This catalogue was published to accompany the exhibition Soft Power: Rosso–Morandi–Ziegler , held at Galleria Tommaso Calabro between April and June 2019. In the show, new works by British artist Toby Ziegler (1972) offered his personal reading of the work of two Italian masters, Medardo Rosso (1858-1928) and Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964), whose continuous dialogue between figuration and abstraction can also be found at the core of Ziegler’s research.
The volume includes three essays, a conversation with Ziegler, artworks’ images and installation views, illustrating the visual dialogues created between the three artists in the exhibition. Starting from Ziegler’s sculpture Staking a claim (2019), Sharon Hecker highlights similarities between the artist’s creative process and that of Rosso, both caracterised by intentional disruptions aiming at redefining the identity and limits of sculpture. Alberto Salvadori sheds light on the persuasive power of images and their ambivalent fruition in both Ziegler’s and Morandi’s painting. After illustrating how Ziegler’s digital and pictorial images function, Dr Aline Guillermet reveals how their quasi abstract fragmentation opens up a space for the unpredictability of human perception to reassert itself. The transcript of the conversation between Hecker, Salvadori and Ziegler held at the gallery on May 21, 2019, eventually offers a closer look not only at the exhibition, but also at Ziegler’s artistic practice and thought.
INDEX
Introduzione / Introduction
Tommaso Calabro
Toby Ziegler: interferenze innovative / Toby Ziegler: disruptive innovations
Sharon Hecker
Ricominciare a guardare le cose / Starting to look at things again
Alberto Salvadori
Guardare fuori dal box / Seeing outside the box
Aline Guillermet
Conversazione con l’artista / In conversation
Sharon Hecker, Alberto Salvadori e Toby Ziegler
Lista opere / List of works
Dr Sharon Hecker is an Art Historian specialised in Modern and Contemporary art, and is currently one of the major experts on Medardo Rosso. She recently wrote a volume dedicated to the artist: A Moment's Monument: Medardo Rosso and the International Origins of Modern Sculpture (University of California Press, 2017).
Alberto Salvadori is co-founder and director of Fondazione ICA Milano. He previously directed the Florence Museo Marino Marini and the Florence Osservatorio per le Arti Contemporanee Ente Cassa di Risparmio.
Dr Aline Guillermet is Junior Research Fellow in Visual Studies at King's College London. Her research interests include postwar German art, the impact of technology on contemporary painting, and digital art.
