Since the 1940s Gianni Mattioli's collection of modern art has been a touchstone of the history of 20th century collecting. The pieces reproduced in this volume have been listed under Italian law since 1939 to protect the nation's cultural heritage.

A fascinating account of America's relationship with the airplane

The first part of the yearbook contains ten essays on Futurist art and literature in Italy, France, Russia, Poland, Portugal and the former colony of Goa. Among other things, early Futurist publishing and propaganda initiatives by means of manifestos, press releases, and newssheets are examined, as well as Athos Casarini's artistic and political work undertaken in Italy and the USA. Articles in the second part deal with the 30th anniversary of the international Academy of Zaum as well as various conferences, exhibitions and publications celebrating the centenary of Zenitism in Serbia and Croatia. Critical responses to exhibitions, conferences and publications as well as a bibliographical section with information on 139 recent book publications on Futurism conclude the yearbook.

The first English-language monograph on Il Fronte Nuovo delle Arti, this study explores the rise and fall of this postwar Italian artists' group as a representative instance of the tensions facing Italian painting during the transition out of two decades of Fascism and into the global divisions of the Cold War. Adrian Duran argues that the binary structures of the era - realism vs. abstraction, Communism vs. democracy, conformism vs. freedom - have monopolized the discourse surrounding the Fronte Nuovo and, with it, the historiography of Italian painting during this period, 1944-50. Beginning with the dialogues that framed the formation of the Fronte Nuovo, this book reconsiders artists' works, correspondence, critical writings, and manifestos. These are married to examinations of specific exhibitions, the most important of which are the group's 1947 inaugural exhibition and the 1948 and 1950 Venice Biennali. The critical responses to these exhibitions are reconsidered in light of their groundings in the heated political debates of the period. In total, these diverse sources reveal the vast divide between the internal discourse of the arts, generated by the participant artists and their works, and the surrounding politics of Cold War Italy.

This volume explores how Italian institutions, dealers, critics, and artists constructed a modern national identity for Italy by exporting – literally and figuratively – contemporary art to the United States in key moments between 1929 and 1969. From artist Fortunato Depero opening his Futurist House in New York City to critic Germano Celant launching Arte Povera in the United States, Raffaele Bedarida examines the thick web of individuals and cultural environments beyond the two more canonical movements that shaped this project. By interrogating standard narratives of Italian Fascist propaganda on the one hand and American Cold War imperialism on the other, this book establishes a more nuanced transnational approach. The central thesis is that, beyond the immediate aims of political propaganda and conquering a new market for Italian art, these art exhibitions, publications, and the critical discourse aimed at American audiences all reflected back on their makers: they forced and helped Italians define their own modernity in relation to the world’s new dominant cultural and economic power. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, social history, exhibition history, and Italian studies.