The iconic works of Slavko Kopač on display in Florence

From Naturalism to Art Brut, an unconventional artist

There is time until 13 November to see the exhibition Slavko Kopač. The Hidden Treasure. Informal Art, Surrealism, Art Brut at the Exhibition Hall of the prestigious Academy of Design Arts.

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The artist went through the main post-war movements without ever fully adhering to any of them. The exhibition perfectly illustrates his eclecticism. His academic training and naturalism underwent a first change with his arrival in Florence in 1943, where he developed a personal language capable of combining cave art influences, universal archetypes and a visionary sensibility. This phase saw the creation of Cavalli (1948), a painting that already shows his interest in primitive mark-making and essentiality, and Graffiti (1949), considered a manifesto of his experimental poetics.

Motherhood 1949

In 1948, he moved to Paris, a city that marked a turning point in his career. Here he met Jean Dubuffet, with whom he established a collaborative relationship that lasted almost thirty years, becoming the first curator of the Collection de l'Art Brut. During the same period, he became close to André Breton, who welcomed him into the Surrealist circle, and Michel Tapié, who included him in his essay Un Art Autre (1952), recognising him as one of the leading figures of Informal art alongside Fautrier, Wols and Burri.

The meeting with Breton took place in 1949, with Kopač illustrating the poem Au regard des divinités, published in a limited edition with Breton's calligraphy and original drawings. In 1953, he exhibited at the surrealist gallery À l'Étoile Scellée, and in 1954, he collaborated with Breton on a four-handed poem-object, one of the most emblematic examples of their artistic dialogue.

Werewolf 1962

Among the works on display are the textured canvases of the 1960s, such as Le Gemelle and Lupo Mannaro, and the Maternità series, which reflects her constant interest in the archetype of the feminine, both generative and protective. Alongside the works are documents and archival materials that testify to her relationships with artists and intellectuals such as Dubuffet, Breton, Jean Paulhan and Giordano Falzoni, a cultural bridge between France and Italy.)