Enrico Crispolti.Criticism in action

The exhibition Enrico Crispolti. Criticism in action celebrates one of the most influential figures of the 20th century Italian art criticism, reconstructing the intellectual itinerary of a thinker capable of combining historical research, civic engagement and constant participation in the cultural debate. The exhibition project, curated by Luca Pietro Nicoletti in collaboration with theEnrico Crispolti Archive, consists of fourteen thematic sections, structured to render the complexity and depth of Crispolti's theoretical and critical reflection.

Via largely unpublished archive materials - including annotated books, correspondence, photographs, notes, editorial documents, posters, audio and video content - the exhibition offers a direct look at Crispolti's critical action, highlighting how his intellectual militancy translated into an operational and design method.

Among the main thematic cores: the historicisation of the Informal and its overcoming in the direction of New Figuration and the Pop Art; his innovative reading of the Futurism; theoretical systematisation of the’Environmental art; the relationship between art and social participation. Significant is the link with the city of Milan, where Crispolti was a protagonist of the artistic debate since the 1950s, in dialogue with personalities such as Lucio Fontana e Francesco Somaini, which he recognised as fundamental to his own exegetical maturation.

The exhibition, hosted in the Ettore and Claudia Gian Ferrari Archives on the fourth floor of the museum, is accompanied by a monographic volume and a programme of events and guided tours. A portrait emerges of a tireless scholar, capable of making criticism a living, generative and deeply ethical act, leaving a lasting imprint on the Italian cultural landscape.