Louis Fratino's Biennale Paintings: Style Over Content?

At the 2024 Venice Biennale, a room in the central pavilion at the Giardini is dedicated to new paintings by Louis Fratino (b. 1993, New York). The works depict queer domestic life and socializing, described by curator Juan Manuel Silverio as capturing intimacy and tenderness while critiquing family dynamics. However, critic Christian Caliandro argues that the official didactic text ignores Fratino's style, which he identifies as a revival of Picasso's post-cubist 'return to order' from the late 1910s–early 1920s, filtered through 1980s neo-expressionists like Julian Schnabel and Jörg Immendorf. Caliandro contends that this conservative, backward-looking style—rather than avant-garde—serves as a reassuring vehicle for progressive LGBTQ+ content, reflecting a broader societal trend where identity politics avoid class struggle. The article, published on Artribune, questions the dominance of 'contentism' (contenutismo) in contemporary art discourse.