Invenzione come inventario: Cesare Vivaldi e “Crack” / Invention as Inventory: Cesare Vivaldi and “Crack”

The essay focuses on the role played by the art critic and poet Cesare Vivaldi in the context of the vibrant art scene in Rome in the late 1950s, with special attention to the initiative of the collective show and publication "Crack", released in 1960. In the book, Vivaldi included himself among the exhibiting artists and provided a text which proves to be an insightful contribution to understand the vision of Vivaldi better and reconstruct his role in shaping the language of art criticism in response to the radical change of the practice and themes of a generation of artists emerging after the Informel and facing new challenges, such as monochromatic painting and cross-media interferences.