Within the research project, selected art professionals played a pivotal role as main actors and narrative clusters. Data on every player were collected from multiple sources (archive records, memoirs, essays, catalogues, exhibition reviews) and divided into the following categories: Acquisitions, Artworks, Chronology, Exhibitions, Literature (by and on), Press articles (by and on), Popular response. This filing strategy enabled a horizontal, comparative approach to the records, highlighting common threads and idiosyncrasies amongst artistic practices. Data collected during the outgoing period in the United States have been extensively integrated and implemented with data retrieved in the incoming period, and more specifically during the secondment in Germany. As the very epicenter of the Cold War in Europe, Germany, and more specifically Berlin, boast an incomparable collection of sources on this specific subject. Invaluable unpublished records were found at the archives of documenta in Kassel and at the Academy of Arts in Berlin, while primary and secondary sources were collected at several research institutions in Berlin, including the State Library, the Art Library and the Collections of the German Historical Museum. Data collected in Germany highlighted, among others, the early stages of Gabriele Mucchi’s art writing, teaching and exhibiting activities in East Germany. A realist painter and communist activist, Mucchi was a key figure in the artistic debate of the GDR, where Italian "Realismo" played a key-role within the process of self-determination of a German and socialist art. I focussed on his persona and oeuvre as an eloquent example of cross-border partnership across divided Europe and as a significant case for the study of the Cultural Cold War.
Among the scientific results achieved, I published articles in academic journals focusing on single players (Renato Guttuso, Lothar Lang, Gabriele Mucchi, Lev Nusberg, Ernst Neizvestny, and Harald Szeemann). These articles have been further contextualized and implemented within the monograph “Arte sovietica alla Biennale di Venezia, 1924-1962” (published in 2020 with Mimesis). The book analyzes the exhibitions displayed in the Soviet Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale against the background of the Italian cultural policy and the international Cold War, where multilateral relations with divided Germany, the Eastern bloc and non-aligned Yugoslavia played a primary role. The volume sheds light on the critical reception of socialist art in the international arena of the Biennale, highlighting the role of the Venetian enterprise as stage for international diplomacy, ideological persuasion and artistic showcase. The dissemination outcomes highlighted cross-border interpersonal connections and shared values, as well as ideological misconceptions and local adaptations, as significant cases of cultural transfers across divided Europe, thus contributing to the core concept of the GYSIART project: the productive impact of the cultural Cold War on the art practices within divided Europe.
