Liliana Dematteis's Gift of Artists' Books

Arrigo Lora-Totino, Range (Italy: In Proprio, 2002). All photos by author

Liliana Dematteis is a Torinese collector, former gallerist, and now colleague. In mid-September, I traveled to Turin to pack and ship a large collection of artists' books that she donated to the Thomas J. Watson Library. Turin is a city of rich and diverse cultural history. The original Kingdom of Sardinia and first capital of the Kingdom of Italy, Turin exudes cool elegance through its inhabitants, style, art, and architecture. The city's architectural styles range from Renaissance to Art Nouveau to Post-war, with a heavy dose of Baroque. Turin is well known for housing the largest collections of Egyptian antiquities outside Egypt, and is also the location of the FIAT headquarters. And—most relevant for my time there—it's known for its importance to the Arte Povera movement in the 1960s and 1970s.

Interior courtyard, Royal Palace of Turin

Liliana Dematteis co-founded Martano Gallery in Turin in 1966 and was its sole director until its closing in 2013. During these years, she organized approximately two hundred exhibitions of paintings, architecture, photography, graphic arts, applied arts, and books within the context of twentieth-century avant-gardes, with a particular focus on the rediscovery and revaluation of Italian and European abstraction and Futurism. Since the late 1960s, her interests have expanded to new media and experimentation in contemporary art. She has worked in publishing since 1971, when she founded the Martano Publishing House and released the Nadar series, dedicated to under-explored aspects of art history. She has had a great amount of experience with artists' books, first as an editor, and later as curator and collector. Liliana has also taught the history of visual communication at the Polytechnic University of Turin, is the President of the Pinot Gallizio Archive Foundation Association, and is one of the founding members of Internazionale Situazionista, for which she edited the catalogue of works.

View across the River Po from the west bank, Turin

The majority of the artists' books that Liliana donated to Watson were awaiting my arrival in the small studio space she rents in a vine covered courtyard, next to the space that used to be her contemporary art gallery.

The courtyard in which Liliana's studio is located and the former site of Martano Gallery

At the studio, the books were in banker's boxes from their move from storage. Over two and half days, Liliana and I carefully packed thirteen hundred books into twenty-four shipping boxes. The publication dates range from the 1960s to the mid-2000s and represent primarily Italian artists, but there are a few European and American ones as well.

The collection of books prior to being packed for shipment. An additional six boxes were at Liliana's home

The shipment of boxes made it safely to New York in a matter of days. The books are currently being unpacked and prepared for cataloging, at which point they will officially be part of the library's book collection and available to researchers. A first glimpse of features from this collection are on view in the Watson Library vitrines as part of a display organized by Holly Phillips.

Arrigo Lora-Totino, Là Onde (Italy: In Proprio, 2001)

The library had the pleasure of hosting Liliana as a speaker on November 7, when she gave a talk entitled "A Look at Artists' Books: Developing Collections at The Met," where she spoke about her own history collecting artists' books. She highlighted a number of books from her collection including several titles by Alighiero Boetti, Giorgio Griffa, Bruno Manari, Luigi Veronesi, and others. Particularly striking books in this collection are by Arrigo Lora Totino, whose concrete poetry is realized in a variety of forms and styles.

Arrigo Lora-Totino, Là Onde (Italy: In Proprio, 2001)

The initial stage of unpacking the collection in New York

Watson is extremely thankful to Liliana for her generosity to the library. Her collection will help grow Watson's resources on the history of artists' books and the Arte Povera movement and provide generations of researchers with an enriched collection of materials to study and enjoy.

Twin churches Santa Cristina and San Carlo Borromeo at the southern edge of Piazza San Carlo, Turin