Untitled
Carlo Zinelli (1916–1974)
This survey, the first museum exhibition on Carlo Zinelli (1916–1974) in the United States, coincides with the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of this revered and distinctive Italian artist—a canonical art brut figure included in Jean Dubuffet’s collection from the 1960s. The show highlights four distinct phases in Zinelli’s oeuvre and new scholarship, through a selection of fifty-five paintings (many displayed double-sided), audio recordings of Zinelli, a film, and images by Life magazine photographer John Phillips. The exhibition brings together artworks from the American Folk Art Museum and other private and public collections from the United States and abroad, notably the Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne, the Fondazione Culturale Carlo Zinelli, Verona, and the collection of Audrey B. Heckler, New York.
Curated by Valérie Rousseau, PhD, Curator, Self-Taught Art and Art Brut.
An exhibition brochure is available.
The museum would like to thank the Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne, the Fondazione Culturale Carlo Zinelli and Comune Di San Giovanni Lupatoto, Verona, the Milwaukee Art Museum, Gordon W. Bailey, Edward V. Blanchard Jr., Andrea Cairone and the John and Annamaria Phillips Foundation, Cavin-Morris Gallery, Audrey B. Heckler, Robert A. Roth, Amr Shaker, and the relatives of Carlo Zinelli for their generous loans to and support of the exhibition.
Installation photos by Olya Vysotskaya.
Image credits: Carlo Zinelli (1916–1974), untitled, San Giacomo Hospital, Verona, Italy, 1960, gouache on paper, 19 1/2 × 27 1/2″, collection of Audrey B. Heckler. Photo by Visko Hatfield.
Carlo Zinelli (1916–1974), untitled (double-sided), San Giacomo Hospital, Verona, Italy, 1970, gouache on paper, 19 × 27 1/2″, collection of Robert A. Roth. Photo by Bill Bengtson.
Carlo Zinelli (1916–1974), untitled (double-sided), San Giacomo Hospital, Verona, Italy, 1961, gouache on paper, 19 3/4 × 27 1/2″, Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland, cab-2128. Photo by Henri Germond © Collection de l’Art Brut.
Carlo Zinelli (1916–1974), untitled (double-sided), San Giacomo Hospital, Verona, Italy, 1963, gouache on paper, 13 3/4 × 19 3/4″, Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland, cab-2121. Photo by Olivier Laffely, Atelier de numérisation—Ville de Lausanne © Collection de l’Art Brut.
Carlo Zinelli (1916–1974), untitled (double-sided), San Giacomo Hospital, Verona, Italy, 1962, gouache and collage of cigarette-paper packaging on paper, 13 3/4 × 19 3/4″, Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne, Switzerland, cab-2119. Photo by Claude Bornand © Collection de l’Art Brut.
Carlo Zinelli (1916–1974), untitled (double-sided), San Giacomo Hospital, Verona, Italy, 1968, gouache, pencil, and pen on paper, 27 1/2 × 19 1/2″, collection of Gordon W. Bailey. Photo by Adam Reich © American Folk Art Museum.
The exhibition is supported in part by Joyce Berger Cowin, the David Davies and Jack Weeden Fund for Exhibitions, the Ford Foundation, Janssen Research & Development, Just Folk: Marcy Carsey/Susan Baerwald, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
- Edward M. Gómez
The exhibition is supported in part by Joyce Berger Cowin, the David Davies and Jack Weeden Fund for Exhibitions, the Ford Foundation, Janssen Research & Development, Just Folk: Marcy Carsey/Susan Baerwald, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
