Schifano and Friends: Jasper Johns

 

February 23, 2021

This conversation and Q&A, part of a broader series titled Schifano and Friends covers the Italian artist’s friendship with Jasper Johns, as well as the reciprocal influence each had on the other.

This series of talks and conversations with art historians and curators, highlights thematic and aesthetic intersections between the work of Schifano and that of American artists from the 1950s and 1960s.

Flavio Fergonzi was born in Pavia in 1963. He teaches the History of Modern Art at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. His research interests include the sculpture of the nineteenth century (Rodin and Michelangelo. A Study of Artistic Inspiration. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1997) and of the twentieth century (L’arte monumentale negli anni del fascismo. Arturo Martini e il Monumento al Duca d’Aosta. Turin, Allemandi: 1992, with Maria Teresa Roberto). He has also worked on the history of twentieth-century art criticism (Lessicalità visive dell’Italiano. La critica dell’arte contemporanea 1945-1960. Pisa: Scuola Normale Superiore, 1996), and on Italian twentieth-century Avant-Garde (The Mattioli Collection: Masterpieces of the Italian Avant-Garde. Milan: Skira, 2003; Filologia del 900. Modigliani Sironi Morandi Martini. Milan: Electa, 2013). This last 2020 he published in Italy a book on Jasper Johns’ influence on Italian Art of 1950s and 1960s (Una nuova superficie. Jasper Johns e gli artisti italiani, 1958-1966).