"Modern and Contemporary Italian Storia dell’arte: Traditionally M.I.A."

An essay completed in December 2009

Abstract: Modern and contemporary Italian art has traditionally been pushed into the margins of art history. Contrary to the rational provided by leading art history surveys, this absence is not caused by any deficiency in the quality of Italian art of the 20th and 21st century. Italian art’s absence is instead due to the concentration of the primary influence of French standards on the Western story of art, Italian art’s historical relationships to fascism, internal political crises following WWII and the 1968 protests, lack of internal support for museums and universities, and asphyxiating critical standards.

Lacking necessary curation, many resources that would be valuable, even essential, to the construction of an comprehensive Modern and Contemporary history of art have been dispersed and/or destroyed. This essay explores the case of Italy’s disappearance from modern and contemporary art history, and examines how recent exhibitions of Italian art have worked reparatively towards pushing Italian artists back within the international conversations of art.