Enzo Cucchi

The exhibition at GAMeC – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo is the first show in a public institution devoted entirely to the artist’s sculptural work and it contains works dating from the early 1990s until today including more than forty bronzes, a large ceramic work, and a canvas measuring 6x6 metres made specially for GAMeC. Placed on the far wall of the large room, the canvas will provide the background to the show.

The exhibition illustrates the sculptural development of an artist who is known above all to the public as a painter. In fact Cucchi has never ceased to produce sculptures, or paintings that contain sculptural or indeed installational forms. Many of his earliest works expressed three-dimensionality, a spatial quality that is also apparent in his painting and drawing. He pays heed to space, consequently, his images are never flat, always being placed in a three-dimensional void. Having his output rooted in sculpture means that his works enjoy a degree of originality compared with the trends that were predominant in the late 1970s and distinguish themselves from the new purely pictorial work being done at the moment. In this way he keeps alive the experimentalism typical of the avant-gardes: his installations are made from more diverse materials, placed freely in the exhibition space, and used as supports for his painted, sculpted or drawn images. Seen from his standpoint, t he exhibition at GAMeC has been conceived and will be laid out as a large installation, a single large work of art made up of many small but great works.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a bilingual catalogue published by Electa, Milan and includes a text by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio. This will be the first catalogue devoted to Cucchi's sculpture and will feature not just the works on display but also the large body of sculptural works that the artist has produced over his artistic career.

Enzo Cucchi
SCULPTURES
Kurator: Giacinto Di Pietrantonio