Fausto Melotti

Curator Saim Demircan introduces this exhibition of sculptures, ceramic pieces and works on paper by Italian sculptor, painter and poet Fausto Melotti. On display for the first time at Hauser & Wirth in London, the selection of works places an emphasis on the theatrical within Melotti’s practice and includes artworks spanning five decades from the 1930s until his passing in 1986. As Demircan says, ‘it wasn’t until the early 1980s that he designed set pieces for the actual stage. This exhibition looks back throughout Melotti’s lifetime to consider how theatre—conceptually as much as a dramatic art—informed the artist’s own creativity.’

Considering the South Gallery as a stage, a selection of Melotti’s teatrini (little theatres) provide a backdrop for sculptural works that allude to the artist’s sensibility for dramaturgy, storytelling and allegory. These often share material qualities that resemble set design, such as ‘Ifigenia (Iphigenia)’ (1978) or ‘L’ombra dell’anima (The Shadow of the Soul)’ (1984) or narrative scenes with miniature figures in ‘Tabernacolo Violato (Violated Tabernacle)’ (1980) and ‘Il passo della zingara (The Step of the Gipsy)’ (1983). Elsewhere, works such as ‘Da Shakespeare (After Shakespeare)’ (1977) and ‘Madame X’ (1982) refer directly to theatrical protagonists.

Poised between narration and symbolism, Melotti produced the teatrini as autonomous works within his artistic practice. Additional teatrini include ‘Le mani (The hands)’ (1949), a tableau in which he used brass as well as clay to construct a theatre of the absurd, with disembodied hands being overlooked by a Giacometti-esque figure; and the visibily more figurative ‘Buona notte, bambini (Good Night, Children)’ (1984), featuring distinctly child-like characters.

The exhibition is designed in collaboration with artist Aaron Angell who has developed custom made pedestals for Melotti’s sculptural works, and a coved wall in which to display the teatrini. The show will be further complemented by a series of drawings and two-dimensional works in mixed media relating to the theatrical which provide further insight on Melotti’s process, including preparatory drawings for the teatrini series.

Saim Demircan is a curator and writer based in New York and Turin. Recently, he has curated exhibitions at 80WSE, NYC; Aspen Art Museum, Colorado, and Fridericianum, Kassel. He was the 2017 recipient of the Goethe-Institut New York’s curatorial residency program, Ludlow 38 in NYC. Between 2012 and 2015 he was a curator at Kunstverein München in Munich. Previously, he curated a two-year program of offsite projects, as well as an exhibition of works by German artist Kai Althoff at Focal Point Gallery in Southend-on-Sea. Demircan has published on numerous artistic practices; his writing regularly appears in periodicals such as Art Monthly, frieze and Texte Zur Kunst.