Massimo Minini 1973-2013: Forty Years of Contemporary Art

La Triennale di Milano presents Forty Years of Contemporary Art. Massimo Minini 1973-2013, an exhibition to celebrate forty years of Galleria Minini.

The exhibition consists of works that have passed through Galleria Minini, offering an authentic cross-section of contemporary art as told by the lead actor, who adopts a personal point of view, at times ironic and desecrating. Amid countless flashbacks,Massimo Minini pieces together, explains and tells the story of the various moments and passages in his characteristic manner, which has found a particular literary form in Pizzini. These “scraps” have become a successful book with short stories, brilliant ideas and tales about the artists he has met over the years.

Massimo Minini and his gallery are an essential part of the recent history of contemporary art, with exhibitions of works by many of top Italian and international artists.

The gallery started with Conceptual Art, Arte Povera and Minimal Art, but in the late 1970s and early 1980s came the work of young Italian and foreign artists, including Ettore Spalletti, Jan Fabre, Didier Vermeiren, Bertrand Lavier, Anish Kapoor, Alberto Garutti and Icaro, as well as the figurative experiments of artists such as Salvo, Luigi Ontani, Ger Van Elk, Ryan Mendoza, and Jiri Dokoupil.

In the mid-1990s the gallery opened up to a group of young Italian artists including Eva Marisaldi, Stefano Arienti, Maurizio Cattelan, Vanessa Beecroft, Sabrina Mezzaqui, Francesco Simeti and Paolo Chiasera, accompanied by such historic masters as Boetti, Accardi, Fabro, Paolini, LeWitt, Barry, Graham and Buren.

In recent years it has put on exhibitions of works by artists such as Luigi Ghirri, Yona Friedman, Roger Ballen, Nedko Solakov, Haim Steinbach, Peter Halley, Ghada Amer, and by young artists such as Dara Friedman, Manfred Pernice, Sean Snyder, Mathieu Mercier, Jan De Cock, Tino Sehgal, David Maljkovic, Paul P., Monica Bonvicini and Haris Epaminonda.

The display design of this exhibition reflects the gallerist’s own particular perspective, for historic works are shown alongside site-specific installations, and a section is devoted to the collection of Italian photography, with a series of portraits of Italian artists by great photographers such as Mulas, Giacomelli, Catalano, Gorgoni, Mussat Sartor and Cresci.

The exhibition is given a further dimension by material from the gallery’s vast archive, which reveals the most hidden and unusual aspects of the artists encountered over the past forty years. The archive documents will be displayed in a special section.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a 453-page book, Quarantanni. 1973-2013, published by a+mbookstore, with drawings, letters, postcards, telegrams, photographs and invitations to the countless exhibitions and adventures that have been invented since 1973.