Luciano Caruso, Tabulae barocche, 1967,1983, Pencil and crayon on clothbound folder, paint, staples, mirror foil, ink, silkscreen on paper, 61.5 × 41 cm, Edition of 5
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Clothbound portfolio folder, with handwritten title in graphite and pastel, containing a silkscreened title page, a silkscreen text piece on Amalfi paper with handwritten notations by the artist from 1983, five unique works comprising handpainting and calligraphy on a repeating silkscreen from the artist's 1967 series "Tabulae Barocche," and a handwritten colophon in graphite.
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Luciano Caruso (1944 Foglianise, Italy–2002 Florence, Italy) played an essential role in the development of Italian avant-garde literature. His artistic and critical work stands at the intersection of history and politics, aesthetics and semantics, writing and poetry. During his career, Caruso worked on the conception of multiple Italian avant-garde journals addressing new expressive dimensions. In 1967, he was co-editor of Linea Sud. From 1968–1970, he co-published periodical publications and folios under the collective Continuum, which he also co-founded. Throughout the 1970s, Caruso’s artistic work focused on the book-object, complex pieces in which sculptural, textual, typographic, and artistic elements intertwine. Continuing to survey international networks such as Fluxus and Intermedia, Caruso engaged with Dick Higgins, their correspondence later published in a book titled Lettere di Dick Higgins a Luciano Caruso (1976–1994). Caruso also promoted important events dedicated to avant-gardes such as the sound poetry festival “Il colpo di Glottide” in 1980 with Bernard Heidsieck, Arthur Petronio, and Arrigo Lora-Tottino, and the event “Far libro: libri e pagine d’artista in Italia” at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence in 1989. He also held exhibitions such as those at the Civica Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Gallarate (1993) and the Istituto Italiano degli Studi Filosofici in Naples (2002).
