PARMA.- Felice Levini’s exhibition The fox knows many things but the hedgehog knows a big thing is on view at Galleria Niccoli in Parma. Starting from the enigmatic sentence that gives the title to the exhibition, a quotation by the Greek poet Archiloco, some central elements of Levini’s thought are revealed. In this inedited project conceived specifically for the spaces of the gallery, the artist continues his research between painting and object-based art, between abstract and figurative in a series of dualisms in which the role of text is as central as the one of self-potrait. The quotations and the references remain thus suspended between the decorative elements, the mythological images and the hints to daily elements, while the technique remains an essential element, strictly connected to the idea of slowness.

Felice Levini is a fundamental figure in the Roman art scene since the Seventies, starting from the fundation of the indipendent space in Via S. Agata dei Goti in 1978, an artist-run space dedicated to exhibitions and poetry readings. He brought forward his artistic parcour moving through a politically charged climate - 1978 was, not by chance, the year of the Moro case - and drawing fundamental references from the contemporaries, above all from Alighiero Boetti and Gino De Dominicis, and also more in general from the history of painting of the 900’s, such as from Gino Severini, Yves Klein and Piero Manzoni, juxtaposing them to figures such as Salvo and Luigi Ontani, and crossing some of the most central moments of the history of exhibitions in the aftermath of the Second World War in Italy. Levini exhibited his work at the group exhibition of the ‘Nuovi-Nuovi’ (New-New), curated by Renato Barilli at the Civic Gallery of Modern Art of Bologna in 1980, at the Venice Biennales of 1988 and 1993, and in galleries such as Studio Cannaviello, La Salita, Massimo Minini, Il Milione, Eva Menzio, Pio Monti, Galleria Pieroni, La Nuova Pesa, A.A.M. Galleria, L’Attico, Spazio Borgogno e Ronchini, in spaces such as the VOLUME! Foundation in Rome or the Lauba Museum in Zagreb, and in museums such as the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome. Amongst those who curated his work are Achille Bonito Oliva, Renato Barilli, Marco Meneguzzo and Bruno Corà, who tried to define a language that has always put painting in the centre, but trying also to remain, as the artist himself declares, “ideal, mobile and unpredictable”.

Marco Niccoli: "I'm curious, from a professional standpoint, to hear your thoughts on Gian Tomaso Liverani, the gallerist who really put you on the map, so to speak."

Felice Levini: "He had a profound impact on me, that's for sure."

MN: "What was that like? Did he come looking for you?"

FL: "I was just twenty years old, and I'd been a regular at his gallery since 1976."

MN: "If I recall correctly, you were already immersed in the Italian and international art scene by 1973, at sixteen. You started with 'Contemporanea,' that groundbreaking exhibition curated by Achille Bonito Oliva in the Villa Borghese parking lot in Rome."

FL: "It was in the air, a shared fascination among many artists of my generation. I met Liverani in person at the end of 1977. He visited my studio, saw my work, and invited me to his first group show. Incredibly, just three or four months later, he returned with an invitation to a solo exhibition already printed!"

MN: "So, you trusted his judgment back then. But for this current exhibition, it was your idea?"

FL: "Yes, the 1980 show was entirely his initiative. We followed up with two more in 1981 and 1984, before the gallery closed."

MN: "One of the works here in Parma, 'I See, I Hear, I Speak' (1982), was originally created for Galleria Eva Menzio in Turin the following year."

FL: "It belongs to a series I was exploring at the time, experimenting with transparent plastic materials and a technique of obsessive pointillism. I was drawn to the idea of lightness, as if I were lifting the painting into the air, giving it an aerial perspective."

MN: "After the conceptual art movement and those major Roman exhibitions of the 70s, there seemed to be a renewed interest in painting."

FL: "It wasn't so much a return to traditional painting – it never truly disappeared, just look at the Analytic artists. It was more about a desire to rediscover iconography, a new way to express ourselves. There was also a sense of weariness, a reaction against the overly rigid, ideological constraints that had gripped the art world."

MN: "Let's turn to the works you created specifically for this exhibition. Now that they're installed, what are your thoughts?"

FL: "I don't usually think about the specific placement of my work, except in certain cases. I see each series as an ongoing process. These large canvases, for example, I create about two a year. The series evolve organically, then conclude, and new ones emerge."

MN: "Are you satisfied with the final result?"

FL: "Very much so. The exhibition looks exactly as I envisioned it, with a few adjustments along the way. Thankfully, we ended up removing more than we added. I'm always inclined to pare things down."

Parma, November 10, 2017