AVANGUARDIA:
TRANSAVANGUARDIA

In the late 1970’s, Art Historian Achille Bonito Oliva invented the term “Transavanguardia” to describe the school of painting emerging with Italian Artists such as Sandro Chia, Enzo Cucchi, Mimmo Paladino, Nicola de Maria and Francesco Clemente. Coinciding with the emergence of this new European style was its counterpart in the United States represented by such artists as Julian Schnabel, David Salle and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

In the late Spring of 1982, approximately 1 year after Basquiat’s first solo exhibition at Modena’s Galeria d'Arte Emilio Mazzoli, and coinciding with the Artist’s second trip to Modena, Bonito Oliva curated Avanguardia: Transavanguardia, a remarkable exhibition comprised of works from some of the most esteemed Artists of the late 20th Century. Basquiat’s second European Museum exhibition featured an abbreviated selection of works from Bonito Oliva’s slightly earlier Transavanguardia: Italia, America show which opened in Modena the previous month.

Title: Avanguardia: Transavanguardia
Curator: Achille Bonito Oliva
Venue: ITA, Mura Aureliane, Rome
Dates: April 4 - July 4, 1982