Francesco Lo Savio

Curated by Silvia Lucchesi, Alberto Salvadori, Riccardo Venturi

More than fifteen years after the last major exhibition of his works in an arts institution, Francesco Lo Savio (1935-1963) is again the focus of a monographic museum exhibition that draws on new research to cast fresh light on the artist’s oeuvre. Archival materials, sketches, plans and photographs, many exhibited for the first time, provide the basis for this novel project.
Among the preeminent names in the Italian and international arts scene, Lo Savio introduced a wealth of ideas that would be picked up by the minimalists and conceptual artists during a brief but blazing career that was cut short by his death at the age of twenty-eight.
A relationship with architecture underpins not just his projects, but also his entire creative thought process, a theoretical device that guided him in rethinking the role of art in contemporary society. Indeed, the distinctive style of his works – few of which were exhibited during the artist’s lifetime – is more architectural than minimal. 
Through a selection of fifty works, the exhibition spans Lo Savio’s entire creative arc, highlighting the principal elements that best define his quest: the study of space and the rendering of light. The exhibition traces out a trajectory from his Filtri, heavily textured layers whose surface becomes a vibrant pattern of images, through the paintings in the Spazio-Luce series, to the Metalli and the Articolazioni totali, structures engaging in a manifesto-dialogue with the architectural space in which they are situated.
The itinerary concludes with Lo Savio’s architectural and urban design projects, where the artist redefines the elements of his sculptural, visual and conceptual practice in his well known studies for the Maison au soleil, the prototype for a dwelling unit inspired by Le Corbusier’s buildings. 
A central figure in the Roman art scene in the 1960s, Lo Savio has exhibited internationally and his works are now preserved in public museums and private collections, including the Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana, the Museo d’arte contemporanea Donnaregina, Fondazione Prada and the Pinault Collection, which have provided important loans for the Mart exhibition.
The exhibition will be followed by the publication of a monograph with contributions from some of the foremost Lo Savio specialists, a critical edition of the artist’s writings, and a collection of unpublished documents.

Source: www.mart.tn.it