El devenir de las artes (Breviarios nº 170)

by Gillo Dorfles, Fondo de Cultura Económica (Editor)

Las artes han sido posibles siempre bajo el signo del devenir; en el cambio, en la transformación continua, en la constante revisión crítica de las formas y los procedimientos, en el análisis de los mensajes. En todo ello se encuentra la razón de su fuerza de comunicación y las condiciones mismas de su existencia.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

314 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Born in Trieste to a Gorizian father and a Genoese mother, Dorfles graduated in medicine, specializing in psychiatry. He was a professor in aesthetics at the University of Trieste, Milan and Cagliari and, in 1948, established the MAC (Movimento per l'arte concreta) with artists Atanasio Soldati, Galliano Mazzon, Gianni Monnet, and Bruno Munari. His paintings were displayed in two personal exhibitions held in Milan in 1949 and 1950 and also in numerous collective MAC exhibitions in the 1950s. In 1956 Dorfles co-founded the ADI (Associazione per il disegno industriale).

Having stopped painting, he devoted himself to the study of aesthetics and art criticism, dealing with the problem of the vanguard, the relationship between art and industry, analizing artistic phenomena, and tastes in the contemporary society. According to Dorfles, aesthetics should focus on culture as a whole, which combine elements of fantasy, symbolic, metaphorical and even mythical suggestions. Among his major works, L'architettura moderna (1954), Kitsch (originally published in Italian in 1968 and translated in English the following year), La moda della moda (1984), Il feticcio quotidiano (1988), Horror pleni. La (in)civiltà del rumore (2008). In the same period, however, Dorfles continued to hold personal exhibitions: in 1986 his works were displayed in Milan, in 1988 in Aosta, and in 1996 in Rome.[3]

In 2010, for his 100th birthday celebrations, L'avanguardia tradita took place at the Royal Palace of Milan. Another exhibition was held in 2012 at the Milan Triennale, organized by Dorfles itself, entitled Dorfles. Kitsch - oggi il kitsch.[4]

At 103, Dorfles published a new book (Poesie, Campanotto Editore, 2013), containing previously unpublished poems written from 1941 to 1952.[5] In 2013 he was among the artists that designed the Tibetan pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale.[6]

Reviews

[Alejandro Ortiz · Rating 2 out of 5]

El estilo resulta cansado y un poco desordenado. Encontré ciertas cosas que ocupaba, pero en general el libro del montón. La gracia rescatable que tiene es que presta voz y razón a ciertos lugares comunes en la estética moderna, ¿por qué el arte es cómo es? Sus respuestas son bastante ingenuas y sus teorías de lo más divertidas: como esa teoría que menciona de paso acerca de la "información estética".

Que manía más fea del FCE esto de las notas al final del libro. Engorroso a más no poder. También el autor podría haberse ahorrado la mitad de las mismas, por cierto.

[Elizabeth Pisté]

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