1st Edition
Exhibiting Italian Art in the United States from Futurism to Arte Povera 'Like a Giant Screen'
Introduction 1. (Prelude): "I Will Smash The Alps of the Atlantic:" Futurist Depero and Italian Americanism 2. Exporting Fascist Culture / Importing American Modernity 3. MoMA and the Post-War Rehabilitation of Italy 4. Tu Vuo Fa l’Americano: Catherine Viviano, Irene Brin, and Italian Art’s Conquest of Hollywood 5. Transatlantic Arte Povera: The Trojan Horse of Germano Celant
Biography
Raffaele Bedarida is an Associate Professor of Art History at The Cooper Union, New York, where he directs the History and Theory of Art program.
"Bedarida's analysis has the merit of putting works and facts at the center, with a first-hand archival excavation work on largely unexplored sources, through which he revises discourses and narratives that are dominant or have been consolidated by critical laziness. Against such narratives, the author emphasizes the porosity of his story, opening up ample margins for further study. [...] Indeed [Bedarida] provides a revised method by insisting on the need for 'different scales' of approach and evaluation, beyond competitions or hierarchies to be established in one [national school] or the other."
--La Diana
"Exhibiting Italian Art in the United States from Futurism to Arte Povera is a fundamental contribution to contemporary debates in art history that expertly dissects the exhibition device in relation to political, historical and cultural contexts. Uncovering their inherent dynamics of power and control, the book warns against the consideration of exhibitions as neutral apparatus, encouraging a more conscious and discerning reflection on their role, potential and significance"
--Association for Art History
"Due to his excellent archival work and revision of known histories, Bedarida can offer compelling insights that decentre the USA as the geographical protagonist of the last century as well as expose the myriad ways in which the experience of the arts mirrors that of Italian national identity construction throughout these heated decades."
-- Adrian R. Duran in International Yearbook of Futurism Studies, Vol. 13, 2023, pp. 463-467.
