The first retrospective of Beppe Devalle, hosted at the Mart, a comprehensive survey of the artist’s creative development

The first retrospective of Beppe Devalle, hosted at the Mart, presents a protagonist of our times, a great master of Italian painting, through a comprehensive survey of the artist’s creative development.

A few years after his death, the Mart dedicates an important retrospective to Beppe Devalle (Turin, 1940 – Milan, 2013), painter and lecturer at the Accademia Albertina of Turin, and then at the Accademia di Brera in Milan.
The exhibition is a shared project curated by a prestigious scientific committee comprising scholars who knew, frequented or worked with Devalle: Carlo Bertelli, Paolo Biscottini, Barbara Cinelli, Flavio Fergonzi, Daniela Ferrari, Maria Mimita Lamberti, Sandra Pinto, Giovanni Romano, Dario Trento and Alessandro Taiana. The group work has been supported with the precious coordination of Maria Teresa and Jolanda Devalle, respectively they artist’s wife and daughter, who were the first to work towards the realisation of this important exhibition.

One of the major figures in Italian contemporary art, Beppe Devalle looked closely at the history of art in search of a new communicative force. An acute connoisseur of the ‘grammar’ of colour and composition, he displayed his knowledge in large paintings created using the purist pictorial technique combined with numerous possibilities of combinations which, according to the period, saw the use of colour, collage, overlaps or framing typical of photography, with bold crops and distortions.

Convinced that art was a trade and as such could be learned and taught, despite his numerous international participations – including three presences at the Venice Biennale – exhibitions in museums and galleries, and a number of awards, Devalle defended his way of thinking and his time from public formalities. From this stance derive a strong stylistic autonomy and a distance from the field’s conventions and from non-indispensable comparisons.

Through paintings, collages, large-format works, photo-montages, environments and, above all, his portraits, fascinated by the stars of entertainment and the exponents of politics and information, Devalle observed the irresistible and seductive characteristics of contemporary society. With a deep knowledge of advertising forms and the rules of communication, he interpreted current society, stressing its contradictions. What emerges are intense psychological portraits in which arises an analysis of reality as pop as it is profound, composed of stages and backstages.
In his narrative, he added personal details, private anecdotes and a technique influenced by his close acquaintance with the pictorial tradition. Beppe Devalle’s style was cultured, comprehensive, studied, and its principal characteristic was its absolute expressive freedom.

At the Mart from 16 October, the comprehensive anthological exhibition containing 75 works, will for the first time since his recent death, explore the entire creative development of the artist, including his most recent production (2008-2012), little of which has been shown before in public. The last retrospective, indeed, dates back to 2008 and was held in Milan at the Museo Diocesano.

The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue divided into nine moments or periods, all represented in the Mart’s rooms.
The first was marked by a study of post-informal art and immediately after by surrealist trends, with Gorky and Klee as the major figures being studied, in the years 1961-1963. The second was marked by the discovery of the technique of collage and the new Pop style from the U.S.A., translated into a European form, in 1963-1966. The third, 1967-1969, was marked by the appeal of the third dimension and use of space in a different understanding of the American ‘environment’ and Italian ‘ambiente’. The fourth, 1970-1976 initially saw the first phase of photo-montage and then the adoption of photography. The first, 1977-1983, comprised the second phase of photo-montage, and the use of the figure in a worldly setting. The sixth, 1984-1989, was dedicated to the theme of still life and the study of drawing using coloured pencils and pastels. The seventh, 1990-1997-2002: large formats and collages for accounts of violence and family subjects. From 1997, Devalle spent much of his time in New York. The eighth period, 2002-2008, was dedicated to large formats, collages and portraits with a strong psychological content. The ninth and last period, 2009-2012 comprised large formats, collages and portraits, with a prevalent use of charcoal and pastel.

Beppe Devalle
(Turin, 8 April 1940 – Milan, 4 February 2013)
Born in Turin in 1940, he dedicated himself to art and to painting in particular from a very young age. At 21, he held his first exhibition, a two-man show with Gianluigi Mattia in which he displayed works of a large size. From 1963 onwards, his career was marked by a succession of exhibitions and awards: from the Tokyo Biennale to the Musée d’Ixelles in Brussels and his participation at the 23rd Venice Biennale in the Italian Pavilion curated by Nello Ponente. In 1972 and 1982, he again exhibited at the Venice Biennale and during the same period participated twice in the Quadriennale in Rome (1972 and 1986). From 1976, he was a lecturer at the Accademia di Brera in Milan, and in the meantime his exhibitions succeeded each other in Italy and abroad over the following two decades. From 1997 to 2003, he lived in New York. The last important exhibitions in Milan date from 2008 and 2012, respectively at the Museo Diocesiano, curated by Paolo Biscottini, and at the Museo del ’900, curated by Flavio Fergonzi. A few months before his death, the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera organised a study day in honour of the artist, entitled “Art is violent like life”.

Devalle
1940-2013

Mart, Rovereto
16 October 2015 ― 14 February 2016