Dadamaino: The Work, the Time of Nouvelle Tendance

Simone Frittelli and Michela Rizzo present the exhibition “Dadamaino. The Work, the Time of Nouvelle Tendance”, organised in collaboration with the Archivio Dadamaino and curated by Flaminio Gualdoni, the exhibition examines a crucial phase of the artist’s research between 1962 and 1970.

During these years Dadamaino temporarily suspended solo exhibitions to focus on cultural organisation and collaboration with artists including François Morellet, Antonio Calderara and Jan Schoonhoven, within the international network of Nouvelle Tendance. Following the series “Volumi a moduli sfasati” (1961), presented with a text by Piero Manzoni, the artist participated in the landmark exhibition “Nul” at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1962.

Throughout the decade she experimented with materials such as aluminium, plastic and rodhoid, exploring what Udo Kultermann described as “new dimensions of painting and sculpture”. Her work developed through systems of modules, structures and serial progressions, leading to projects such as the film “Ricerca 1” (1965) and the systematic painterly series “La ricerca del colore”, begun in 1967.

Despite this experimental approach, Dadamaino maintained a constant principle: “Art must always be made by hand”, a statement that distinguishes her work from many contemporaneous practices.