A monograph conceived as a self-portrait: the story of the artist's career through works and writings from 1961 to 2015, collected in chronological order to illustrate the ever-evolving, organic nature of Salvo's activities, which constantly interacted with the history of art.
The book contains the most complete selection of the artist's works ever published and a sizable collection of his writings, including Sette incisioni e sette poesie, the treatise Della Pittura (On Painting), a number of unpublished texts and a series of interviews given over the years.
This autobiographical account is introduced by two critical essays written by
Bob Nickas and Elena Volpato, who both take a new look at Salvo's work. The artist's career is then retraced in the chronology of his exhibitions compiled by Sara De Chiara, providing an extensive biography of Salvo, outcome of a research through documents now conserved in the Archivio Salvo and in various libraries.
Salvatore Mangione (1947-2015), known as Salvo, is an Italian artist. At the beginning of his career, Salvo met with some of the major figures of
Arte Povera (artists
Alighiero Boetti,
Mario Merz, Gilberto Zorio, Giuseppe Penone, and art critic Germano Celant). Through their influence, he first created a series of funerary monuments in marble on which were inscribed words and phrases with ironic twists. It was also during this period that the artist began his photographic work. In 1973, Salvo turned away from conceptual art and went back to painting, engaging in several series of self-portraits and landscapes, up until his death in 2015.
