Cultural agent, advertising agent and artist: The controversial presence of Italian Danilo Di Prete at the São Paulo’s Biennial

Abstract

In the historiography of art in Brazil and Italy, the name of the Italian artist Danilo Di Prete is related almost exclusively to the São Paulo’s Biennial. The fact that he was one of the most awarded painters at the show, but not having been endorsed by museums or having been the focus of academic studies, made him bear the label of "biennial-type painter". The focus of our essay, however, is to discuss the artist regardless of the awards or the artworks with which he conquered them, but rather the tools he used to obtain them and how he sought to guarantee that his name would live on. His acting as an agent of himself, based on his experience in the Italian artistic scene and the advertising environment in São Paulo, is a fundamental part of his project. Di Prete is an interesting case study in this sense and gives way to use this kind of interpretation when it comes to other artists, some of whom will be brought to discussion, to deepen our analysis.