Biography

Guglielmo Achille Cavellini was born 1914. He started his activity in the art world in 1946 as a collector. His collection, which was initially based upon a large selection of Italian and European abstract art, soon became so important that it was exhibited at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome in 1957 and in numerous other museums throughout Europe. In 1960 GAC concentrated on his artistic production and for the entire decade centered his research on materials and relations with other significant contemporary artists in the form of reinterpretations of their works. In 1970 he invented the term autostoricizzazione (self-historicization) and from that point on he started a long work of conceptual self-promotion, which sought to by-pass the roles of the critic and of the market, thus focussing, often ironically, on the mechanisms of the system of art. Particularly interesting examples of this phase include the standards at the entrance of the museums, the self-portraits, the postage stamps, the stickers, the postcards, the manifestos, which the most exclusive museums in the world would dedicate to the exhibitions celebrating Cavellini’s centenary, and the page of the Encyclopedia, where he rewrote his biography in an ironic and surreal manner. Cavellini died in 1990.

Links

http://www.cavellini.org/
Mail Artists Index: http://mailartists.wordpress.com/2007/09/14/guglielmo-achille-cavellini/