Salvatore Scarpitta 1956 - 1964

Published on the occasion of the 2016 exhibition Salvatore Scarpitta 1956–1964 at Luxembourg & Dayan, New York, this catalogue brings together early works by the Italian-American artist (1919–2007), whose long career spanned non-objective abstraction, radical realism, and car racing in an oeuvre that achieved a distinctive mixture of material daring and tenderness. The exhibition spotlights a pivotal period of transformation, beginning with Scarpitta’s forays into shaped and bandaged paintings, initiated just before his 1958 return from Rome to his native United States. It concludes with his shift away from the canvas toward constructing racecars in 1964—the culmination of his deep-seated belief in movement as metaphor for life.

The catalogue includes essays by art historians Raffaele Bedarida and Davide Colombo as well as an excerpt from a conversation between the artist and Carla Lonzi.