XI Quadriennale
Roma
16 June – 16 August 1986

The XI Quadriennale opened on June 16th,1986, hosted by the EUR in the Palazzo dei Congressi. It included 400 artists, representing a vast part of the Italian visual arts’ panorama, along with the trends of the contemporary artistic research. The exhibition featured seven different sections. A historical one took stock of the situation from the 1950s to the 1980s. The other six were themes with a glance at the results of contemporary artistic research.

The historical section focused on the 50’s-80’s ranged from the old masters such as Luigi Veronesi and Mario Radice to the youngsters Dessì, Ceccobelli, Tirelli and the artists of Transavanguardia, with their eclectic recovery of figurative experiences: Enzo Cucchi, Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Nicola De Maria, Mimmo Paladino. Going through Arte Povera (Paolini, Pistoletto, Merz, Kounellis, Gilardi), Conceptual Art (Pisani, Ontani), Informal Art (Vedova, Morlotti), Abstract Art (Accardi, Consagra, Turcato), Realism with the works of Treccani and Guttuso. Around the central nucleus, the other six sections of thirty artists each, dedicated to the different tendencies of today, developed in a radial pattern.

Franco Mazzucchelli, Untitled, 1986; PVC, air, dimension variable; Roma, Italy; Courtesy the Artist and ChertLüdde, Berlin