concept: Ješa Denegri
The National Museum of Modern Art, in collaboration with the Marinko Sudac Collection, from 13 January to 6 February 2022, will present the exhibition Lucia di Luciano & Giovanni Pizzo "Programmed Art" at the Josip Račić Gallery. In the author's conception of art historian and critic Ješa Denegri, the exhibition will present nine paintings by Italian artists Lucia di Luciano and Giovanni Pizza from the Marinko Sudac Collection, performed in the period from 1964 to 1967. The artistic couple has been working together since the early 1960s, and in 1965 they participated in the exhibition New Tendency 3 at the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Zagreb. Lucia di Luciano then showed her Operating Structure N - 15, from 1965, and Giovanni Pizzo Sign - gestalt No 11 work created in 1964. "Precisely terms such as" objectivity "," science "," technical elaboration "," system "," method "can directly relate to the approach and understanding of the art of para di Luciano - Pizzo as part of a typically Italian phenomenon called Arte programmata." - writes Ješa Denegri in the preface to the exhibition catalogue.
Lucia di Luciano (b. 1933, Syracuse) attended the Academy of Fine Arts and was a member of the L'Associazione Artistica Internazionale in Rome. She had her first solo exhibition in 1965 at the Numero Gallery in Rome. Giovanni Pizzo (b. 1934, Veroli) attended the Academy of Fine Arts and the French Academy in Rome. He had his first solo exhibition at the La Fontanina Gallery in Syracuse in 1958. Di Luciano and Pizzo met in 1956 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and were married in 1959. Together they founded Gruppo 63 in Rome (1963). which included another artistic couple - Lia Drei and Francesco Guerrieri. The group was characterized by artistic research based on logical and mathematical principles that ultimately aimed to unite art, architecture and industrial design. The group exhibited together in Rome, Florence and Livorno, and ceased operations in September 1963. Immediately afterwards, di Luciano and Pizzo founded the group Operativo R (1963-1968), which included Franco di Vito and Carlo Carchietti. The group creates a pronounced rigidity by following the precise theoretical principles of the scientific-logical field. Lucia di Luciano and Giovanni Pizzo were part of the programmed art movement (Arte programmata). Some of the most prominent art critics of the time, such as Giulio Carlo, wrote Argan, Umbro Appolonio, Lea Vergine, Palma Bucarelli, Giancarlo Politi and others about their work. Giovanni Pizzo is a co-founder of the Spazio Documento cultural association, which has been active since 1981.
Lucia di Luciano and Giovanni Pizzo participated in the New Tendency 3 exhibition in Zagreb in 1965.