Magazzino Italian Art presented a four-part lecture series Arte Povera: Artistic Tradition and Transatlantic Dialogue curated by 2022-23 Magazzino Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Roberta Minnucci.
In the third lecture, Arte Povera and the Baroque: The Evolution of National Identity, Dr. Laura Petican, Independent Scholar, explored the evolving concept of Italian national identity as it relates to the persistence of the past in post-war Italian art; specifically, as concerned with the radical artistic experiments of Arte Povera in the 1960s and 1970s.
Considering notions of cultural inheritance and baroque historiography, the lecture touched upon the ways in which the avant-garde was deployed periodically throughout the twentieth century to political ends, and resurfaced following Italy’s interwar cultural isolation in Informale’s experimental works.
The notion of ‘baroque-centricity’ has been discussed as a methodology to illustrate Arte Povera’s conceptual and tangible links to the past and, perhaps, as a frame through which artists negotiated a meaningful relationship with the historical context but remained firmly entrenched in the present moment.
A selection of artworks has been discussed with respect to their engagement with baroque-centric principles of nature, space, tension, theatricality, time, materials, and the senses.
About Dr. Laura Petican
Dr. Laura Petican is an art historian, curator, author, and cultural programs director. Her research is centered in contemporary Italian art and fashion studies. Dr. Petican received her BA and MA in Art History from Western University, Canada; a PhD from Jacobs University, Germany; and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship awarded by the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada. She has authored the monograph Arte Povera and the Baroque: Building an International Identity, followed by Contemporary Italian Art, Fashion, and the Evolution of Italianità, to be published in 2024 within the Routledge Research in Art History series; and is editor of Fashion and Contemporaneity: Realms of the Visible; co-editor of the recently published In Fashion: Culture, Commerce, Craft, and Identity; and was Exhibitions Reviews Editor for Catwalk: The Journal of Fashion, Style and Beauty. Her research has been presented with the College Art Association, American Association of Italian Studies, the Italian Art Society, the Fashion: Exploring Critical Issues conference in Oxford, United Kingdom; the Center for Italian Modern Art, New York; and the American University of Rome, Italy. Dr. Petican has served as Chair of the Arts and Culture Commission of Corpus Christi, as a Collections Committee Member of the Art Museum of South Texas, and is Curatorial Advisor for Blue Light Contemporary.
