Renato Barilli Remembers Nicola Carrino, Pioneer of Italian Minimalism

Renato Barilli pays tribute to Nicola Carrino, who died in 2018. Carrino co-founded Gruppo 1 in Rome in 1962, breaking with Informale. He embraced industrial materials like metal sheets and concrete, anticipating American Minimalism by five years. His public sculptures occupied piazzas and streets, prefiguring public art. Barilli notes Carrino's later shift to sandstone boulders with asymmetrical arrangements, exemplified by a work in Santa Sofia, Forlì. In 2009, as president of the Accademia di San Luca, Carrino revitalized the institution. Barilli compares Carrino's approach to that of Giuseppe Uncini, Giuseppe Lo Savio, and Milanese artists like Castellani, Bonalumi, and Scheggi.