The Beatles on the terrace of the Hotel Duomo, Milan 24th June 1965 PUBLIFOTO/OLYCOM

Where have you set your vacation for? “Gli irripetibili anni ’60, un dialogo tra Roma e Milano” could be the new travel experience for the tourists that will be in the capital city of Italy from May 10^th to July 31^st or for those who will be in Milan from September 7^th to November 20^th, where this exhibition will be moved to.

Colors, lights, shapes and shadows take place and form again from those years in the rooms of Fondazione Roma Museo. More than 170 artworks exposed for the success of that goal.

In the Sixties Italy was full of new energy, ready to rise again from the ruins of the II World War, she was living her “Boom economico” and a sort of new Italian way of life. Not only Milan, the capitol of design and fashion of course, but even Rome (and a lot of great and little towns all over the Peninsula) were trying new expressive languages in every kind of art. After Neorealist cinema, Rome was living “Hollywood sul Tevere”, tasting the American taste in everything. Italians maintained their Italian style and together with that they change some of their habits becoming a little less nationalist and a little more Europeans – where not citizens of a global world.

In that atmosphere artists from all over the world came to Italy and Italy too gave to the world a lot of representative personalities in new artistic movements. Names like Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Mario Schifano, just for name some, are an example with their work of what artists would have like art to be.

Again, a flag of that idea, could be summed in the words of Emilio Isgrò where he said “there was the hope of giving a new approach to reality; there wasn’t provocation. The sixties are not to be regretted but they must serve to show that there can always be a different perspective in watching reality”.

Joe Tilson "OH!" 1963        - Piero Manzoni "Linea infinita" 1960

All those thoughts, hopes and experiences are exposed in that exhibition. Divided into four sections it is shown a possible path for looking at the art in that years: from the monochrome zero-expression to the use of objects and images by the rising pop culture, from the new international sculpture to the artistic experimentation with different materials, forms and signs.

Christo Javacheff "Barrels" 1968   - Mimmo Rotella "Aranciata" 1966

It is not surprising to see an aerial sculpture by Alexander Calder near to a little box of Piero Manzoni’s “artist’s shit”, or again a perfect picture by Man Ray posing in front of an hand-adjusted photographic image of “La Scala” by Richard Hamilton. It is quite funny when you see a picture of the Beatles near to a Marcel Duchamp’s “Anemic cinema”, as if there can be a relation between their music and the hypnotic/repetitive movement of that short film. In the end it is not so shocking to see Emilio Isgrò’s “Volkswagen” – where he says that the car industry is the new god – near to an Arnaldo Pomodoro’s “Traveler column” where the artist completely transcend the academic sculpture to express the desire of Man for exploration. And it is so because of the implied sense of sixties art: not willing to shock but to change things, not looking to create something new but to recreate itself ad infinitum.

Emilio Isgro "Volkswagen" 1964

The sixties are unique, does anybody miss them?

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