Christian Caliandro on Humility as Critical Practice in Contemporary Culture
Art historian Christian Caliandro argues for humility as a critical stance in contemporary art and culture, drawing on David Foster Wallace's 1993 essay predicting future rebels as 'anti-ironic' advocates of sincerity. Caliandro identifies humble, overlooked elements of Italian reality—immigrant shops, brutalist architecture, gambling arcades, poor homes, market-clad families, kebab shops, market stalls, and a fishmonger's repurposed pizza containers—as sites of authentic, vernacular culture. He contrasts this with institutional art, citing Giotto, Masaccio, Caravaggio, Morandi, Burri, and filmmakers Rossellini, Antonioni, Fellini, and Pasolini as precedents. The essay, published on Artribune, calls for recognizing the 'primitive' and 'barbaric' as sources of new cultural forms, echoing Pasolini's 1954 poem 'L'umile Italia' and Octavia Butler's 1993 novel 'Parable of the Sower'.
Key facts
- Christian Caliandro is an art historian and member of the scientific committee of Symbola Foundation for Italian Qualities.
- He teaches art history at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence.
- The essay references David Foster Wallace's 1993 essay 'E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction'.
- Caliandro cites Pasolini's 1954 poem 'L'umile Italia' from 'Le Ceneri di Gramsci' (1957).
- He lists humble Italian phenomena: immigrant shops, brutalist architecture, gambling arcades, poor homes, market-clad families, kebab shops, market stalls, and a fishmonger's pizza container reuse.
- Historical examples include Giotto, Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, Caravaggio, Boccioni, metaphysical painting, Sironi, Morandi, Burri, Rossellini, Antonioni, Fellini, Pasolini, and Ghirri.
- The essay quotes Octavia Butler's 'Parable of the Sower' (1993).
- The article was published on Artribune.
- Caliandro was born in 1979.
- He has published a book titled 'La…' (incomplete in source).
Entities
Artists
- Christian Caliandro
- David Foster Wallace
- Pier Paolo Pasolini
- Giotto
- Masaccio
- Piero della Francesca
- Caravaggio
- Boccioni
- Sironi
- Giorgio Morandi
- Alberto Burri
- Roberto Rossellini
- Michelangelo Antonioni
- Federico Fellini
- Luigi Ghirri
- Octavia E. Butler
- Kurt Schwitters
- Philip Guston
Institutions
- Artribune
- Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze
- Symbola Fondazione per le Qualità italiane
- Fanucci
- minimum fax
Locations
- Italy
- Bari
- S. Giorgio (Bari)
- United States