Thank you, Armando! by Beatrice Brandini

Cervinia, 1960s, letterpress print on mountain paper on canvas. Courtesy of Gemma De Angelis Testa and TestaperTesta

On the occasion of the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games, the Museo del Novecento in Milan, in collaboration with Testa per Testa, presents a delightful exhibition “Hurrah for Snow! Armando Testa and Sport.” The exhibition highlights and showcases Testa’s entire wonderful body of work dedicated to sports-themed graphics.

Games of the XVII Olympiad, 1959, letterpress print on montana paper on canvas. Courtesy of Gemma De Angelis, Testa and TestaperTesta. Photo credit: Fabio Mantegna

The project, curated by Gemma De Angelis and Gianfranco Maraniello, presents a rich body of work spanning thirty years of the artist’s brilliant career.

Moto Guzzi 175, 1954, letterpress print on montana paper on canvas. Courtesy of Gemma De Angelis, Testa and TestaperTesta

Armando Testa, whom I recently spoke about for a beautiful exhibition in Siena (https://www.beatricebrandini.it/armando-testa-la-pubblicita/), knew how to capture a concept, a figurative slogan, with extraordinary communicative effectiveness through a gesture, a simple sign.

International Horse Show, 1968, letterpress print on montana paper on canvas. Courtesy Gemma De Angelis Testa and TestaperTesta

I have admired Testa’s work for many years, perhaps precisely because of the ironic plays on words and images that emerged from the long collaboration between the Testa agency and Esselunga. Testa, founder of the eponymous agency in 1946, developed a distinctive language: ironic, experimental, direct, spontaneous, and undoubtedly fruitful.

Azzurra, 1987, letterpress print on montana paper on canvas. Courtesy Gemma De Angelis Testa and TestaperTesta

Specifically, this exhibition tells us how, for Testa, sports practices become metaphors for social and cultural changes in Italy. Indeed, from the first posters of the 1950s, created for Moto Guzzi Lodola Sport, in which speed, just as it was for the Futurists, becomes the symbol and the communicative message, to the more concise, and certainly modern and revolutionary, ones, such as Azzurra from 1987, where Testa represents sport as a symbol, an icon whose message is direct and clear.

Turin ’90, 1990, letterpress print on montana paper on canvas. Courtesy of Gemma De Angelis Testa and TestaperTesta. Photo credit: Fabio Mantegna

Armando Testa was an innovator, an experimenter who was ahead of his time, not only in advertising. The posters in the exhibition, like all those in Siena (Palazzo della Papesse until May 3rd), bear witness to a man who experimented with all the languages ​​of advertising, including television and film. The image changes over time, becoming more essential, but the message remains ever powerful and modern.

   

Overview of the exhibition “Hurrah for the Snow! Armando Testa and Sport.”

In addition to numerous exhibitions dedicated to him by Italian and international museums and institutions, his works have become part of important museum collections, including the MoMA in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna Ca’ Pesaro in Venice, the CSAC in Parma, the Raccolta Civica delle Stampe “Achille Bertarelli” in Milan, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and the Poster Museum in Warsaw.

Exhibition poster, Advertising Grand Prix, 1974/1990, letterpress print on montana paper on canvas. Courtesy of Gemma De Angelis, Testa and TestaperTesta

Armando Testa, another key figure in Italian culture, a genius who was ahead of his time, combining powerful messages, sometimes even social ones, with the subtle irony that distinguished (and still does, as the Testa Agency remains one of the most important in the world) all his work. Because to tell stories, sometimes you also have to not take yourself too seriously.

Good life everyone!

Beatrice