Art spaces in Rome. Documents from the Visual Arts Research and Documentation Center (1940-1990)

Reconstruction that starts from the second post-war period to the nineties of the twentieth century, thanks to the archival and documentary collections of the CRDAV Visual Arts Research and Documentation Center of the Capitoline Superintendence, which this year marks the anniversary of the 40 years of its establishment.

The CRDAV, in fact, was created by the Municipality of Rome in 1979 thanks to a substantial donation by the art critic Francesco Vincitorio - over time scheduled, digitized and implemented with further donations from private individuals - which includes catalogs, monographs, gray literature (invitations, press releases, leaflets, etc.), periodicals, videos and photographic material. Its unique historical and archival material, through this exhibition, can offer the first starting point for new scientific insights and to reconstruct, through original documents and an in-depth albeit partial reading, the history (s) of galleries, art spaces and associations that have defined, also internationally, the cultural and artistic aspect of Rome as the capital of the contemporary.

Therefore, the exhibition is to be understood as an opportunity to scientifically deepen themes and problems of national and international art in Rome, from post-war reconstruction to the last decades of the 20th century, passing through the intellectual and stylistic renewal of the sixties and seventies, the pictorial and theoretical renewal of the eighties, up to the new exhibition centers of the nineties, an indissoluble artistic and creative gym for many contemporary art critics too.

The exhibition spaces Spazi d’arte in Rome. Documents from the Visual Arts Research and Documentation Center (1940-1990) is accompanied by an in-depth volume, soon to be published, which - through some introductory essays and files on individual galleries and art spaces – will offer to scholars and enthusiasts a useful investigation tool starting from the collections of the CRDAV.