Renato Barilli Remembers Lea Vergine: Body Art Champion and Provocateur

Renato Barilli, professor emeritus at the University of Bologna, writes a personal tribute to Lea Vergine, the Italian critic and curator who died in 2020. Vergine is best known for her 1974 book "Il corpo come linguaggio" (The Body as Language), a seminal study of Body Art. Barilli recalls her dual nature: rooted in Neapolitan bourgeois traditions yet fiercely avant-garde. She moved from Naples to Milan, where she married designer Enzo Mari. Vergine championed women artists in the 1980s, organizing landmark exhibitions on female avant-garde. Barilli recounts a professional rivalry: he opposed her exhibition on women artists at Palazzo Reale in Milan, arguing separate shows implied inferiority, but Mayor Tognoli overruled him. Vergine later led protests against Barilli's exhibition on the 1930s, calling it nauseating for its fascist relics. Their relationship oscillated between conflict and reconciliation, ending with Barilli praising her exhibition on the Bloomsbury Group at the Mart in Rovereto.