On Thursday, September 17, 1998, San Fedele Gallery in Milan is inaugurating the exhibition The Nuclear Movement.

Credito Artigiano is mounting the exhibition and Martina Corgnati is attending to it. It is the most exhaustive investigation on this important movement, which played a central role in the Italian artistic culture of the post-war period. Enrico Baj, Sergio Dangelo and Joe C. Colombo founded the Nuclear Movement in Milan, in 1951.

From March to May 1998, the exhibition was hosted in Sondrio, in Sertoli Palace, Pretorio Palace and Martinengo Palace. Then, in July and August, it was hosted in Perugia, in the Umbertide fortress. With this last exhibition centre in Milan, the Nuclear Movement comes back to its origins. In 1951, Enrico Baj and Sergio Dangelo exhibited their works in the first centre of this gallery, which was located in the public square with the same name.

San Fedele Gallery is closely related to the Nuclear Movement birth and development. In the past, the Gallery has been promoting meetings, debates and exhibitions dedicated to the Group activity (the exhibition Nuclear art of 1957 has been particularly important). In 1980, the Gallery mounted the retrospective exhibition Nuclear Art 1951-1957, which is the only important precedent to the current exhibition.

The current exhibition is including approximately sixty exhibits, among which paintings, paper works, ceramics and sculptures (in addition to numerous documents, letters and original manifestos) realised between 1951 and 1959 by Enrico Baj, Joe C. Colombo, Sergio Dangelo, Giuseppe Allosia, Gianni Bertini, Guido Biasi, Lucio Del Pezzo, Gianni Dova, Asger Jorn, Yves Klein, Lanfranco, Piero Manzoni, Leonardo Mariani Travi, Antonio Recalcati, Pino Serpi, Ettore Sordini, Serge Vandercam, Angelo Verga. On the occasion, Enrico Baj exactly reproduced the manifesto BUM of 1952 and the famous, extraordinarily modern bone sculptures he realised in 1952 with Joe Colombo and which have been ruined, because of the material deterioration.

Per questa occasione Enrico Baj ha riprodotto con assoluta fedeltà il manifesto BUM del 1952 e le famose e straordinariamente attuali sculture di ossa realizzate nel 1952 insieme a Joe C. Colombo e nel frattempo perdute, data la deperibilità del materiale utilizzato.

The exhibition focuses not only on the Movement debuts (from 1951 to 1953) but also on the main exponents' artistic activity, e.g. the very important adhesions of the '50s and important international contacts, among which Ives Klein, who participated in the exhibition "Nuclear Art", mounted in San Fedele Gallery, in 1957. The exhibition also emphasises that the members, the Surrealism sole heirs, were constantly in touch with the European neo avant-garde currents.

The "Nuclear Movement" is the third exhibition of the five-exhibition cycle "Art in Milan 1946-1959", dedicated to the '50s in Milan. In February 1997, the exhibition "Real, Concrete, Abstract. From the post-Cubism to the late Naturalism" inaugurated the cycle, which continued, in July of the same year, with the MAC period (Movement for the Concrete Art). After the Nuclear Movement, the cycle will continue, in October 1998, with an exhibition dedicated to the Space Movement. In 1999, the last exhibition will be dedicated to the Existential Realism.

The catalogue includes a critical essay by Martina Corgnati, the copy of the exhibits, unpublished documents and material, the exhibits bibliography and reviews edited by Emma Gravagnuolo and more bibliographical references

On Wednesday, September 30 1998 at 18h.00, San Fedele Centre Auditorium is hosting the "Debate on the Avant-garde currents in Milan: the Nuclear Movement". Nuclear Art films will be shown and the group main exponents will tell their experience (e.g. Enrico Baj, Gianni Bertini, Sergio Dangelo and Lucio Del Pezzo). Martina Corgnati and Luciano Caprile are attending the debate.

For further information
San Fedele Gallery - Ornella Mignone 4 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Phone 02.86352233 Fax 02.86352236

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