The Limit of Painting

Glenda Cinquegrana Art Consulting is pleased to present the group exhibition At the Limit of Painting, featuring a selection of works by artists associated with the Italian Pittura Analitica movement, including Enzo Cacciola, Vincenzo Cecchini, Giorgio Griffa, Paolo Masi, Claudio Olivieri, and Gianfranco Zappettini. Alongside these key figures of historical Analytical Painting, the exhibition includes Vittorio Corsini and Silvio Wolf, whose practices engage with certain concerns of that period, rearticulating them through the languages of contemporaneity. The exhibition title alludes to one of the defining characteristics of Pittura Analitica: its sustained investigation into the material conditions of painting, pushed to the point of transforming painting into installation, into process, into an "opaque" object. Emerging in the 1970s in response to a cultural climate that proclaimed the death of painting, Analytical Painting developed in dialogue with parallel international tendencies, including the French Supports/Surfaces, German Geplante Malerei, and American Systemic Painting. Beyond these affinities, it constituted a distinct artistic current, shaped through a series of exhibitions that were crucial to its definition. Yet, while historically circumscribed in time and place, its conceptual and process-oriented approach has resurfaced in the practices of younger generations. Around 1974–75, Enzo Cacciola (Arenzano, Genoa, 1954) developed a practice in which process operates as a means of emotional neutralization, while the use of cement as a pictorial material becomes a defining feature. Vincenzo Cecchini (Cattolica, 1934) explores the relationship between painting and photography, later elaborating a poetics grounded in reflection on the pictorial field as a site of imperfection. For Vittorio Corsini (Cecina, Livorno, 1956), the painting becomes a visual event in which light functions as a threshold, an active material that redefines the codes of vision and engages peripheral sight as ocular perception begins to loosen. Among the most rigorous and consistent in reducing painting to its foundational principles is Giorgio Griffa (Turin, 1936), who dismantles the painting as a three-dimensional support, reducing it to the bare trace of a sign on canvas. Paolo Masi (Florence, 1934), by contrast, employs salvaged cardboard as his support, exploring color through its infinite interactions with an irregular, fragmented surface. Claudio Olivieri (Rome, 1934 – Milan, 2019) developed a painterly language in which color approaches the idea of limit, of a "black light." Silvio Wolf (Milan, 1952) investigates the foundational conditions of the photographic image—time, light, chance, and the off-camera—while his Horizons reveal a threshold, a sharp limit between light and darkness, matter and language, the visible and the invisible. Gianfranco Zappettini (Genoa, 1939), now regarded as one of the founders of the movement, rigorously explores a process-based painting that becomes either pure light or the surface of a pencil mark.

Artists' biographies

Enzo Cacciola (Arenzano, GE, 1945). Mostre personali selezionate: Enzo Cacciola, Materia e Tempo, Castello Brown, Portofino, IT 2022; Fondazione Zappettini, Milan, 2008; Galleria Pro Arte - Museo Foro Cultural Contreras, Città del Messico, MX, 1980; Galleria von Bartha, Basilea, CH. Selected collective shows: Pittura Analitica, Origini e Continuità, Villa Contarini, Padua; Bilé umeni White art, Galerie Zaloudek, Praga, CZ, 2017; Pittura Analitica, 1970s, Mazzoleni, Londra, UK, 2016; LIV Biennale, Venice, 2011; Pensare Pittura – Una linea internazionale di ricerca negli anni '70, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Villa Croce, Genoa 2009; Pittura Analitica - I percorsi italiani 1970 – 1980, Museo della Permanente, Milan, 2007; Documenta 6, Kassel, DEU, 1977; X Quadriennale, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, 1975; Concerning Painting, Museo van Bommel van Dam, Venlo, NL, 1975.

Vincenzo Cecchini (Cattolica RN, nel 1934). Selected solo shows: In Forma Di Pittura, Glenda Cinquegrana Art Consulting, Milano, 2022; Galleria Peccolo, Livorno, 2017; Centro Culturale, Cattolica, Rimini, IT, 2004; Galleria dell'Immagine, Rimini, 2001; Palazzo della Cultura, Latina, Rome, 1993; Galleria Peccolo, Köln, DE, 1976; Galleria Arco d'Alibert, Rome, 1967; Akademiska Foreingen, Lund, SE, 1964; Galleria Numero, Firenze, 1960. Selected collective shows: Pittura Analitica, Mazzoleni Gallery, Turin, 2017, London, UK. 2016; Pittura Analitica, ieri e oggi, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, 2015; Pittura come Pittura, l'arte analitica degli anni '70, Padiglione d'Arte Macron, Venice, 2014; Pensare Pittura, museo di Villa Croce, Genoa, 2009; Pittura Analitica. I percorsi Italiani 1970-1980, Museo della Permanente, Milan, 2007; Lavori in corso, Galleria nazionale d'arte moderna e contemporanea, Rome, 2000; Museo sperimentale di Torino: arte Italiana degli anni Sessanta nelle collezioni della Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli, Turin, Museo d'arte contemporanea di Villa Croce, Genoa, 1986; Linee della ricerca artistica in Italia 1960-1980, Rome, 1981; Aphoto, Studio Marconi, Milan,1977; A proposito della pittura, Museo van Bommel van Dam, Venlo, NL; Stedeljik Museum, Schiedam Hedendaagse Kunst, Utrecht, NL, 1976; Art 4, Basel, CH, 1974; 40 Astratti, Galleria Numero, Florence, 1959.

