ABSTRACT
Marisa Volpi Orlandini was the first Italian scholar who wrote a historical—and didactic—overview of post-Second World War American Art. Published in the countercultural art magazine Bit, the article was one of the first attempts to differentiate between American and Italian Minimalism and Post-Minimalism. The subject under discussion was the conditioning imposed by the American-in particular the New York-scene with its grandiose propagandistic means and chauvinist cultural policy. At this point it is important to highlight the profound difference to European art in general, and to Italian art in particular, which today appears to be the liveliest in Europe. In Italy, intuition develops on an individual level and art is a message for the few. Their work rejects assertiveness and spectacle, concentrating on language in a way that is very different to in America.
