Art and Intimacy in Modern Italy Entangled Lives

<p><b>A much-needed corrective to the history of single authorship, this timely volume offers new insight i</b><b>nto the lives and practices of the artist couples, friendships and communities that shaped postwar art in Italy.</b> Bringing together a series of essays from international scholars across a variety of subject fields, the volume considers a range of longstanding intimate working relationships. Questioning the extent to which exchange formed part of artistic production, and the nature of such partnerships, the contributors explore a variety of underexplored case studies that opens to new readings of Italian art informed by key contemporary issues surrounding gender and sexuality, modern Italian identities and transcultural exchange.<br><br>In covering friendships, bi-racial, trans-cultural and familial relations, the volume adds much needed perspectives to modern Italy's social and political histories, through case studies of well-known as well as overlooked figures and creative partnerships including Mario and Marisa Merz; the de Chirico brothers, William Demby and Lucia Drudi; and Antonia and Ugo Mulas. Three sections guide the reader through different working and affective dynamics: Shadowy Presences, Ins and Outs; and Alliances. The volume explores practitioners in the visual arts, as well as art critics, institutional figures, screen and theatre writers, designers, and photographers. Rather than merely a descriptive or celebratory account of couples and partnerships in postwar Italian art, <i>Art and Intimacy in Modern Italy </i>asks what comes into view and what is left out when thinking about art history through this relational lens.</p>