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Artist or Maker: Enzo Cucchi (b. 1950)
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Provenance: Sperone Westwater Gallery, New York.
Gerald S. Elliott, Chicago.
Jan Eric Löwenadler, New York.
Anon. sale, Christie's New York, 24 February 1993, lot 139.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.
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Exhibited: New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Enzo Cucchi, May-July 1986.
Munich, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus München, Enzo Cucchi Testa, July-September 1987 (illustrated in colour p. 131). This exhibition later travelled to Edinburgh, The Fruitmarket Gallery, October-November 1987 and Nice, Musée de la ville de Nice, December 1987-January 1988.
Prato, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Prato, Cucchi, March-June 1989 (illustrated in colour p. 182).
Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Affinities and Intuitions: The Gerald S. Elliott Collection of Contemporary Art, May-July 1990, no. 39 (illustrated p. 190).
Turin, Castello di Rivoli, Enzo Cucchi, February 1999-December 2000.
Shanghai, Shanghai Art Museum, Transavanguardia Italiana, June 2001 (illustrated p. 80).
Rome, Castello Colonna, Centro Internazionale per l'Arte Contemporanea Genanzzano, Enzo Cucchi, June-September 2002 (illustrated in colour p. 26).
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Literature: G. Mercurio, Enzo Cucchi, Milan, 2002 (illustrated in colour p. 26).
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Notes: 'In the work of Cucchi, the image is the fire that determines the temperature of the work, bringing different materials and techniques to burning point until finally they blaze in a blinding, searing apparition; this is the basis of the artist's particular eroticism, the consequences of desire ruled by a very different economy to the one we are familiar with in daily life. In fact art alarms an economy set in motion by an imagined world which fulfils an explosive function, blocking the eye of the spectator in this long wait, in the stupefaction of contemplation; the spectator is thus precipitated into the image. This marks the threshold, and its strength resides in presenting itself without exertion, in donning this pompous attire which betrays natural abandonment' (A. B. Oliva 'Transavanguardia: bel canto ahead, torture behind', in exh. cat., Transavanguardia, Turin, 2003 p. 46).
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