Antonio Santacroce Art for Sale at Auction

b. 1945 -

Born in 1945, Antonio Santacroce was predominantly inspired by the 1960s. In the art sphere, a multitude of significant changes were also taking place. Pop Art, embodying the culture of mass media through the artworks of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Tom Wesselmann, was gradually breaking down the bases on which the creation and reception of art were built. Drawing from the imagery of popular culture and mass consumerism, the Pop Artists refuted the authority of highbrow art and created a ground-breaking movement, while Minimalism, simultaneously appearing, was rejecting any form of emotional expression and focused on art’s theoretical aspect – aiming for pure visual responses.

Historically established in the context of the Cold War, the 1960s represent an extremely powerful era which engendered an important number of disruptions and questioned the order of all things. In Europe, The Iron Curtain and the Berlin wall would permanently mark people and beliefs, while in the U.S, events such as the Cuban missile crisis and Vietnam war would forever impact generations to come. From education to gender issues and ideologies, a re-definition of social standards in Western society followed, with revolutionary philosophies and movements emerging in a cradle of inventiveness. Simplicity and an void of emotions were key concepts in the highly influential movement of Minimalism, embodied by artists like Frank Stella, Donald Judd and Agnes Martin. Uninterested in the gestural elements of Abstract Expressionism, Minimalist artists focused on producing artworks mainly gathering polished, clean lines and geometrical elements. Exploring further into some of the concepts inherent to Abstract Expressionism, artists like Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland and Helen Frankenthaler practiced Colour Field Painting – strongly relating to Minimalism, with a fundamentally ruled-based approach, devoid of any expressive aspect.

The very first blossoming of Conceptualism was highly influenced by the simplicity of Minimalism but went further in denying all pre-existing conceptions inherent to art, similarly to what Pop Artists were trying to attain, by uplifting popular culture to the status of high art. Several schools of philosophy profoundly influenced creatives, Francis Bacon and Alberto Giacometti were artists heavily seduced by the ideas of Existentialism, who achieved worldwide success through their depiction of the human form and the lament often linked to the human condition. Internationally, an important number of art movements echoed with the radical changes of the 1960s, often prone to their own regional distinctions. In Italy, Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni created Spatialism, while in Germany, the Zero group adopted similar ideas under the leadership of Günther Uecker.