Among the various techniques you have used in your artistic production, have you also created works on paper and what are the advantages it offers?
Paolo Canevari: «Paper is an ancient material, the support of drawing, of writing, of the first idea, the first note; I love the simplicity of the gesture and paper with its poetic fragility is the ideal bridge between the mind and the work of art. I think of paper as a material with enormous possibilities; a material that is ephemeral in its nature but which manages to express and evoke a lot. The works are dreams that become reality and find their life and reason in the world, the imagination is a drawing, a mental note that slowly takes shape on paper. In my latest drawings the image has disappeared to leave room for my imagination and that of the user, the element of paper thus becomes narrative in its nature and essence."
Joseph Kosuth: «I've always felt that drawings play an extremely important role, in so many cases it is in a drawing where an artist puts down his or her original ideas. A drawing is the trace recorded at the moment of conception for the so-called 'major' work, or the path of ideas that lead to it. I have a collection of works on paper of many of the artists I respect and have learned from in the Modernist movement, like Breton, Duchamp, Magritte, Morandi, Meret Oppenheim, Man Ray, Jasper Johns, and so on, most of them I 've traded for my work. I hope to acquire more."
Emilio Isgrò: «For me paper has always had a particular meaning. In 1964, correcting the draft of a written page, I arrived at the artistic gesture that condenses my reflection: erasure. It was then that, in a certain sense, I changed my identity as a poet to take on that of an artist, even if my works always presuppose a privileged relationship with the Word, rather than with the image. From the erasures, and the paper seems made specifically for erasing, words emerge here and there which, when recomposed, give life to sentences with a surprising if not downright hilarious outcome, a sign that in the end, denied, erased, derided and made unrecognizable, the winner is always her: poetry."
What elements of interest do you recognize in a specialized fair like Wopart and what have your relationships already been with Lugano and Switzerland?
Paolo Canevari: «I have visited Switzerland several times as a tourist, I love the mountains, the Swiss sky, its light. In particular, in Lugano I entered into a new collaboration with Michela Negrini and her newly founded gallery, [dip] contemporary art, where we will present new works in 2018. Wopart as a fair represents something new, an opportunity for the general public to get closer to the creative intimacy inherent in paper material, a journey into the imagination and expressive possibilities of artists, but also a journey into art which is like a written novel by the marks left on the paper."
Joseph Kosuth: «I think specializing is a very good idea, it permits a focus for which the works benefit. As for Switzerland, I have a long relationship with your country, beginning with Harry Szeeman's 'When Attitudes Become Form' in Bern through to the many years I worked with Bruno Bischofberger. Thanks to him I have some great Appenzell works in my collection. I have great memories working in the Furkapass putting my permanent work on the side of the mountain there for the collection curated by Marc Hostettler and staying at the marvelous Furkablick hotel. More recently I did two permanent works through the invitation of Markus Landert in Ittingen at the Kunstmuseum Thurgau as well as a survey show of my work. I'm looking forward to showing in September at [dip] contemporary art, which will be my first show in Lugano».
Emilio Isgrò: «I am very happy to participate in this event, where I will also be present with a large installation, because I believe that paper, together with canvas, is at the very basis of the history of art. This is even more true for conceptual art. I would then like to say that there is nothing more wrong than the idea that works on paper represent something lesser than paintings on canvas. There are works on paper that have achieved important economic values, as is right when the artist deserves the highest recognition. I therefore think that this Lugano fair could really be something very interesting, capable of establishing itself for its quality in the panorama of contemporary art."
The profiles of the artists
Paolo Canevari. He lives and works between Rome and New York. Born in Rome in 1963 to a family of painters and sculptors, he is one of the most internationally recognized artists of his generation. Known for his use of different materials and media, from sculpture to installation, from drawing to video, in 2007 he participated in the 52nd Venice Biennale curated by Robert Storr. In 2010 the Pecci Center for Contemporary Art in Prato hosted a retrospective exhibition of his curated by Germano Celant. His works have been exhibited and are present in private and public collections including: Luigi Pecci Center for Contemporary Art, Prato; Museum of Modern Art MoMA, New York; Foundation Louis Vuitton pour la Creation, Paris; Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami; Macro, Museum of Contemporary Art Rome; MART Museum of Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto; Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg; National Institute for National Chalcography Graphics, Rome; GNAM National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome; Perna Foundation, Capri, Olnick Spanu Art Program Garrison NY.
Joseph Kosuth (1945, USA) is one of the pioneers of Conceptual art and installation art, initiating language based works and appropriation strategies in the 1960s. Over the course of a career spanning more than fifty years, his work has consistently explored the role of language and meaning within art and taken the form of installations, museum exhibitions, public commissions and publications throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia, including seven Documenta (s) and ten Venice Biennale(s).
Emilio Isgrò. An all-round artist, he represents one of the major figures of Italian conceptual art. Sicilian by birth but Milanese by adoption, he made his debut at a very young age with a collection of poems, Fiere del Sud, in 1956. In 1964 he created the first Cancellature, or books and encyclopedias in which partially or completely erased, which represented one of the first manifestations of conceptual art in Italy. He has participated several times in the Venice Art Biennale. Since 1977 he took part in the Cooperarte artists' cooperative, which united some of the best artists of the time. The Eighties saw the first forays into the musical world, from 183-85 is the trilogy L'Orestea di Gibellina, from 1985 Bach's The Vigil is a multimedia installation in the city church of San Carpoforo, commissioned by the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. In the nineties Isgrò was consecrated by an exhibition in New York at the MoMA and at the Peggy Guggenheim in Venice.
The growing importance of photography.
On the role of photography we have collected an opinion from Walter Guadagnini, holder of a chair in History of Contemporary Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna and a photography scholar.
What elements of interest do you recognize in a specialized fair like Wopart and what have your relationships already been with Lugano and Switzerland?
«The element of primary interest consists precisely in its specialization, in positioning itself as a privileged place of attention towards a segment of creativity and the market thus defined. I also find the continuity established between the ancient techniques of drawing and engraving and the younger - although now classic - photography technique very interesting. My relations with Switzerland are concentrated in this period on Locarno, where an exhibition by Robert Indiana is underway to which I contributed with the introductory text to the catalogue. Furthermore, Francesco Jodice's exhibition, produced by CAMERA, the photography center that I have been directing in Turin for a few months, recently ended at the Fotomuseum in Winterthur".
Among the different artistic techniques, photography rightfully finds a place in an event like WopArt. What is the role of photography in the art market today?
«It is an increasingly important role, both in qualitative and quantitative terms. There are more and more auctions dedicated to photographs, more and more photographs appear within the contemporary art market, thus also changing their prices, there are more and more young collectors who are approaching this form of expression and art. And this happens not only because the prices are often lower than those of painting or sculpture, but also because photography is a language that responds perfectly to contemporaneity, it is the language that we all use every day, and this contributes to increasing curiosity and the attention of the public and collectors."
