Never before has the artwork of Italian artists Claudio Francia, Eugenio Miccini, Giuseppe Chiari and Lamberto Pignotti been exhibited in the United States. The Marquette community gets the first chance to view their work today when "Visual Poetry: Modern Art from Italy" opens at The Haggerty Museum of Art.

"(Visual Poetry) launches a critique of mass media's impact on our culture and people's lives," said Curtis L. Carter, the Haggerty Museum's director. "It gets people to think about how their minds are manipulated by the media,"

The artists create collages from clippings of words and conventional images found in popular magazines and newspapers. The focus is on revealing the relationship between language and visual imagery. The artists will sometimes include their own paintings or drawings in the collage.

Tonight's events will begin at 6 p.m. with a lecture from Simon Anderson, associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, entitled "A True Interaction: Expanding Poetry in Several Directions."

Also in attendance all the way from Italy will be two of the artists, Francia and Miccini. After the lecture, a reception will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. The events are free and open to the public. "Visual Poetry" will be on display through July 24.

The artwork is a style that appeals to a youthful audience. Carter said the exhibit will be especially interesting to students in the College of Communication because Visual Poetry addresses critical questions that are currently being raised in the media.

Visual poetry is an art movement that developed in Italy in the 1960s. The artwork displays the impact the mass media and technology have on today's society. Several of the pieces will have an English translation next to them. The exhibit includes 40 pieces, 10 from each artist spanning from 1966 to 2003.

Miccini and Pignotti were initiators of the movement. All four artists display distrust for the media through their works and Carter described it as a resistance movement.

Pignotti has two works both titled "Visibile invisibile" (1982) in which he examines the use of beautiful female models in advertisements. He removes the words that accompany the ads leaving only the images, thus challenging the viewer to question the media's intent.

Carter visited Italy this summer and personally chose the pieces that will be on display in the exhibit. He said his concept was to basically provide a selection from each artist that best represented their individual work and the movement as a whole.

"I chose this artwork because it's not easily available in this country," Carter said. "I also liked the fact that it has a strong intellectual and philosophical base."

Visual Poetry has more of a critical edge then Pop Art, which emerged in the United States during the same time period. Pop Art includes popular artists such as Andy Warhol.

All four artists have already had much success and Carter said they are excited about this exhibit. As a visual poet, Pignotti has received critical acclaim and won several awards. Francia is a second generation visual poet and has also produced films with a similar message as his artwork. Several of Miccini's pieces have been displayed at prominent museums such as The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Chiari has experimented with musical composition and uses musical imagery in several of his art pieces.

Several faculty members have already set up times to bring their classes in to see the exhibit. Daily admission to the Haggerty is always free.

Concurrent with "Visual Poetry," the Haggerty Museum is also opening an exhibit of 19th century paintings from its permanent collection. "Eva Sussman: 89 seconds at Alcazar" will also be on display until April 24.

"Visual Poetry: Modern Art from Italy" opens today and runs through July 24th at the Haggerty Museum of Art located at North 13th Street and West Clybourn Avenue.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on April 7 2005.