Flashback, eclipse : the political imaginary of Italian art in the 1960s

From a leading art historian, a provocative exploration of the intersection of art, politics, and history in 1960s Italy Flashback, Eclipse is a groundbreaking study of 1960s Italian art and its troubled but also resourceful relation to the history and politics of the first part of the twentieth century and the aftermath of World War II. Most analyses have treated the 1960s in Italy as the decade of “presentism” par excellence, a political decade but one liberated from history. Romy Golan, however, makes the counterargument that 1960s Italian artists did not forget Italian and European history but rather reimagined it in oblique form. Her book identifies and explores this imaginary through two forms of nonlinear and decidedly nonpresentist forms of temporality―the flashback and the eclipse. In view of the photographic and filmic nature of these two concepts, the book’s analysis is largely mediated by black-and-white images culled from art, design, and architecture magazines, photo books, film stills, and exhibition documentation. The book begins in Turin with Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Mirror Paintings; moves on to Campo urbano , a one-day event in the city of Como; and ends with the Vitalità del Negativo exhibition in Rome. What is being recalled and at other moments occluded are not only episodes of Italian nationalism and Fascism but also various liberatory moments of political and cultural resistance. The book’s main protagonists are, in order of appearance, artists Michelangelo Pistoletto and Giosetta Fioroni, photographer Ugo Mulas, Ettore Sottsass (as critic rather than designer), graphic designer Bruno Munari, curators Luciano Caramel and Achille Bonito Oliva, architect Piero Sartogo, Carla Lonzi (as artist as much as critic), filmmakers Michelangelo Antonioni and Bernardo Bertolucci, and, in flashback among the departed, painter Felice Casorati, writer Massimo Bontempelli, art historian Aby Warburg, architect Giuseppe Terragni, and Renaissance friar-philosopher-mathematician Giordano Bruno (as patron saint of the sixty-eighters).

From a leading art historian, a provocative explorationof the intersection of art, politics, and historical memory in1960s Italy. Flashback, Eclipse is agroundbreaking study of 1960s Italian art and its troubled but alsoresourceful relation to the history and politics of the first partof the twentieth century and the aftermath of World War II. Mostanalyses have treated the 1960s in Italy as the decade of"presentism" par excellence, a political decade but one liberatedfrom history. Romy Golan, however, makes the counterargument that1960s Italian artists did not forget Italian and European historybut rather reimagined it in oblique form. Her book identifies andexplores this imaginary through two forms of nonlinear anddecidedly nonpresentist forms of temporality-the flashback and theeclipse. In view of the photographic and filmic nature of these twoconcepts, the book's analysis is largely mediated byblack-and-white images culled from art, design, and architecturemagazines, photo books, film stills, and exhibition documentation.The book begins in Turin with Michelangelo Pistoletto's MirrorPaintings; moves on to Campo urbano, a one-day event inthe city of Como; and ends with the Vitalità del Negativoexhibition in Rome. What is being recalled and at other momentsoccluded are not only episodes of Italian nationalism and Fascismbut also various liberatory moments of political and culturalresistance. The book's main protagonists are, in order ofappearance, artists Michelangelo Pistoletto and Giosetta Fioroni,photographer Ugo Mulas, Ettore Sottsass (as critic rather thandesigner), graphic designer Bruno Munari, curators Luciano Carameland Achille Bonito Oliva, architect Piero Sartogo, Carla Lonzi (asartist as much as critic), filmmakers Michelangelo Antonioni andBernardo Bertolucci, and, in flashback among the departed, painterFelice Casorati, writer Massimo Bontempelli, art historian AbyWarburg, architect Giuseppe Terragni, and Renaissancefriar-philosopher-mathematician Giordano Bruno (as patron saint ofthe sixty-eighters).

Inside/outside : Michelangelo Pistoletto's mirror paintings -- Campo urbano : a late summer festival -- Vitalità del negativo : the exhibition as palimpsest