Vanessa Beecroft is an Italian artist among the greatest exponents of the artistic expression of tableau vivants. Born in Genoa in 1969, she comes from a cosmopolitan family, made up of an Italian mother and an English father.
Vanessa Beecroft spent most of her childhood in a small village on Lake Garda, Malcesine, immediately showing her artistic inclinations. Having returned to Genoa, after attending art school, she graduated in Painting at the Ligustic Academy of Fine Arts, making herself noted for her marked originality in tackling different disciplines with a modern approach.
After having attended the performance courses of "La Chiave", a well-known association from Campopisano, Vanessa Beecroft chose to attend the Faculty of Architecture and then move to the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, where he graduated in Scenography in 1993.
At this point the rise of her artistic journey begins for Vanessa Beecroft, which leads her to exhibit her living works in some of the main museums in the world, traveling between the Old and New continents always in search of a dimension that could represent its free and original expression to the full. His belief is based on the value of performance, which must be enjoyed by a wide audience and perceived according to one's own interiority. No great explanations are given to Vanessa Beecroft's works, since art according to her conception must be free from conditioning and allow the individual to question himself on an intimate and personal level about the meaning of what he is seeing, adapting it to the unique and unrepeatable feeling of one's soul. The depictions are therefore admired and often exalted by critics, precisely because of the disruptive value that the woman managed to give to an artistic expression such as that of the tableau vivants dating back to the time of Caravaggio.
A taste of what his future would be came when he was still attending the Milanese institute, which during the first Salon decided to propose one of his creations at the Galleria Luciano Inga Pin, which received a notable success among those present, students but also teachers and professors struck by such audacity.
Vanessa Beecroft's works can be classified as true performances, which involve the presence of naked or semi-naked women within a skilfully orchestrated scene. Fundamental components are light and color, which underline a harmonious composition capable of underlying a hidden message that the public has the task of understanding and making their own.
These performances are often accompanied by a musical component, precisely to underline the dramatic and subtle line that distinguishes them compared to a classic tableau vivant of the past.
The characters move in a decidedly choreographic manner, following the artist's instructions to the letter, obsessively attentive to every action that is carried out during the performance.
The public is often enchanted when observing these figures twirling in space in a graceful way, giving an effect of elegance and refinement and winking at the world of fashion and external beauty, which always arises from an internal delicacy which is important to convey.
The themes most used by Beecroft are the gaze, sensuality and desire, which can be transmitted even without the aid of words but only by expertly modulating the progression of the body within the space, in a sort of refined dance which only the kindest and most elevated soul is capable of perceiving in its revolutionary scope.
Many of his main works have no title, but refer to the place in which they were created, taking the form of a sort of small theatrical show in which the artist deploys all his knowledge and skills acquired during his scenography studies.
There are numerous venues where it has been possible to observe some of his performances in motion, such as the Guggenheim in New York or the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Kunsthalle of Vienna. However, some installations have a permanent nature and are currently visible in high-level museums, especially in our country. This is the case of the ARCOS - Museum of Contemporary Art of Sannio, located in Benevento and loved by sector enthusiasts for the works on display, the Galleria d'Arte Moderna Palazzo Forti di Verona , the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna di Roma, which projects a video entitled Vanessa Beecroft 48, a series of reflections on the relationship between art and globalization of great interest for fans of artist and capable of outlining his life and philosophy, the MACK - Museum of Contemporary Art of Crotone, known for its progressive spirit, the MAMbo - Museum of Modern Art of Bologna, which exhibits a photo and a slide and finally the MAXXI - National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome, home to numerous cultural initiatives and characterized by an interesting section dedicated to the figurative arts of the world's major artists.
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