Vittorio Corsini (Cecina, LI, 1956). Permanent projects: The Gaze of Peccioli; Roof, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, New York, 2026; Dai Fammi un sorriso, Ma che voglia di prenderti per Mano, Palazzo Senza Tempo, Peccioli, 2020; Voci, Peccioli, 2019; 2018. Selected solo shows: Omaggio a De Pisis, galleria Farsetti, Milano, 2026; Istituto degli Armeni, Venezia, Padiglione Repubblica di San Marino, Biennale di Venezia, Venezia, 2023; Cura (Sorge) Kulturzentrum, Graz 2017; Tra voci, carte, rovi e notturni, Galleria Civica di Modena, 2012; Xenia, MACRO, Roma, 2011; GOD SAVE the PEOPLE, Claudio Poleschi arte contemporanea, Lucca, IT 2007; ALLELUJA, Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena, IT 2007; Galleria Cardi, Milan, 1994, 1992; Galleria Pino Pascali, Polignano a Mare, BA, 1991; Galleria l'Attico, Rome, 1989. Selected collective shows: The Pulse of Life, Biennale di Arte Contemporanea Chengdu, China, 2026; Contemporaneo Non-Stop, GAM Achille Forti, Verona, 2020; Il Passo Sospeso, Fondazione Ragghianti, Lucca, IT, 2017; Around the World, Bocconi Art Gallery, Milan, 2016; The Wolf and the Tiger, Palazzo della Permanente Milan, 2015; Andata e Ricordo, MART, Rovereto, Sculpture! Make you Dream, Art Center Seoul, 2013; Scultura del XXI secolo, Fondazione Pomodoro, Milan, 2010; Collezione Permanente, Museo Pecci, Prato, IT 2004.

Giorgio Griffa (Torino, 1936). Selected solo exhibitions: Les Mérveilles de l'inconnu, Lille métropole musée d'art moderne d'art contemporain et d'art brut (LAM), Lille, FR, 2021; A Continuous Becoming, Camden Arts Centre, Londra, UK, 2018; A Retrospective 1968 - 2014, a cura di A. Bellini, Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève, Ginevra, CH, 2015; MACRO, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Roma, 2011; GAM Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Torino, 2001; Galleria del Milione, Milano, 1977; Galleria La Bertesca, Genova, 1974; Sonnabend Gallery, New York, USA, Parigi, FR, 1970. Selected collective exhibitions: Viva Arte Viva, 57th International Art Exhibition, Arsenale, Venezia; Colori, Castello di Rivoli/ GAM, Torino, 2017; Temi & Variazioni - Dalla grafia all'azzeramento, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venezia, 2009; Pittura 70 - Then and now, Italian Cultural Institute, Londra, UK, 2006; Proiezioni 2000, XIII Quadriennale, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma, 1999; Arte Italiana, Ultimi quarant'anni. Pittura, GAM Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna, 1998; 1960-1985: Aspetti dell'arte italiana, Kunstverein, Frankfurt; Hans am Waldsee, Berlin; Kunstverein, Hannover DEU; 6th Triennale India, New Delhi, IN; Linee della ricerca artistica in ltalia 1960-1980, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma, 1981; XXXIX Esposizione Biennale Internazionale d'Arte, Venice,, 1980; XXXVIII Esposizione Biennale Internazionale d'Arte, Venezia, 1978; XIV Biennale, Sao Paulo, BR; Bilder ohne Bilder, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn, 1977; Geplante Malerei, Westfalischer Kunstverein, Munich, DEU, 1974.

Paolo Masi (Firenze, 1934, dove vive e lavora). Selected solo shows: Paolo Masi, Cartoni, Glenda Cinquegrana Art Consulting, Milan, 2022; Paolo Masi. In ordine sparso, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Lissone, 2014; Percorso colore segno, Aeroporto Leonardo da Vinci, Fiumicino, Rome, 2005; Villa Vogel, in collaborazione con Centro Pecci Prato, Firenze, 2003; Base/Progetti per l'Arte, Florence, 2000; Galleria Christian Stein, Turin, 1973; Galleria Schema, Florence,1972; La Strozzina, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 1960. Selected collective shows: The Independent, Base, MAXXI, Roma, 2016; 2010; Pittura analitica. Il periodo Italiani 1970-1980, Museo della Permanente, Milano; Pittura analitica, MART, Rovereto, 2007; The age of Metamorphosis: European art highlights from the Centro Pecci Collection, MoCA, Shangai, CN, 2006; Continuità Arte in Toscana 1945-1967, Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze, 2002; XI Quadriennale, Roma, 1986; XXXVIII Biennale internazionale d'arte, La Biennale, Venice 1978; Flash information, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Colonia, DEU, 1974.... read the rest of the article»