the texts: C. Zambianchi, Le ricerche postimpressioniste, pp. 10-29; M. Lorandi, Simbolismo, pp. 30-53; F. Poli, Informale ed espressionismo astratto, pp. 262-283)[testo fuori commercio; PDF download area, professor's website]

2) D. Riout, L’arte del ventesimo secolo. Protagonisti, temi, correnti, Einaudi, Torino 2002

3) F. Poli. F. Bernardelli, Mettere in scena l’arte contemporanea. Dallo spazio dell’opera allo spazio intorno all’opera, Johan & Levi, Milano 2016, pp. 11-101

4) Selection of sources and texts available during the course (a copy will be available at copisteria CLP, via Giulio Rocco, 9)

5) Selezione delle immagini proiettate a lezione e a corredo dei testi in programma (disponibile sul sito della docente a fine del corso).

Filmography and videography:
Land Art, 1969
Fernsehgalerie Berlin Gerry Schum

Christo, Wrapped Coast, 1969
Michael Blackwood Productions

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970
Production with Robert Fiore, Nancy Holt e Barbara Jarvis

Troublemakers. The Story of Land Art, 2015
Directed by James Crump
Production: Summitridge Pictures in association with RSJC LLC (con interviews and materials by Vito Acconci, Carl Andre, Germano Celant, Paula Cooper, Walter De Maria, Virginia Dwan, Gianfranco Gorgoni, Michael Heizer, Nancy Holt, Dennis Oppenheim, Charles Ross, Pamela Sharp, Willoghby Sharp, Robert Smithson, Harald Szeemann, Lawrence Wiener).