Fatti dello Studio Bentivoglio

Abstract

In the late sixties a group of artists formed in Palazzo Bentivoglio in Bologna joined to new conceptual-behavioral frontiers, in turn summarized under the partial labels Antiform, Arte Povera and Body Art. The situation in Bologna takes on connotations entirely singular, mainly for having found its wellspring in Vasco Bendini, from Informal movement, who became brilliant forerunner of many of the most advanced solutions and features of the new art season. For a few but intense years Studio Bentivoglio becomes therefore the heart of the new fertile aesthetic research, counting among its leaders now prominent personalities such as Pier Paolo Calzolari and Luigi Ontani. The essay will reconstruct the events of those years in Bologna through the works and documents remained of, placing comparisons with the contemporary proposals, and referring not only to the poetics of various artists, but also to the critical voices – not least that of Francesco Arcangeli – who, with insight and boldness, were able to understand and comment on the changes of expression then in place.