Gruppo Punto
In August 1961, Nanda Vigo, Dadamaino, Antonio Calderara, Kengiro Azuma, Hsiao Chin and Li Yuan-Chia sign the group's declaration of intent in Milan.(1) The Punto group operates from 1961 to 1966, exhibiting on various occasions with different formations.(2) The collective is inspired by Fontana's four points spatialist theories, published in the Manifesto Blanco. Its members impose themselves to abandon any sentimentality of still informal ancestry and to renounce all remembrance linked to the rhetoric of painting. The group was not a closed team but a heterogeneous group. Beyond the desire to overcome the informal impasse on the example of Fontana, there was a lack of a rigid programmatic line. The Punto Group's experience appears in the biographies of the individual artists, parallel to other national and international groups between the end of the fifties and mid-sixties. With Milan as one of the main squares in Europe, where artistic experiences of post-informal renewal took shape. The development is influenced by Lucio Fontana and the contribution of international groups - the Grav Group in Paris, the Nul in Amsterdam and the Zero Group in Düsseldorf - and witnessed the creation in 1959 of the Azimut Group of Piero Manzoni, Enrico Castellani and Agostino Bonalumi, of the Gruppo T and Gruppo N of Padova.(3)
Dadamaino
Dadamaino and Nanda Vigo take their first steps in this cultural humus, attending the Brera district, the Jamaica bar, establishing relationships with the major interpreters of the Milan scene. However, when their paths intersect in the formation of the Punto Group, both artists have a quite different artistic and exhibition experience behind them. Dadamaino made her debut in an informal field in 1956, although it is already maturing a reflection on Fontana's spatialist theories that will result two years later in the Volumes, avoid gaps on monochrome or crude canvas; one of which is exhibited at the exhibition La Donna nell'arte Contemporanea at the end of 1959.(4) Beginning that year, she also began collaborating with Piero Manzoni at the Galleria Azimut, participating in group exhibitions of international scope.(5) The two started an intellectual partnership based on the reset of the rhetoric thinking linked to the painting and the rebirth of the visual code. In the summer of 1960, Dadamaino took part for the first time in Albisola at the group exhibition Castellani, Maino, Manzoni, Pisani and Marco Santini at the Circolo degli Artisti of Albisola Mare. And in the fall Dadamaino and Vigo exhibit at the Trastevere Gallery in Rome with Santini, Agostino Bonalumi, Alberto Biasi and Manfredo Massironi at the "Sculpture da Viaggio" exhibition. (6)
Nanda Vigo
The past of Nanda Vigo is very different at the time of the formation of the group. Six years younger than Dadamaino, also Vigo has been part of the Milanese cultural milieu since 1959, but as a young architect and partner of Piero Manzoni. Starting from this year, she opened her own architecture studio in Milan, assisted Fontana and took part in dinners and initiatives of new fledgeling teams, developing an idea of hybrid art that travels on the bridge between art, architecture and design. As Gualdoni points out, Vigo "at the beginning is not strictly an artist's figure" 250 as far as she is concerned with interior design projects such as Interno Bianco in Milan (1959-1963) and she develops the Chronotopes (1959-1960), luminous structures which exploit the overlapping of glass with different weft or the effects deriving from floruscent tubes. Her first solo exhibition was inaugurated in Venice in 1962 at the Galleria S. Stefano, while the first group exhibition dates back only to 1964 but not as a member of Gruppo Punto: here, the participation of Nanda Vigo is limited to the drafting of the manifesto. Despite the efforts made in the group's gestation phase, the artist does not take part in the following exhibition activity due to methodological differences with the other members.251
Dissolvement
Specifically, according to Vigo's testimony, her departure from the scene seems to be determined by the same Dadamaino, curator of the first exhibition of the Punto Group at the Galleria di Cadario. Vigo: Who knows why [Dadamaino] also dedicated herself to clone my own business, like that of the manifesto '61 by Lucio Fontana, for whom I had worked several months to draft until the synthesis in a short but intense sentence convinced Fontana. Dadamaino blew it by making a show at Cadario entitled Punto Uno, obviously excluding me without the knowledge of Lucio himself.252 The personal and professional tensions that exist between the two artists, induce Vigo to remain faithful to the presuppositions of the manifesto, defiling the public manifestations of the group. While the first leaves the field, the second takes a crucial position, coordinating the two successive exhibitions of the group: Point 2 at the Palacio de la Virreina in Barcelona and Point 3 at the La Palma Gallery at Albisola Mare.253 At the end of 1962, Dadamaino abandoned the group that was formally dissolved in 1966.
