Un pittore dei pittori. Morandi e gli artisti americani / A painters' painter. Morandi and American artists

The essay delves into major as well as hitherto neglected facets of the reception of the painting of Giorgio Morandi in the US in postwar years. Starting from the exhibitions held in galleries, the early critical accounts on his painting and the few statements by the artist circulating in English, the reconstruction especially focuses on the approach that American artists showed towards Morandi's oeuvre between the 1960s and the 1980s. Between New York and California, artists belonging to the major tendencies of the new avant-garde rising at that time - Minimalism, Conceptual Art, new figuration and Pop Art - related to Morandi's art and opened up new perspectives on his work, according to their specific interest. By analyzing and comparing these approaches, as attested in articles and archival sources, I aim to shed light on a distinctive side of the broader phenomenon of the fortune of Morandi in the United States and hint at his work as a possible model and source of inspiration for some of the most outstanding figures of the new artistic trends defining the second half of the 20th century.