Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, July 5 2019 – Structured like a journey, the solo show dedicated to Ugo Nespolo (born in the province of Biella in 1941) tells the story of an artist who in his multifaceted evolutions marked important stages in the history of Italian art.

Displayed in the Princes' Apartment, around two hundred works represent Nespolo's creative research, his eclecticism and his particular attention to materials: from wood to metals, from ceramics to glass.

Scheduled from 6 July to 15 September and curated by Maurizio Ferraris, “Nespolo futuro dal coro” is promoted and produced by the Municipality of Milan | Culture, Palazzo Reale and Studio Nespolo and created thanks to the Bracco Foundation, main sponsor of the project, with the organizational support from Skira, publisher of the catalogue. The exhibition is free to enter.

Intolerant of the obligations of creative and critical conformism, Nespolo gave life to an absolutely original artist, and therefore "out of the mainstream". His first works date back to the 1960s and were presented by Pierre Restany at the Schwarz Gallery in Milan, whose artists included Duchamp, Picabia, Schwitters, Arman and Baj: with the latter Nespolo founded the Istituto Patafisico Ticinese. These first works anticipate the Arte Povera movement founded by Germano Celant, whose first exhibitions in fact saw the participation of Nespolo. From this period are “Molotov”, “Condizionale”, “Power Violence”, “Radio”, “Semplicissimo” and many “Untitled” works: assemblages with a high level of creativity made of wicker, formica, wood, glue, steel, iron and paper. The "puzzles" technique was born in these years, which soon became the most recognizable distinctive feature of Nespolo's work. The artist cuts and trims shaped pieces of wood, fitted together and made to fit together to compose figures with irregular outlines: mostly monochromatic tiles, which give life to the combination of unprecedented polychromies.

Nespolo's passion for cinema is also early: the artist gives life, with Mario Schifano, to the "Cinema of Artists", inspired by the New American cinema that he knows through Jonas Mekas, Warhol, Yōko Ono, P. Adams Sitney. Between 1967 and 1968 he made films such as "Thank you mum Kodak", "The gallant adventure of the knight with a happy face", "The cheeks in flame", "Neonmerzare", "Buongiorno Michelangelo", "Boettinbianchenero", "Tucci-ucci ”, whose protagonists are friends Enrico Baj, Lucio Fontana, Mario Merz, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Alighiero Boetti. In Milan, thanks to Fernanda Pivano, he also met the most significant exponents of the beat generation, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who became the protagonist of the film A. G. (1968).

In Paris with Baj Nespolo he met Man Ray, who gave him a text to use for the 1982 film "Revolving Doors". Cinema is an experience that lasts over the years, giving rise to important retrospectives dedicated to him by museums, galleries , foundations and cultural institutions in America, Europe and Asia; up to the Beaubourg in Paris with the 1984 exhibition entitled “Le cinéma diagonal”, where Film/a/To, written and starring Edoardo Sanguineti, was also presented in 2001.

Various stills and extraordinary film posters are exhibited at Palazzo Reale, conceived and designed by the artist also for screenings in international museums such as London, Berlin, Bucharest, Shanghai.

The Seventies and Eighties saw Nespolo further broadening his choice of materials and consequently innovating the forms of his works: “Fuga in Avanti” is an upside-down boot in wood and leather; “Gentlemen's agreement” a fun hat holder; “Dialectical hypothesis” are animals in painted papier-mâché, but also photographs of the artist jumping into the void, “Les mains pleines” a sculpture in wood and alabaster, “Tranche de vie” a large fan in wood, mother of pearl and silver; “Nesporama”, a colorful enamel on wood; “Now you have it”, “False beards”, “With your sacred monsters” and “Big bill”, acrylics on wood.

Between 1973 and 1985 Nespolo was in New York where pop art established itself, which he looked at with interest, without neglecting the tradition of the European avant-garde, from Futurism to Dada. Paintings such as "Escape from New York, When the City Sleeps", "Soft New York" and the "Showcases of New York" series are from this period. Artist and man of culture - he is also an art critic - Nespolo is profoundly opposed to the contemptuous isolation of the artist and instead claims the need to "contaminate himself", getting among the people and adapting art to their needs, to make it enter the circuits of daily existence.

Hence the attention to design and the assiduous practice of an applied art, which has led Nespolo to try his hand at the most disparate sectors, from clothing to furniture, from book and record covers to advertising graphics (the dedicated campaigns to Campari and Richard Ginori of which he was the artistic director): the creation of posters dedicated to important cultural and sporting events, from Azzurra to the Football World Cup and the Giro d'Italia, is fundamental. We find many such artefacts on display, such as prototypes of colorful furniture, models of public fountains, sets of cups and dinner sets for Renault and Richard Ginori, Swatch watches, Zippo lighters, motorcycle models for BMW and Piaggio.

But Nespolo was also the author of famous sets and costumes for the theater - such as Busoni's "Turandot", Paisiello's "Don Chisciotte" and Donizetti's "Elisir d'amore", Puccini's "Butterfly" - as well to take care of Ivano Fossati's tour in 2000: on display there are various sketches in acrylic models on wood and mixed media drawings on paper.

And there are also painted majolica, acrylics and gold leaf on wood, an enormous "inhabitable" multi-material work, glass sculptures, works dedicated to key themes such as Numbers and Letters, painted bronzes and bronze sculptures such as "Working, working , to work, I prefer the sound of the sea,” of which he created a 1999 meter high sculpture in painted steel for the Municipality of San Benedetto del Tronto in 10.

And also works created with precious materials in homage to executive ability, artists' books printed with prestigious publishers and personalities of literary, philosophical and scientific culture.

Nespolo has been the protagonist of important exhibitions held all over the world: from New York to Tokyo, from London to Seoul, from Beijing to Moscow, up to the traveling one in 1997 in the capitals of South America, in an uninterrupted and extraordinary experience of art and life.

Info: www.palazzorealemilano.it

Free entry

Opening hours
Lun: 14: 30 - 19: 30
Tue: 09am - 30pm
Wed: 09am - 30pm
Thu: 09am - 30pm
Fri: 09am - 30pm
Sat: 09: 30 - 22: 30
Sun: 09am - 30pm
(Open August 15th 9am – 30pm)
Last admission one hour before closing