Guglielmo Achille Cavellini
Encyclopedia
Guglielmo Achille Cavellini, also known as GAC (1914–1990) was an influential Italian
art collector and mail art
ist.
Cavellini was born into a merchant family in Brescia
, lombardy
, where he ran a dry-goods shop through the post-war years following World War II
.
He produced many reinterpretations of concurrent artistic works, often distributed extensively by mail. He invented the term autostoricizzazione (self-historicization) upon which he acted to create a deliberate popular history surrounding his existence. "In the mountain of documentary material he left behind, Cavellini planted enough sly exaggerations and outright falsehoods to stymie the most intrepid historian" (Vetrocq 1993, referencing interviews with the artist's son, Piero Cavellini). Cavellini even wrote his own encyclopedia entry, the Pagina dell'Enciclopedia. He declared:
, Emilio Vedova
, and Renato Birolli
. A friendship with fellow Brescian
Pietro Feroldi, including exposure to Feroldi's impressive art collection, provided a stepping stone to extensive travels visiting Europe's modern galleries and museums.
His collection grew rapidly, adding works from School of Paris
figures, Dubuffet, Brauner
, Jorn
, Baumeister
, Matta
, Dominguez
and others. Over two dozen of his collected holdings were included in the 1955 first documenta
exhibition of modern
and Contemporary art
. 1957 brought a showcase of over 180 of his works at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna
in Rome, Italy.
Cavellini's obsession with collecting never ceased, though his holdings changed continuously as he sold earlier acquisitions.
Cavellini's artistic career found its beginnings from a talent for brush and ink script, used on windows and price cards at the family business. He later found himself scripting Mussolini's slogans during his army service. Dabblings with painting and drawing through the mid-1940s were eventually replaced in the early 1960s by works best classified as Neo-Dada
or Nouveau Realiste. He would continue this diversion from traditional forms into the 1970s and 1980s with Mail art
and Conceptual art
.
"As these artistic activities unfolded Cavellini formed two essential convictions. First, art-making is fundamentally a form of behavior. In this he embraced a 20th-century tradition stretching from Dada
through Fluxus
and Austrian Actionism. Second, and more distinctively Cavellinian, art history
and all that accompanies it--biography, taste, market values, reputations--are malleable fictions and therefore suitable materials for the artist" (Vetrocq 1993).
His eventual reputation as a mail art
ist resulted in part from the sheer number of individuals with whom he corresponded. In 1978, he sent his work Nemo propheta in patria, by post, to over 15,000 recipients.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
art collector and mail art
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...
ist.
Cavellini was born into a merchant family in Brescia
Brescia
Brescia is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, between the Mella and the Naviglio, with a population of around 197,000. It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital, Milan...
, lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
, where he ran a dry-goods shop through the post-war years following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
He produced many reinterpretations of concurrent artistic works, often distributed extensively by mail. He invented the term autostoricizzazione (self-historicization) upon which he acted to create a deliberate popular history surrounding his existence. "In the mountain of documentary material he left behind, Cavellini planted enough sly exaggerations and outright falsehoods to stymie the most intrepid historian" (Vetrocq 1993, referencing interviews with the artist's son, Piero Cavellini). Cavellini even wrote his own encyclopedia entry, the Pagina dell'Enciclopedia. He declared:
The biography of an artist is frequently written after his death, imperfectly and incompletely. Since I don't want any such biography to be written about me, I've decided to write my own.
Collector
He began collecting abstract art at an early age by artists such as Giuseppe Santomaso, Giulio TurcatoGiulio Turcato
Giulio Turcato was an Italian painter.-Biography:Turcato left Mantua and attended the Venice Academy’s school of nude studies in the early 1930s before moving to Milan and finding work in the firm of the architect Giovanni Muzio in 1937. Pulmonary illness led to frequent stays in sanatoriums...
, Emilio Vedova
Emilio Vedova
Emilio Vedova was an Italian modern painter, considered one of the most important to emerge in his country's artistic scene after World War II.Vedova was born in Venice into a working-class family...
, and Renato Birolli
Renato Birolli
-Biography:Birolli was born at Verona to a family of industrial workers. In 1923 he moved to Milan where he formed an avanguardist group with other artists such as Renato Guttuso, Giacomo Manzù and Aligi Sassu. In 1937 he was a member of the artistical movement called Corrente di Vita...
