Born in Vienna in 1925 and died prematurely in Milan in 1968, Novelli embarked on an intense research journey in just over ten years, intersecting poetry, language, politics, and vision, anticipating many of the central questions of contemporary art.
The Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna in Venice, running until March 1, 2026, presents a journey of approximately sixty works focusing on the decade from 1957 to 1968, the years in which the artist continually defined and expanded his artistic language. Curated by Elisabetta Barisoni and Paola Bonani, and produced in collaboration with the Archivio Gastone Novelli in Rome, the exhibition is part of a series of in-depth studies that Ca' Pesaro has dedicated to the great masters of the late twentieth century, from Twombly to Gorky, from Afro to Matta.
The donated works
Further enriching the exhibition is the entry into the civic collections of two works donated by the heirs: Ice Age (1958), a key painting in the transition from Informalism to the invention of a personal language, and Quicken your pace my friend (1967), created during the artist's stay in Venice. Two extremes that tell the story of Novelli's evolution from a lyrical and material style to the semantic density of his final period.
The exhibition follows a chronological order
The exhibition begins with works from the late 1950s, in which writing becomes not just a visual element but a true narrative structure of the painting. Novelli introduces collages, signs, and symbols that engage with twentieth-century poetry and authors such as Paul Klee and Osvaldo Licini. By the early 1960s, the artist transcended Informalism and constructed dense surfaces of invented alphabets, grids, numerical sequences, and fragmented words, in keeping with the research of the literary neo-avant-garde. Works such as Dizzy, Thelonious, The king of words e The king of the sun They bear witness to a universe of vast cultural references: music, linguistics, alchemy, psychology, science. His travels, particularly to Greece, are also significant, introducing the recurring theme of mountains into his painting and influencing his sculptural production. The exhibition features works such as Sonnenberg e Schoenberg (1964), which translate the landscape experience into essential forms.
Novelli and the Venice Biennale
A central focus of the exhibition is his participation in the 1964 Venice Biennale, when Novelli exhibited a solo show featuring ten works that marked a turning point in his career: light visions, "blank pages" that contrasted with the roar of American Pop Art and defined a poetic, autonomous, anti-spectacular language. The second half of the 1960s was marked by the return of color and a style of painting that intertwined archetypal forms and direct references to contemporaneity: from international politics, as in For a permanent revolution (for Leon Trotsky), in popular cinema, as in Beware of Sergeant BondThe story ends in 1968, a tragic yet decisive year for the artist. At the Venice Biennale, Novelli made a gesture that was destined to become symbolic: he displayed his paintings facing the wall and wrote "The Biennale is fascist" on the back of one of them. This act established him as one of the most aware and radical figures of the period of protest that was transforming the art world. In addition to offering an updated reading of his work, the Ca' Pesaro exhibition brings together the results of the main studies dedicated to Novelli, from General catalogue published by the Archive in collaboration with the MART up to the major retrospectives of 1988 and 1999. An opportunity, today, to restore to the artist the role of restless innovator and tireless seeker of languages that the history of art increasingly recognizes in him.
Gastone Novelli (1925-1968), exhibition open until March 1, 2026 – Ca' Pesaro, International Gallery of Modern Art – Exhibition spaces 2nd floor – Curated by Elisabetta Barisoni, Paola Bonani – In collaboration with the Gastone Novelli Archive, Rome
