Abate. Installation & performance art

Claudio Abate, who was born in 1943, developed his photography skills under the tutelage of Magnum and "Life" photographer Eric Lessing. He spent the balance of his career following a watchful, collaborative calling, creating work that was at once his own and a great service to other artists, documenting the installations, sculptures, paintings and performances of avant-garde artists in Rome for more than 40 years: Joseph Beuys, Alighiero Boetti, Gilbert & George, Anselm Kiefer, Joseph Kosuth, Jannis Kounellis, Sol LeWitt, Mario and Marisa Merz, Luigi Ontani, Giuseppe Penone, and Michelangelo Pistoletto. The wide selection of Abate's prints collected here confirms, if there was any doubt, that his images are not merely crucial documentation of his colleagues' work but authentic artworks themselves.