Tano Festa's Tormented Art on View in Milan

Milan's M77 gallery presents a non-chronological survey of Tano Festa (1938-1988), featuring works from private collections (Spanu, Iacorossi) and galleries (Il Ponte, La Nica, Marchetti). Highlights include his iconic closed windows, which reveal not blue sky but the intimacy of his bedroom, and pieces from his entire career. Festa began as a poet distributing poems on the Spanish Steps, part of the Scuola Romana di Piazza del Popolo alongside Schifano, Angeli, Mambor, Bignardi, Twombly, and Ceroli. In 1959, he had his first solo show at Galleria La Salita, run by lawyer Liverani. The 1960 group show '5 pittori – Roma '60' at La Salita, curated by Restany, marked a break from Informalism. After his brother Lo Savio's suicide in 1963, Festa's work turned to imaginary chaos; his bedroom became his sole habitat. A 1965 trip to New York exposed him to Warhol's Pop Art, leading him to trace projected popular images. In the 1970s, he revisited Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel figures, often on red or blue grounds, treating Italian art history as popular souvenir. From the late 1970s, he produced the 'Coriandoli' series (confetti on acrylic under cellophane or plexiglass). The exhibition's entrance features a large violet-toned painting of a ravaged face, summarizing the poet's devastation. Upstairs, 1983 wax pastels on paper continue the angel-demon dialectic, alongside 'Cielo meccanico' (1963).