bonalumi - castellani - manzoni.

Roma.: Galleria Appia Antica., 1959, aprile.. Original publisher's pale blue printed wrappers with flaps, stapled as issued, with titles and exhibition details in red to front cover.. 12mo. (124 x 98 mm).. Leaf with title and exhibition details, two leaves with introductory text by Leo Paolazzi followed by three folding leaves, each with credit and details on folded section of leaf and monochrome reproduction on unfolded section, each showing one painting by Manzoni, Bonalumi and Castellani; unfolded leaves: 124 x 184 mm. A very scarce, early exhibition catalogue for the group show by Piero Manzoni and his close artistic allies Agostino Bonalumi and Enrico Castellani.The exhibition at Galleria Appia Antica took place from the 3 - 15 April 1959 and was the second group show of the trio (the first was at Galleria del Prisma in Milan in February) in 1959. The text is by Leo Paolazzi, a poet and friend of Manzoni, who later used the pseudonym Antonio Porta. Manzoni's contribution to the catalogue is an untitled 'Achrome' from 1958.'In the late 1950s, Agostino Bonalumi met fellow Milanese artists Enrico Castellani and Piero Manzoni. As each was interested in the artwork as a material entity, a close association developed between the three. The esteemed critic Gillo Dorfles coined the term 'pittura oggetto' to describe their work; building on Lucio Fontana’s conceptual innovations, they attended to the artwork as an object in its own right rather than as a strictly representational form. (see Philllps online).This elegant catalogue is very scarce and we can locate only two copies, the first at the Royal Danish Library and the second at MoMA.