ART & EXHIBITIONS
ART
PREVIEW
Temperamenti. contemporary art from Italy at Tramway, Glasgow.
LISTINGS: GLASGOW 64 EDINBURGH 66 MUSEUMS 68
Italian temper
The Tramway has quickly gained a reputation for innovative art exhibitions and for keeping an eye on Europe. Hilary Robinson previews the latest, ten artists from northern Italy.
In its short life. the Tramway has established itself as the only venue in Scotland to show the kind ofexhibitions on a scale and with an assuredness that people in the rest of Europe take for granted — difficult. fun. avant-garde. iconoclastic. risk-taking. . . With all due respect to the Fruitmarket and the Third Eye. the Tramway is not so establishment. not (yet) so connected to identifiable factions or empires: it‘s big and it‘s messy. and its visual art programming shows an awareness ofwhat is happening in Europe — and a desire to see Scotland as part of Europe — without being precious about it.
The latest in the Tramway's series of 1990 exhibitions is Temperamenti. a selection of ten artists working in the north of Italy. Some will be known to those who follow the articles in Flash/\rt and the European art fairs — Giuseppe Pcnone and Giovanni Anselmo are probably the best known in this country. The others. though. are by and large unexhibited in Britain. The show thus provides an unprecedented chance to see contemporary Italian art.
It is a thematic exhibition. rather than a simple cross-selection of artists. Some of the artists have been identified with the Arte Pot'em movement;
the others are clearly indebted to it in their choice of materials and the poetic concepts within the work. ‘Poor Art‘ used simple. often found materials. relying on space and juxtaposition to create meaning. less than the direct manipulation of. say. paint on canvas. Absent from the exhibition are two ofthe ‘grand old men‘ ofthe movement — Mario Merz and Jannis Kounellis. both of whom had major shows in London's Whitechapel Gallery in the early 80s and whose work has been seen in other shows in Britain since then. This makes the whole exhibition feel more l‘orward-ltmking than historical in concept:
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all the work has been done in the past three years. It has to be said. though. that all the artists are potential ‘grand old men' — there's not one woman among them. For all its innovative track record. this is an area where the Tramway could do better.
Tcmpcramwz(1': ( ‘mzlwnporur‘v A rt from Italy runs from ll Oct—18 Nov. Artists and non-artists will be able to discuss issues comingout ofthe exhibition in a series of practical workshops run by local sculptors. Phone the Tramway. ()41 423 9527. for details.
FRAME T0 FRAME
The more free-thinking an artist, the
of traditions when it comes to the media they use for working with. The lixity that a frame provides is often discarded or ignored. This was true of Leonardo; it was true ofthe Dadaists; it is certainly true of most of the more
has provided an unprecedented array of materials and technologies for artists to exploit. Frame to Frame — Film and the Art School Sensibility punningly presents the cross-over
between the most established of these links, between artists and film-makers. . Aseries of lectures and screenings more likely they are to be no respecter i held each Monday, the season starts off with a short lecture on the historical precedents, taking in Bunuel, Leger and Maya Deren among others, before moving bang up to date with art-school-trained David Lynch.
. . Over the next nine weeks the season exciting artists today. The 20th century I will cover such titles as Visionary Landscapes, European Animation and Window on Canada, and will have a special focus on such artist-tilm-makers as Derek Jarman, Peter Greenaway and Andrei I
(Hilary Robinson)
leaflets.
Tarkovsky. One session will examine pop stars who have emerged from art schools (it seems about half of them did) and look in particular atthe influence of David Byrne. To date, with 3 the lull programme not quite
l completed, itseemsthat women and ' Scots are untorgivably marginalised into token appearances— though maybe by the time it goes to print this will have been rectified. It should be.
Contact Paula Visocchi at the Glasgow Film Theatre iordetails (014 332 6535), or look out torthe programme
“the... 3; Still from Derek Jarman’s video torThe Smiths
The List 28 September— l i ()ctobcr I‘Nllfia