I write a lot of about the connective power of art, usually in the context of galleries, artists, arts organizations and events here in the U.S. During a recent trip to Italy, I had the opportunity to see the currents of creativity on a global scale. For most of my trip, I was in a teeny-tiny village in the Apennine Mountains. The town was essentially a shrine to the legacy of Tonino Guerra, a beloved Italian poet, artist and screenwriter, who spent his final years there. His artwork and poetic verse were everywhere: on the facades of medieval building, in mediative sculpture gardens, in lights strung over a narrow street, and in his namesake museum, infusing the whole town with his creative spirit. A small group of young artist-activists had moved to the town with the hopes of revitalizing it. They had established artist residencies in an abandoned seminary, and transformed the rooms and hallways into multi-media installations. My favorite was a tree-like mobile, its leaves squares of paper on which visitors had written what they had to offer a community, and where they could use some assistance from someone with the skills they lacked.
The unplanned grand finale of my trip was attending the Venice Biennale—the oldest and most prestigious contemporary art show in the world. Mind. Blown. Granted, most of the art was conceptual, but even the most avant-garde presentations were clearly grounded in artistic and cultural tradition.
A group exhibition at Meyer Gallery this month, titled The Creative Spark, explores the ongoing dialogue between classical fine art and contemporary practice, asking the question, “what happens when an artist takes the discipline of the Old Masters seriously and still insists on saying something new?” On Page 30, some of the most prominent contemporary realists working today provide answers in the form of bold, daring works that are sure to "spark" some dialogue of your own.
Here at American Art Collector our domain is a specific microcosm within the vast macrocosm of creativity—and it has to be for us to do our job well. But every so often, it’s important to zoom way out to see the big picture, and how the boundless forms of artistic expression all originate in the same universal impulse to create.
Enjoy the November issue!
Sarah Gianelli
Managing Editor
sgianelli@americanartcollector.com
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