“Venice forever floating in its own sphere. The direction it takes is frozen, like memories in millions of minds.”
Harold Stevenson
The American artist Harold Stevenson (1929-2018) was a prominent figure in post-war avant-garde culture, a close friend of Andy Warhol and renowned for his large-scale, provocative paintings of male nudes. Supported by the art gallerists Alexander Iolas and Iris Clert, Stevenson exhibited in New York, Paris and Athens, and his works entered the collections of some of the most important American museums, including the Guggenheim and the MoMA in New York.
Harold Stevenson is the first monographic exhibition in Italy dedicated to the artist, presenting a selection of works created between the late 1950s and the 1970s. Among these are the famous nude paintings, Stevenson’s masterpiece “The Altar of Peace” (1972) – dramatically inspired by the Vietnam war – and some of the glass sculptures he created together with Gino Cenedese in Murano in 1968.
Stevenson’s connection to Venice begins in San Polo in 1962, when he is included, alongside artists such as Yves Klein and Tinguely, in the “Piccola Biennale” exhibition, commissioned by Iris Clert during the run of the 31st edition of the Venice Biennale. Thanks to Clert, Stevenson returns to Venice in June 1964, to participate in the collective show “Biennale Flottante.” In 1969, the artist stages his personal homage to Venice at Clert’s Parisian gallery, showcasing the glass sculptures executed with Cenedese, which sum up his love for the lagoon and its fascinating, centenary history.