Dadamaino
Dadamaino and Nanda Vigo take their first steps in this cultural humus, attending the Brera district, the Jamaica bar, establishing relationships with the major interpreters of the Milan scene. However, when their paths intersect in the formation of the Punto Group, both artists have a quite different artistic and exhibition experience behind them. Dadamaino made her debut in an informal field in 1956, although it is already maturing a reflection on Fontana's spatialist theories that will result two years later in the Volumes, avoid gaps on monochrome or crude canvas; one of which is exhibited at the exhibition La Donna nell'arte Contemporanea at the end of 1959.(4) Beginning that year, she also began collaborating with Piero Manzoni at the Galleria Azimut, participating in group exhibitions of international scope.(5) The two started an intellectual partnership based on the reset of the rhetoric thinking linked to the painting and the rebirth of the visual code. In the summer of 1960, Dadamaino took part for the first time in Albisola at the group exhibition Castellani, Maino, Manzoni, Pisani and Marco Santini at the Circolo degli Artisti of Albisola Mare. And in the fall Dadamaino and Vigo exhibit at the Trastevere Gallery in Rome with Santini, Agostino Bonalumi, Alberto Biasi and Manfredo Massironi at the "Sculpture da Viaggio" exhibition. (6)
Nanda Vigo
The past of Nanda Vigo is very different at the time of the formation of the group. Six years younger than Dadamaino, also Vigo has been part of the Milanese cultural milieu since 1959, but as a young architect and partner of Piero Manzoni. Starting from this year, she opened her own architecture studio in Milan, assisted Fontana and took part in dinners and initiatives of new fledgeling teams, developing an idea of hybrid art that travels on the bridge between art, architecture and design. As Gualdoni points out, Vigo "at the beginning is not strictly an artist's figure" 250 as far as she is concerned with interior design projects such as Interno Bianco in Milan (1959-1963) and she develops the Chronotopes (1959-1960), luminous structures which exploit the overlapping of glass with different weft or the effects deriving from floruscent tubes. Her first solo exhibition was inaugurated in Venice in 1962 at the Galleria S. Stefano, while the first group exhibition dates back only to 1964 but not as a member of Gruppo Punto: here, the participation of Nanda Vigo is limited to the drafting of the manifesto. Despite the efforts made in the group's gestation phase, the artist does not take part in the following exhibition activity due to methodological differences with the other members.251
Dissolvement
Specifically, according to Vigo's testimony, her departure from the scene seems to be determined by the same Dadamaino, curator of the first exhibition of the Punto Group at the Galleria di Cadario. Vigo: Who knows why [Dadamaino] also dedicated herself to clone my own business, like that of the manifesto '61 by Lucio Fontana, for whom I had worked several months to draft until the synthesis in a short but intense sentence convinced Fontana. Dadamaino blew it by making a show at Cadario entitled Punto Uno, obviously excluding me without the knowledge of Lucio himself.252 The personal and professional tensions that exist between the two artists, induce Vigo to remain faithful to the presuppositions of the manifesto, defiling the public manifestations of the group. While the first leaves the field, the second takes a crucial position, coordinating the two successive exhibitions of the group: Point 2 at the Palacio de la Virreina in Barcelona and Point 3 at the La Palma Gallery at Albisola Mare.253 At the end of 1962, Dadamaino abandoned the group that was formally dissolved in 1966.
Source: Jessica Perna, http://dspace.unitus.it/bitstream/2067/3044/1/jperna_tesid.pdf
Exhibitions
1962
- Milano, Galleria Cadario, Punto1, Kengiro Azuma, Bolognesi, Antonio Calderara, Cosentino, Mario De Luigi, Lucio Fontana, Hsiao-Chin, Li Yuen-Chia, Dadamaino (Maino)
- Barcelona, Palacio de la Virreina, Krit, Punto 2, Getulio Alviani, Kengiro Azuma, Bartolomé, Bolognesi, Antonio Calderara, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Cubells, Dadamaino, Faix, Magda Ferrer, Lucio Fontana, Hsiao-Chin, Hurtuna, Klaus Jürgen-Fischer, Julio Le Parc, Li Yuen-Chia, Almir Mavignier, François Morellet, Navarro, Henk Peeters, Emilio Porta Raventus, Rostkowska de Saram, Jesús Rafael Soto, Joël Stein
- Albisola Mare, Galleria della Palma, Punto 3, Getulio Alviani, Kengiro Azuma, Bolognesi, Antonio Calderara, Hsiao-Chin, Dadamaino, Lucio Fontana, Vlado Kristk, Julio Le Parc, Li Yuen-Chia, François Morellet, Henk Peeters, Ivan Picelj, Giovanni Pizzo, Rostkowska, Mario Rossello, Jan Schoonhoven, Jesús Rafael Soto
1963
- Firenze, Galleria Numero, NAMES
- Taipei, Yeou Lian Art Studio, Punto, Henk Peeters, Armando, Antonio Calderara, Pia Pizzo, Hsiao Chin, Li Yoen Chia, Joachim Berkenbrink
- Taipei, National Taiwan Arts Hall, Punto, International Art Movement Exhibition, Getulio Alviani, Armando, Kengiro Azuma, Antonio Calderara, Enrico Castellani, Li Yuen Chia, Hsiao Chin, Lucio Fontana, Henk Peeters, Pia Pizzo, Ettore Sottsass
1964
- Macerata, Galleria d'Arte Moderna - Amici dell’Arte, NAMES
- Venezia, Galleria d’Arte Gritti, NAMES
- Bologna, Galleria 2000, NAMES
1965
- Zurich, Galerie Suzanne Bollag, NAMES
- Firenze, Galleria Numero, NAMES
- Roma, Galleria Numero, NAMES
- Mestre, Galleria L’Elefante, NAMES
1966
- Ancona, Galleria Fanesi, NAMES
Source: Massimo Ganzerla
