Ugo Mulas. Vitalità del negativo

Vitalità del negativo nell'arte italiana 1960-70 [Vitality of the negative in Italian art 1960-70] was the first exhibition organised by the Incontri Internazionali d’Arte (International Art Encounters) association, founded by Graziella Lonardi Buontempo in Rome, which started a series of important activities aimed at promoting Italian and international contemporary art. The exhibition included 33 artists who have become the main representative of the art of the ‘60s-‘70s: Vincenzo Agnetti, Carlo Alfano, Getulio Alviani, Franco Angeli, Giovanni Anselmo, Alberto Biasi, Alighiero Boetti, Agostino Bonalumi, Davide Boriani, Enrico Castellani, Gianni Colombo, Gabriele De Vecchi, Luciano Fabro, Tano Festa, Giosetta Fioroni, Jannis Kounellis, Francesco Lo Savio, Renato Mambor, Piero Manzoni, Gino Marotta, Manfredo Massironi, Fabio Mauri, Mario Merz, Giulio Paolini, Pino Pascali, Vettor Pisani, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mimmo Rotella, Paolo Scheggi, Mario Schifano, Cesare Tacchi, Giuseppe Uncini, Gilberto Zorio.

Ugo Mulas, the most precise photographer on the international artistic scene of the time, was called to give account of the exhibition, for which he realised, with his unique style, the photo reportage. Forty years later, the volume focuses on this account, which has so far remained mostly unpublished due to the untimely passing away of the photographer: the almost 130 images offer a journey through the artists, the installations, and the viewers, as well as a clear photographic account of a pivotal exhibition for the history of Italian contemporary art. This catalogue is also a useful and interesting chapter in the history of photography, which examines the personal research of the photographer and his dialogue with the artists: during the inauguration of Vitalità del negative, Ugo Mulas took one of the first pictures of the series of works Verifiche, which, because of its formal precision and the analysis of the means, is considered as one of the most important photographic accounts of the time.