Dramatic arts: key works from Fausto Melotti's 60 year career go on view in NY
The 60-year career of Italian sculptor/artist and all-around pioneer of midcentury European modernism, Fausto Melotti, is being presented with new fervour at Hauser & Wirth’s uptown gallery space in New York. While renowned for his influence and friendship with Lucio Fontana (a fellow student at the Accademia di Brera in Milan) in Europe, Melotti is less recognised in the United States, hence the premise of Hauser & Wirth’s exhibition.
Staged over three floors of its intimate gallery space and curated by Douglas Fogle, formerly the chief curator at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, ‘Fausto Melotti’ invites visitors to experience the thoughtful, delicate sculptures of the Italian master up close. Opening with a series of abstract plaster works from the 1930s that simultaneously showcase Melotti’s interest in classical music and mathematics with its motifs, and leading towards ceramic sculptures that demonstrate his later return to figuration circa the 1960s, the breadth of Melotti’s creations is apparent.
Shapes that mimic and articulate the human form in a variety of scales, such as The Seven Sages (1960) and various devil-like figures (1945) coincide with Melotti’s personal coming to terms with the reality and repercussions of the Second World War, which he lived through. In fact, the artist’s foray into ceramics was a result of his studio being bombed at the time, and he gravitated towards working in clay simply because the material was easier to come by.
The themes of humanity, harmony, geometry and order, along with highlighting the range of emotions that make up the human experience, are recurring aspects in Melotti’s works. Whether it’s the poetic simplicity of The Rain (1966) – a gold sculpture that ingeniously captures the movement of falling rain – or the graphic theatricality of his renowned ‘Teatrini’ ('Little Theatres') and of works such as The Shadow of the Soul (1984), Melotti was a master of invoking fragmented realities, with a gift for capturing the imagination of viewers that’s still so powerful today.
INFORMATION
’Fausto Melotti’ is on view until 18 June. For more information, visit Hauser & Wirth’s website
Photography courtesy of Fondazione Fausto Melotti and Hauser & Wirth
ADDRESS
Hauser & Wirth
32 East 69th Street
New York, NY 10021
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Pei-Ru Keh is a former US Editor at Wallpaper*. Born and raised in Singapore, she has been a New Yorker since 2013. Pei-Ru held various titles at Wallpaper* between 2007 and 2023. She reports on design, tech, art, architecture, fashion, beauty and lifestyle happenings in the United States, both in print and digitally. Pei-Ru took a key role in championing diversity and representation within Wallpaper's content pillars, actively seeking out stories that reflect a wide range of perspectives. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children, and is currently learning how to drive.
-
Get to know Issey Miyake’s innovative A-POC ABLE line as it arrives in the UK
As A-POC ABLE Issey Miyake launches in London this week, designer Yoshiyuki Miyamae gives Wallpaper* the lowdown on the experimental Issey Miyake offshoot
By Jack Moss Published
-
Eurovision unveils its 2024 stage, designed by Beyoncé's Renaissance Tour creatives
This year's stage design aims to bring the audience into the performance more than ever before.
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
Ikea meets Japan in this new pattern-filled collection
New Ikea Sötrönn collection by Japanese artist Hiroko Takahashi brings Japan and Scandinavia together in a pattern-filled, joyful range for the home
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
Surreal, uncanny, seductive: step into Graham Little’s world
Scottish artist Graham Little presents his first US retrospective at The FLAG Art Foundation in New York
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Gerhard Richter unveils new sculpture at Serpentine South
Gerhard Richter revisits themes of pattern and repetition in ‘Strip-Tower’ at London’s Serpentine South
By Hannah Silver Published
-
The cosmos meets art history in Vivian Greven’s New York exhibition
Vivian Greven’s ‘When the Sun Hits the Moon’, at Perrotin in New York City, is the artist’s first solo exhibition in the USA
By Emily McDermott Published
-
The Met’s ‘The Real Thing: Unpacking Product Photography’ dissects the avant-garde in early advertising
A new exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York explores the role of product photography and advertising in shaping the visual language of modernism
By Zoe Whitfield Published
-
Who is the future of British art? Hauser & Wirth Somerset finds out
‘Present Tense’ at Hauser & Wirth Somerset showcases some of Britain’s most exciting emerging talents with a group show of 23 artists
By Mary Cleary Published
-
Detroit Institute of Arts celebrates Black cinema
‘Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971’ at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) brings lost or forgotten films, filmmakers and performers to a contemporary audience
By Anne Soward Published
-
BLUM marks 30 years of Japanese contemporary art in America
BLUM will take ‘Thirty Years: Written with a Splash of Blood’ to its New York space in September 2024, continuing its celebration of Japanese contemporary art in America
By Timothy Anscombe-Bell Published
-
Todd Gray’s sculptural photography collages defy dimension, linearity and narrative
In Todd Gray’s New York exhibition, he revisits his 40-year archive, fragmented into elaborated frames that open doors for new readings
By Osman Can Yerebakan Published