The Savage God


Where does this neurotic anxiety in today’s art come from? Why is it that this so often results in a purely sociological reading of the work, which is anathema to all poetry and philosophical thought? What causes so many young artists to turn their back on culture, turning instead to the tactics of modern advertising and marketing for inspiration? In the mid-80s the Italian poet Remo Pagnanelli saw what was coming; we ought not be suprised that today an artist might feel extremely uncomfortable at the way the ideas of the avante-garde have by now become mainstream. According to Pagnanelli, the artist today “lives in an atmosphere of negativity, day in and day out, suffering from the all-too-real disease of neurotic anxiety.” What that means is that it is no longer possible for the artist to hide behind formal experimentation or novelty at any cost.

Are there still any artists out there today who take their time, who still have the passion to look reality in the face? Where are the heirs of Beckmann, Hopper, Pollock, Bacon, or Freud…




Salvatore Lacagnina
Translation by Jacqueline Smith