This collection brings together work, made between 1962 and 1978, by artists who are typically classified into formal categories, such as conceptual art, minimal art, land art, arte povera and other contemporary art movements.

The common feature of the works in this collection is not their stylistic affiliation but the quality of the pieces, which were made by the artists themselves by employing printing mediums, from stencils and ink pads to photocopies and offset, to create highly specific works, such as artist books, bookworks, exhibition catalogues, periodical publications, fanzines, assemblings, multiple pieces, cards, ephemeral publications, posters, multiples, mail art and projects of a varied nature.

The desire to experiment with new formats, materials and techniques generated diverse pieces that up until now have been relegated to the fringes of ‘great art’. The works indistinctly or jointly show text, images, graphics and figures that, according to different procedures and different materials and formats, have been printed. These printed works have developed a life and discourse of their own, which—although it draws parallels with those of commonplace art works—is clearly distinct, as some artists have managed to develop, by means of printing techniques, a type of art that to a large extent has been indifferent to commercial pressure or expressly in opposition to it.

This collection of documents is primarily comprised of photographs, posters, artist books and graphic portfolios. Particularly noteworthy examples include Splitting (1974), by Gordon Matta-Clark; River Avon Book (1979?), by Richard Long; Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963), by Edward Ruscha; A Message from the Sculptors (1969), by Gilbert & George; and Once Upon a Time. C’era una volta (1973), by Lawrence Weiner and Giorgio Colombo; the graphic portfolio Hommage an meinen Vater (1989), by Hanne Darboven; and the photographic work of Robert Smithson made in Great Notch Quarry (Montclair, New Jersey), composed of three original black and white photographs (1968?).

SOME COLLECTIONS AND FONDS INCLUDED HERE
Printed Matter 1960-1977