Abstract

In the summer of 1950, the French critic and poet Édouard Jaguer was struck by Giuseppe Capogrossi’s superfici, then exhibited at the 25th International Art Biennale in Venice. The first foreign critic, together with Michel Tapié, to take an interest in his painting, Jaguer established a relationship with Capogrossi that was to last over the years, as evidenced by an unpublished correspondence. The relationship was aimed at making the Roman artist’s work known in Europe through his wide network of international contacts. Jaguer’s reading of Capogrossi’s work from the perspective of his own surrealist training not only tends to establish new comparisons with international artists, including Wolgang Paalen and Mathias Goeritz, but also anticipates by several years the interpretations that Giulio Carlo Argan and Emilio Villa will give it.