. A friendship with fellow Brescian
Province of Brescia
The Province of Brescia is a Province in Lombardy, Italy. It borders with the province of Sondrio in the N and NW, the province of Bergamo in the W, province of Cremona in the SW and S, the province of Mantova to the S, and to the east, the province of Verona and Trentino .Source for statistical...
Pietro Feroldi, including exposure to Feroldi's impressive art collection, provided a stepping stone to extensive travels visiting Europe's modern galleries and museums.
His collection grew rapidly, adding works from School of Paris
School of Paris
School of Paris refers to two distinct groups of artists — a group of medieval manuscript illuminators, and a group of non-French artists working in Paris before World War I...
figures, Dubuffet, Brauner
Victor Brauner
Victor Brauner was a Romanian Jewish painter of surrealistic images.-Early life:He was born in Piatra Neamţ, the son of a timber manufacturer who subsequently settled in Vienna with his family for a few years. It is there that young Victor attended elementary school...
, Jorn
Asger Jorn
Asger Oluf Jorn was a Danish painter, sculptor, ceramic artist, and author. He was a founding member of the avant-garde movement COBRA and the Situationist International...
, Baumeister
Willi Baumeister
Willi Baumeister was a German painter, scenic designer, art professor, and typographer.-Life:Willi Baumeister, born in Stuttgart in 1889, completed an apprenticeship as a decorative painter in his native city from 1905 to 1907, followed by military service...
, Matta
Roberto Matta
Roberto Sebastián Antonio Matta Echaurren , better known as Roberto Matta, was one of Chile's best-known painters and a seminal figure in 20th century abstract expressionist and surrealist art....
, Dominguez
Óscar Domínguez
Oscar M. Domínguez was a Spanish surrealist painter.Born in San Cristóbal de La Laguna on the island of Tenerife, Domínguez spent his youth with his grandmother in Tacoronte and devoted himself to painting at a young age after suffering a serious illness which affected his growth and caused a...
and others. Over two dozen of his collected holdings were included in the 1955 first documenta
Documenta
documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...
exhibition of modern
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
and Contemporary art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
. 1957 brought a showcase of over 180 of his works at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, or the National Gallery of Modern Art , is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, dedicated to modern art....
in Rome, Italy.
Cavellini's obsession with collecting never ceased, though his holdings changed continuously as he sold earlier acquisitions.
Artist
Neo-Dada
Neo-Dada is a label applied primarily to audio and visual art that has similarities in method or intent to earlier Dada artwork. It is the foundation of Fluxus, Pop Art and Nouveau réalisme. Neo-Dada is exemplified by its use of modern materials, popular imagery, and absurdist contrast...
or Nouveau Realiste. He would continue this diversion from traditional forms into the 1970s and 1980s with Mail art
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...
and Conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
.
"As these artistic activities unfolded Cavellini formed two essential convictions. First, art-making is fundamentally a form of behavior. In this he embraced a 20th-century tradition stretching from Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
through Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
and Austrian Actionism. Second, and more distinctively Cavellinian, art history
Art history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...
and all that accompanies it--biography, taste, market values, reputations--are malleable fictions and therefore suitable materials for the artist" (Vetrocq 1993).
His eventual reputation as a mail art
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...
ist resulted in part from the sheer number of individuals with whom he corresponded. In 1978, he sent his work Nemo propheta in patria, by post, to over 15,000 recipients.
Authored works
- Pagina dell'Enciclopedia ("Encyclopedia entry", date unknown)
- Arte Astratta (Edizioni della Conchiglia, Milan, 1958)
- Uomo pittore (Edizioni della Conchiglia, Milan, 1960)
- Diario di G.A. Cavellini ("The diaries of Guglielmo Achille Cavellini", Brescia, 1975)
- 1946-1976: Incontri/Scontri nella Giungla dell'Arte ("1946-1976: Encounters/clashes in the jungle of art", Brescia, 1976 / Shakespeare & Company, Milano, 1977)
- Vita di un Genio (Brescia, 1989)
Catalogs
- ? (25 Books for Cavellini, 1972)
- 25 Lettere ("25 letters", 1974)
- Cimeli (1974)
- Analogie (1975)
- 25 quadri della collezione Cavellini ("25 Paintings from the Cavellini Collection", 1976)
- Nemo propheta in patria (1978)
- Cavellini in California e a Budapest (1980)
- Autoritratti ("Self portraits", 1981)
- Il sistema mi ha messo in croce (1986)
- Serie artisti anomali. Cavellini-Arcimboldo (1987)