London Calling: British Contemporary Art now

“I first heard The Clash's London Calling when I was 14. It was like the song of the siren that bring me to the capital" Mat Collishaw

https://www.visitbritain.com/it/it/10-esperienze-londra — London

A gloomy and abject capital is destined to change its appearance and become the center of contemporary art of the 1960s, covering this role up to the present day. Swinging London, a sign of a profound economic and social transformation, leads London on the road to becoming the capital of the international art scene. The Tate, the Royal Academy of Arts, the Serpentine Gallery and renowned art schools are destined to become world-renowned institutions that give life to a real revolution in the art world, of which what will be the last one promotes movement in art history, the Young British Artists.

Palazzo Cipolla from 17th May to 17th July 2022 promotes the last fifty years of London art, staging 30 works by 13 internationally renowned artists of the last decades, who began their careers in London, but are now the heart of the world of art, presented together in Italy for the first time. Avant-garde, original, provocative and revolutionary artists.

The sculptures of the most different materials and essential shapes that cover a monumental dimension by Anish Kapoor open London Calling, taking over the space of the first room of the sixteenth-century building. Games of light and shadow, full and empty, reshape the environment and create an encounter with the viewer.

"London is a multicultural city, with different realities and this is an incredibly special feature of this city" Anish Kapoor

Kapoor opens the way for Tony Cragg's natural and artificial worlds, sculptures in which the internal structure of the material that gives rise to its external appearance strongly emerges, an exploration of the micro and macro structures present in nature and brought to the scene with processes and materials industrial.

Mat Collishaw's work deals with issues of moral ambiguity with fascinating and unique images, full of references to the history of art, literature and the Victorian era, combined with modern technology. The artist updates traditional themes in a sinister and disturbing vision.

David Hockney's cold, flat, depthless painting, which recalls the conceptual art of Ed Ruscha, denounces, with images that look like holiday advertisements, the American world linked to business and without values, a world made of pure hedonism.

The British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare explores post-colonial themes through his sculptures, figures dressed in eighteenth-century and nineteenth-century African fabrics, which highlight the story of his origins, emphasizing the role of the West in shaping popular myths.

The feelings of fear, horror, provocation and the relationship between life, death and disease are the generating themes of Damien Hirst's works. Undisputed artist who combines pop imagery with the formal order of abstraction and with references to the consumerist mentality. The frailties of the human body and their relationship with the progress of the history of art emerge from Hirst's shop windows and colors.

Abstractionism is also a key point of Sean Scully, who in his squares, a la Malevich, blends American traditions with European ones. Works in which the color black is preponderant to recall the interruption of our lives during the pandemic years.

“London is a very dangerous and seductive city. I mean it is a beautiful city and offers something for everyone. It's a city like a universe " Sean Scully

The relationship between object and image is represented by Michael Craig-Martin, whose bright and contrasting colors exemplify the artist's practice, highlighting the coexistence of individuals in the world; works that should be read as diaries that reflect contemporary life.

"I couldn't imagine living anywhere else but London" Michael Craig Martin

The theme of gender, identity and traditions is the center of Grayson Perry's work; Michael Jackson and Kurt Cobain idealized by the masses use their mental and physical problems as a form of entertainment. A critique of high fashion is combined with a playful but brutal way of critique of today's values.

Even more brutal are the Chapman brothers who bring to light the taboos of society, breaking the barriers of terrorism, good taste and morals, highlight collective hypocrisy, trivialization and commercial exploitation with a noir humor that in some ways recalls the dark and violent works of the Spanish painter and engraver Goya.

In total contrast with the almost childish, very simple style, which incorporates Egyptian hieroglyphs and Japanese woodcuts, Julian Opie reinterprets everyday life in a reductive style, with few strokes and a narrow range of colors that are equally able to communicate the personality of the subjects represented.

Annie Morris's pain for her stillborn son is reflected in the precarious balance of her sculptures, which follow the silhouette of Opie. Morris searches for color pigments that she compresses slightly on the surface, thus conveying the idea of precariousness and fragility. Personal themes are associated with universal reasons such as femininity, motherhood and fertility.

The exhibition ends with Idris Khan's tiny and crowded letters, which imprinted on the glass become illegible. Overlapping words that radiate from the center of her works as if they were an explosion of color.