Irina Zucca Alessandrelli, Curator of the Collezione Ramo in Milan, joins Edouard Kopp, John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation Chief Curator of the Menil Drawing Institute, for a conversation exploring the generative and often-overlooked role that drawing played throughout the 20th-century in Italy. Through close looking at a number of works included in the Menil’s exhibition, “Silent Revolutions: Italian Drawings from the Twentieth Century,” Zucca Alessandrelli and Kopp consider how the medium of drawing gave Italian artists free rein to experiment with a wide range of materials and techniques and allowed them to create new artistic concepts and styles. They discuss work by artists Aldofo Wildt, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, Maria Lai, and Carol Rama, among others.

This program is presented in conjunction with “Silent Revolutions: Italian Drawings from the Twentieth Century,” the first large-scale survey of twentieth-century Italian drawings mounted in the United States. The exhibition, featuring 70 drawings largely selected from the Collezione Ramo in Milan, is on view in the Menil Drawing Institute through April 11, 2021.

About the speakers:
Irina Zucca Alessandrelli is an art historian and journalist based in Milan, Italy. She has been the Curator of Collezione Ramo since 2013. The collection focuses on the importance of Italian art of the last century while also promoting a culture of drawing as having an independent value, on a par with painting and sculpture. Zucca Alessandrelli holds a BA in Modern and Contemporary Italian Art at Università degli Studi di Milano (Honours), and an MA in Curatorial Studies, Columbia University, New York, where she studied as a Fulbright Scholar. She is the author of “Italian Drawing of the XX century” (Milan 2019, Silvana ed).

Edouard Kopp, PhD, is the John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation Chief Curator of the Menil Drawing Institute. He is responsible for the drawing collection at the Menil and also for the Drawing Institute’s programming, research, educational outreach, and administration. His recent exhibition projects include “Jean-Jacques Lequeu: Visionary Architect,” 2019–20, and “Silent Revolutions: Italian Drawings from the Twentieth Century,” 2020–21. He recently contributed to the Menil’s 2019 publication, “Drawing Is Everything: Founding Gifts of the Menil Drawing Institute,” with John Elderfield, Richard Shiff, and Terry Winters.

About the series:
In Dialogue is the Menil Collection’s series of live, online conversations. Menil curators are joined by notable scholars, artists, and art professionals for engaging discussions about the museum’s collection, current exhibitions, and ideas shaping contemporary discourses about art. All programs are free and open to everyone.

Spanish captioning generously provided by PNC Bank.

Visit menil.org/events to learn more about upcoming programs.

Public Program of The Menil Collection, Houston, TX. February 10, 2021.

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