In June
1973 Pistoletto asked his father to show with him in an exhibition
at Galleria Sperone in Turin. For that occasion his father produced
works that in one way or another related to the works of his son.
The latter had linked up with the work of his father, that same year,
with the Self-Portrait Through My Father, a photographic
reproduction of a pencil portrait made by his father when Michelangelo
was three months old. In the Sperone exhibition Pistoletto showed
several mirror paintings. His father showed oil paintings-still lives
representing metallic objects that reflect the space around them,
including himself in the act of painting. The two artists appear together
in a catalogue photo that shows them in the father’s studio
reflected in a large, framed mirror. In 1976 Pistoletto presented
as an installation in his studio in San Sicario The Furniture
from My Father’s Studio in My Studio. In 1977 Pistoletto
again took up the Self-Portrait through My Father in An
Hour Dedicated to the 31 Days of the Month of March 1977—a
work, produced by Edizioni Lucio Amelio, made up of 31 sheets of drawing
paper reproducing that self-portrait and each carrying one of the
31 phrases that make up a text written by Pistoletto in an hour, such
as “a time island.” |
