Three collections built over time. The case of Antonio Stellatelli

Judgments, not opinions

A collection is not an accumulation. When Antonio Stellatelli begins collecting works by the artists of Corrente, many of them are still alive. He frequents them, enters their homes and studios. The works arrive through personal relationships, repeated encounters over time, sometimes gifts. The collection grows in this way: not as a reconstruction of a historical movement, but as the direct memory of a generation. Some artists are strongly represented with works central to understanding the period; others are almost absent. The acquisitions have no predetermined limit: every encounter can add a piece to the collection. In this form the collection depends entirely on its owner. There is no moment at which it can be considered complete. Without a change of method it would remain the private testimony of a relationship between a collector and his artists, not the verifiable reconstruction of a historical period.

Passion given a direction. In 1995 Marina Pizziolo curates the painting section of the major exhibition at the Triennale di Milano for the fiftieth anniversary of the Liberation, inaugurated by the President of the Italian Republic. The overlap between the Resistance and Corrente is direct: many of the artists are the same. It is from this context that the relationship with Stellatelli begins. Art Consulting does not enter to replace the collector’s passion. It enters to give it form. The first decisions are the most difficult: halting the continuous purchases, including artists whom Stellatelli appreciated less, seeking on the market works necessary to the project rather than waiting for opportunities. The collection stops growing through encounters and begins to be built as a coherent whole. The criteria do not remain private. Marina Pizziolo writes them, argues them, signs them. Romano Ravasio verifies their material and documentary soundness. From that moment the corpus has a recognisable authority, yet it remains the story of one man, his encounters, his passions. It is this combination that makes it unique and recognised as a point of reference by museums, institutions and other collectors.

Three collections, three times. In 1998 the Stellatelli collection is exhibited at the Museo della Permanente in Milan, in the exhibition titled Corrente e oltre. Opere dalla collezione Stellatelli. 1930-1990. The catalogue published by Charta, with essays by Marina Pizziolo and interviews with representatives of Corrente, among them Emilio Vedova, is the first systematic reconstruction of the trajectory of the movement’s protagonists. From that moment it is no longer only a private collection: it becomes a documented corpus; the catalogue remains the principal historical reference for the period. Stellatelli feels himself “the custodian of a completed collection.” We discuss it and take the decision to begin again. The works are not dispersed but transferred as a coherent whole to major private collections and museums. Their value is by now recognised. The conclusion makes a new beginning possible.
In 1999 the second collection begins, which will bring together forty-three Italian artists born after 1960. The book This is not propaganda, Pizziolo and Ravasio, 2013, is presented in exhibitions in Milan, Rome, Verona and at the Istituti Italiani di Cultura in New Delhi and New York.
The third collection explores contemporary Asian art, in particular Indian and Chinese: The Indian Renaissance, Pizziolo and Ravasio, 2012, documents a project built over five years of visits to artists’ studios in India and China.
Of the last two collections, Stellatelli did not wish to part with them entirely. Some works, those bound to special memories, remained with him until the end. The heritage transfers. The memory remains.

Pizziolo, M 1998, Corrente e oltre. Opere dalla collezione Stellatelli. 1930-1990, Charta, Milan.

Pizziolo, M & Ravasio, R 2013, This is not propaganda. Arte contemporanea italiana. Collezione Antonio Stellatelli, L’Artistica, Savigliano.

Pizziolo, M & Ravasio, R 2012, The Indian Renaissance. A research project on the new frontiers of art, L’Artistica, Savigliano.