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La biennale di Venezia: a bibliographical note

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Stephen Bury*
Affiliation:
Chelsea School of Arts
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Extract

The Biennale comprises a unique sequence of 20th century exhibitions of international (if uneven) coverage from 1895 onwards with only two breaks – between 1914-20 and 1942-48. It documents for the pre-Second World War period the non avant-garde in whom there is now increasing interest and since 1948 the activities of the avant-garde. It is a particularly useful source for Italian art and illustrates the metamorphosis of futurist art into fascist art. The Biennale has become part of art history: what has been shown has influenced what has subsequently been produced: the 1958 and 1960 Biennali, for example, were influential in the propagation of abstract-expressionism in Europe.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 1980

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References

(1) An accessible account of Biennale history is Lawrence Alloway’s The Venice Biennale 1895-1968... London, 1969. The Archivio storico has published Lineamenti bibliografici generali sulla Biennale di Venezia edited by Wladimiro Dorigo in 1976, which provides a guide to the laws and decrees which constitutes the institutional history of the Biennale. Romolo Bazzoni’s 60 anni della Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 1962 is very useful.Google Scholar
(2) The Catalogo del fondo artistico edited by Manuela Rai and Annalisa Scarpa Sonino, Venice, 1976 lists the motley permanent collection.Google Scholar
(3) These provide a convenient bibliography of the reviews of the Biennali.Google Scholar
(4) Celant, Germano Ambiente/arte: dal futurismo alla body art Venice, 1977.Google Scholar
(5) First shown at the Kunsthalle, Berne.Google Scholar
(6) There was no catalogue in 1974.Google Scholar
(7) Hence the importance of knowing with what edition one is dealing. Arno have reprinted the early catalogues from 1895-1920 and the editions are tabulated below:Google Scholar
(8) Barr, M.S. Medardo Rosso New York, 1963, p.49. Milan, Palazzo Permanente, della Medardo Rosso 1858-1928, exhibition catalogue Jan.-Mar. 1979, p. 142144.Google Scholar
(9) This became a touring exhibition in the USA for which a catalogue, slightly different in format to the Biennale one, was issued.Google Scholar
(10) The catalogue, Richard Diebenkom by Cathcart, Linda L., was distributed through Rizzoli International.Google Scholar
(11) Gordon, Donald E. Modern art exhibitions 1900-1916... Munich, 1974. The general accounts of several Biennali such as Arturo Lancellotti’s Le Biennali Veneziane dell’ante Guerra... Alesandria, 1926 are of very little use in tracing most participants.Google Scholar