Dictionary
Group Arte Nucleare

The Arte Nucleare group was founded in Italy 1951. It was the second most important Italian Informel art group, alongside the Gruppo degli Otto. The group’s members included Enrico Baj, Sergio Dangelo, Gianni Bertini, Gianni Dova and Giò Pomodoro. The group expounded both an artistic and political demand, which was expressed in the group’s choice of name, which made deliberate reference to nuclear power. The group’s members established a form of abstract art influenced by Surrealist écriture automatique and Informel, which stood in conscious opposition to Geometric Abstraction. This style was exemplified in Enrico Baj’s (1924-2003) paintings, which can be seen as a comment on the effects of nuclear power, as they frequently depict devastated stretches of land. The Arte Nucleare’s works also often contained figurative aspects, such as faces or vegetable structures.
The group was engaged in exposing the dangers of the improper use of nuclear power, articulating this in their manifestoes of 1952 and 1959. Arte Nucleare had links to other Informel groups, including CoBrA. By the late 1950s, despite their connections with Informel and a high volume of publications and exhibitions, the group was past its peak, and thus was unable to exert the same influence as German Informel art groups, for example.