In all his considerable scope and depth, Gnoli's vision has long fascinated us. In works that are at once humorous and lonely, personal and remote, obsessive and distant, Gnoli investigated the multitude of meanings to be found in the seemingly mundane details of everyday objects. His meditations on the material trappings of bourgeois Italian life directly challenge the discourse profered by artists of the burgeoining Arte Povera movement by suggesting that identituy can be constructed around consumerism and commercial choices. Most explicitly, these artworks consider the way in which subjectivity can be expressed through the turn of a curl or the width of a pinstripe, how a leather handbag can become the metonym of a woman.

 

This illustrated catalogue was published on the occasion of the artist's first solo exhibition in New York since his 1969 show at Sidney Janis Gallery. Focusing on a group of late paintings, It features the essays 'Fleas on Mars' by Francesco Bonami and 'Monster Drawings' by Robert Graves, as well as an interview of Domenico Gnoli conducted by Maurizio Cattelan.