Art on the Cutting Edge : A Guide to Contemporary Movements

"The concept of the beautiful has undergone profound changes during the last half of the twentieth century, as has our way of considering everything that is called art. We need a new key to help us "know how to see" so that we can stay attuned to what is going on in the contemporary world of art where new aesthetic styles are appearing and being challenged one after the other." "This book by Lea Vergine, which discusses seventeen different art movements in separate chapters, offers, within the panorama of contemporary art criticism books, a blend between a handy art-history manual and an assessment of a cultural adventure that has passed through and overturned the parameters of taste of the last forty years. The clear and incisive writing style guides the reader, student or specialist, whatever his or her specific interests and curiosities, like an essential travel kit for understanding today's reality, grasping its raison d'etre, and above all, plunging into its multiple mutations."

Lea Vergine is a critic and the author of numerous publications about contemporary art, among which: Il corpo come linguaggio, Prearo, Milan 1974; Attraverso l'arte/Pratica politica, Arcana, Rome 1976; L'arte ritrovata, Rizzoli, Milan 1982; L'arte in gioco, Garzanti, Milan 1988; Gli ultimi eccentrici, Rizoli, Milan 1990; Body Art and Performance. The Body as a Language, Skira, Milan 2000.

She has curated many exhibitions including L'altra metà dell'avanguardia, Milan, Palazzo Reale; Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni; Stockholm, Kulturhuset (1980-81); L'ultima avanguardia, Milan, Palazzo Reale (1983-84); Geometrie dionisiache, Milan, Rotonda della Besana (1988); Quando i rifiuti diventano arte/Trash, Museums of Trento and Rovereto (1997-98). In 1990, she was a commissioner for the Venice Biennale. In 1991, she organized the conference Arte: utopia o regressione? in San Marino, and in 1996 the conference La scena del rischio at the Galleria Civica in Turnin.

She writes for Il Manifesto and for Corriere della Sera.