10 YEARS OF SAM

Retrospective of best of Sam

10th anniversary of SAM St. Moritz Art Masters
Exhibition in the protestant church

Robilant+Voena are pleased to present an exhibition celebrating the 10th edition of St. Moritz Art Masters in the Protestant Church, St. Moritz, from August 25 until September 3.

The artists in the exhibition reflect the wide range of artistic practices and nationalities that, since the inaugural show, have been a hallmark of St. Moritz Art Masters. From the very beginning the organisational committee and the participating galleries created a high-profile pogram that put St. Moritz and the Engadine valley on the map for cultural summer events and year after year continues to attract a diverse, discerning and fun-loving crowd.

Vik Muniz born 1961, São Paulo
Prometheus, after Titian – Pictures of Junk, 2006
Digital C-print
228 x 177 cm
89 3/4 x 69 3/4 in
AP 1/4Courtesy & Copyright: Gian Enzo Sperone

The great precision of the image deserves appreciation especially given the consideration that the artist directed the arrangement of the objects from a very high vantage point, as they arrived by lorry at the dump to be discharged, in order to arrive at the chosen composition, namely the myth of Prometheus.One of the works executed during the period when the artist stayed for three years near to Jardim Gamacho, the largest waste dump in Rio de Janeiro. The work depicts a painting by Titian, made in a square of about 50 x 200 meters, where the artist has arranged the remains of industrial objects (old computers, cars wheels, telephones, etc.) of plastic and ferrous materials which have come from the daily separation of landfill waste undertaken by the “Catadores”.

Lucio Fontana Rosario de Santa Fé 1899 – 1968 Comabbio
Concetto Spaziale, 1954
Signed on the bottom right: l.Fontana / 54; title and date on reverse: “Concetto Spaziale” / 1954 / l.Fontana
Oil, mixed media & sequins on canvas, black, white and red
100.5 x 70.5 cm / 39.6 x 27.8 in
Courtesy & Copyright: Private collection

The present work represents one of Fontana’s early barocchi (baroque), a cycle of artworks initiated in 1954, introducing the artist’s most unapologetically emotive and gestural work. With visual aesthetics characterised by pictorial building blocks of holes, paint and glass fragments, barocchi artworks are defined by Fontana’s use of heavily impastoed paint for the depiction of signs. Placed against monochromatic backgrounds, he used fine and coarse sand in the impastoed areas, applying the mixture with a spatula. In addition, the signs sometimes vaguely allude to figures and the various pictorial elements are characterised by the dynamic ‘baroque’ accent that gives the cycle its name.

Richard Long
Soho Circles, 1989
Granite (39 stones)
diameter 203 cmCourtesy & Copyright: Gian Enzo Sperone

Soho Circles is one of the classical works of the artist, rare for its small size, which makes it possible to be displayed in a domestic setting. One of the oldest images in the world – the circle – emanates a great deal of strength through the use of stones arranged in a precise, minimalist fashion.

Mimmo Rotella Catanzaro 1918 – 2006 Milan
Arachidina, 1963
Décollage on canvas
138 x 95.3 cm / 54.3 x 37.5 inCourtesy & Copyright: Private collection

Arachidina is one of Mimmo Rotella’s most iconic works. During the period between 1961 and 1963 Rotella felt a frustration with what he saw as a stagnant art world which wasn’t moving forward, and after having seen new tendencies and explorations in painting whilst frequenting La Tartaruga and La Salita galleries in Rome, he sought to extend his creative vocabulary by using advertising and film posters. In particular Rotella focused on branding and the enticing display of products for sale that had became the protagonists of communication and promotion.

David Lachapelle Born 1963
Statue, 2008
C-print
243.2 x 181.6 cm / 95.8 x 71.5 in
ed. 5
(S11.543)
Courtesy & Copyright: Private collection

David LaChapelle is a photographer known for his artwork that combines a hyper-realistic aesthetic with profound social messages. LaChapelle’s images have been on the covers and pages of the world’s leading fashion and lifestyle magazines and he has photographed some of the most recognizable faces on the planet. In 2006, LaChapelle decided to minimize his participation in commercial photography and return to his roots by focusing on fine art photography, ‘Statue’ was created during this transition, which comes from his photo series ‘After The Deluge: Museum’.

Marino Marini Pistoia 1901 – 1980 Viareggio
Cavallo e cavaliere, composizione, 1955/56
Bronze
height 57 cm cm
height 22 1/2 in
Courtesy & Copyright: Private collection

In 1974,  Marini (Pensiero sull’arte e sugli artisti in Omaggio a Marino Marini, Paris 1974, pp. 5-9) wrote: “My equestrian sculptures give expression to the events of this century. The horse becomes more troublesome with every new work, the rider is more and more tired, he has lost control of the animal and thus he succumbs to disasters similar to the ones that destroyed Sodom and Pompeii. And so I try to symbolise the final stages of the decomposition of a myth, the myth of the heroic and victorious man, the ‘man of virtue’ of the humanists”.