LUCIANO FABRO
DRAWING AS SPACE
New York, Italian Cultural Institute in New York
April 15 – May 15, 2024
Exhibition views: Courtesy Italian Cultural Institute in New York; Photos of works: © Archivio Luciano e Carla Fabro
Produced in collaboration with Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Curated by Ilaria Bernardi and Silvia Fabro
Among the most important artists from the postwar period, Luciano Fabro (Turin, 1936 – Milan, 2007) is known for his in-depth and innovative research into sculpture and space, as well as for his intense theoretical thinking and commitment as a teacher. Less is known about his parallel activity on paper, which he carried out from the early 1960s to his death in 2007.
The exhibition at the Italian Cultural Institute in New York, curated by Ilaria Bernardi and Silvia Fabro, aims to delve deeper into the artist’s production on paper, presenting a group of works that exemplify the two principal ways Fabro understood drawing: on the one hand, as a “study,” that is to say, closely linked to his sculptures and installations; on the other, as a “work in itself” specifically conceived for the paper support.
Although their genealogy differs, the “studies” and the “works in themselves” selected for this exhibition have a common denominator: a reflection on space, whether physical, anthropological, or natural, and on the relationship between inner and outer reality.
On display in the first room are “studies.” These include works related to the anthropological dimension, such as two Untitled, 1962 (a preliminary research on perception), the study for IO (l’uovo) (1978), and the series of the Macchie di Rorschach (1976).
Works conceived as “works in themselves,” mostly suggesting natural space, can be viewed in the second room. Eight elements, similar to those used by the artist to construct the room-sized installation Habitat delle erbe (1980), allow the viewer to imagine the four walls of that Habitat.
The same concept is underscored by Tubo da mettere tra i fiori (1963), a site-specific installation made with a telescopic steel tube “hidden” within a large group of green plants.
Other works on paper expand the reflection on nature, referring to some of its elements (Paesaggio rettangolo, 1999; Il viaggio del sole, 1993; Disegno di cielo, dal vero, 1992; Tramonto, 1995) as well as to specific temporal dimensions (Segno di partenza, 1992; È proprio ora di seminare, 1994 and In principio, 2007).
The exhibition ends with two major works. In the first, Far di un cielo un senso (1997), Fabro uses a typewritten poem to evoke specific elements of physical, anthropological, and natural space, and to refer to different works made during his activity. In the second, Disegno malato (1995), Fabro refers to the very concept of drawing, representing it as an ovoid sign that acts as an open container of space and relations, lovingly “curated” by the artist via the apposition of a blindfold fashioned from a folded piece of kitchen paper.