Last Fall we updated the Vignelli Poster display in our galleries. The galleries are closed due to Covid-19, here’s a closer look at the posters on display!
Next up: The Knot Arte Povera at P.S.1 exhibition
Massimo Vignelli designed this poster for The Knot Arte Povera exhibition at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center (originally Institute for Art and Urban Resources Inc. and now MOMA PS1) in 1985.
See installation photos and the complete list of artists: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/4404
Because we are home to the Vignellis’ entire professional archives, we have many unique items such as hand drawn sketches, as well as the final pieces. Researchers often come to our archives if they want to learn the story and process behind the designs. In addition to the poster, we have the exhibition catalog and a mock up on cardboard drawn by Massimo Vignelli.
Arte Povera means “poor art” or “impoverished art” in Italian and was an avant garde movement in Europe started in the 1960s. The artists in this movement used common materials like dirt, rocks, paper, clothing and rope. The twine and corrugated cardboard that is pictured in the poster and literally surrounds the catalog cover are truly “arte povera.”
Read more about this influential art movement: https://www.theartstory.org/movement/arte-povera/
We are very sad to learn that art historian and curator Germano Celant, who organized this exhibition and coined the phrase “arte povera,” passed away yesterday due to Covid-19 reacted complications. Celant also wrote an essay about the Vignellis for their own 1990 catalog design: Vignelli.
Read more about his fascinating career: https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/germano-celant-arte-povera-dead-1202685181/
The Knot Arte Povera at P.S.1 exhibition poster 23” x 33 1/2” FF I, Massimo and Lella Vignelli Papers Vignelli Center for Design Studies Rochester, New York
The Knot Arte Povera at P.S.1 exhibition catalog [cover is corrugated cardboard and is wrapped with twine] 8 1/4” x 12” Box 160, Massimo and Lella Vignelli Papers Vignelli Center for Design Studies Rochester, New York
The Knot Arte Povera at P.S.1 pencil on corrugated cardboard with twine 8 1/8” x 12” Box 546, Massimo and Lella Vignelli Papers Vignelli Center for Design Studies Rochester, New York
