Hauser & Wirth at ADAA: The Art Show 2016

Hauser & Wirth is pleased to participate for the first time at ADAA The Art Show, with a solo presentation of works by Fausto Melotti (1901 – 1986), the Italian sculptor, installation artist, and poet admired for his unique contribution to the development of mid-century European Modernism. Through a selection of works spanning Melotti’s career – from the early terracotta Teatrini, to his signature, lithe brass sculptures – the booth traces the artist’s relationship with ‘the square’. Melotti studied music, mathematics and engineering, disciplines that exerted clear influence upon his distinctive practice, however the square functioned as more than a geometric concept. For Melotti, the shape was also a key structural device – it defined a space within which he could play-out his theatrical narratives and explore the emotive possibilities of abstraction. In a brief poem, Melotti encapsulates his approach to line and space: Linea dritta, infinito stabile. Linea curva, infinito instabile. Dentro allo sposalizio-contrasto vive l’opera d’arte. A straight, infinite and steady line. A curved, infinite and unsteady line. Within this marriage-contrast exists the work of art. The focused presentation at The Art Show will be followed in April 2016 by Hauser & Wirth’s first-ever Fausto Melotti solo exhibition, curated by Douglas Fogle and accompanied by a new publication. About the Artist During the early years of his artistic career, Fausto Melotti developed firm ideas about the relationship of abstract art to architecture, music, science and mathematics. ‘Greek architecture, Piero della Francesca’s paintings, Bach’s music, rationalist architecture – these are all ‘exact’ arts’, he wrote in 1935. In prewar Milan, Melotti was active among the artistic milieu, befriending the circle of Rationalist architects of Gruppo 7 and joining the group of abstract artists who gravitated around Galleria del Milione. Influenced by his education in engineering and music, Melotti’s first abstract sculptures were geometrical, and echoed the young artist’s academic training in order, rhythm, proportions and form. The devastation brought by World War II resulted in a 20-year period of silence and isolation in Melotti’s studio practice, which ultimately and profoundly altered his artistic vision. Much of his early work was destroyed by bombing during the war years, causing what would become a literal and symbolic rupture in the idealised abstraction of Melotti’s formative years. By the beginning of the 1960s, the artist had faithfully returned to sculpture, using a new language of delicate threads and thin sheets of brass, iron, and gold to express a more figurative, humanist style. With the introduction of figures into his work, Melotti produced his Teatrini, a series of enchanting, exquisitely crafted works rendered in ceramic, depicting fantastical characters and surrealist narratives both universal and highly personal. These enigmatic miniature stage sets are alive with emotional and poetic tension, balancing between representation and abstraction. The Teatrini series fully encapsulates the lyricism and whimsy of Melotti’s post-war practice. Melotti’s work of the mid-1960s and 1970s is perhaps his best known and represents a transformational period for the artist. Delicately wrought, almost fragile constructions became enriched by a new narrative, dream-like and symbolic. These weightless works resemble aerial drawings incorporating space, air and transparency. In later years, Melotti enjoyed critical success in Europe, with a first retrospective at Museum Ostwall Dortmund, Germany, in 1971. Melotti died in 1986, and was posthumously awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale that year