The exhibition at Ca’ Pesaro – the first solo show ever dedicated by an Italian institution to Terry Atkinson (Thurnscoe, 1939) – traces over fifty years of work by the English artist, bringing together words, images, history and politics.

L’artista è un motore di significati (The artist as a semantic engine), curated by Elisabetta Barisoni and Elena Forin, presents a significant selection of works covering the different phases of Atkinson’s research, recently acquired by the Tate Gallery in London. Displayed in the Dom Pérignon Rooms, the exhibition offers a profound reflection on the central theme of war and on the role of art as a means of awareness and engagement. The Venetian exhibition explores the tension between thought and vision, between concept and image, that defines Atkinson’s entire oeuvre. His works investigate the dynamics of power and representation, connecting historical conflicts – the politics of wars and their languages – with the expressive forms of art. Every sign, word, or symbol becomes a lens through which to question the mechanisms of knowledge and communication.

In the first room, dominated by a large painting on paper dedicated to the Vietnam War, the displays opens narrative concerning Atkinson's use of painting as a form of political and moral analysis.

The Goya Series and the Enola Gay works reflect on the representation of conflict and the modernist language of memory: Goya is a critical rather than stylistic reference point for Atkinson, while the colourful skies of the Enola Gay works conceal the silhouette of the Hiroshima bomber, evoking the fragile balance between silence and tragedy.

The Russel cycle shifts the focus to the word as the conceptual core of the work: terms such as I and This become tools for questioning the relationship between subject, experience and history.

The exhibition concludes with numerous drawings from the 1960s to the 2020s, tracing the ongoing evolution of the dialogue between text and image throughout the artist’s practice: from the works associated with Art & Language – the collective he founded in 1968 with David Bainbridge, Michael Baldwin and Harold Hurrell – to more recent series dedicated to the Irish and American conflicts. Overall, the exhibition takes the viewer to the heart of Atkinson's way of thinking: an investigation into the complexity of history and the power of art to restore awareness beyond the surface of images.

Beginning with his work within the fold of the Art & Language group, Atkinson helped redefine the role of the artist as a critical theorist and interpreter of art and cultural systems. He left the group in 1974, distancing himself from positions he found incompatible with his thinking, leading him to pursue his own individual path once again.

Since then, his practice has moved towards a more personal and reflective exploration, in which history, language and image become tools for questioning contemporary society. “If the work I have done over the last 40 years has one characteristic that runs through it,” says Atkinson, “it is a concern with critiquing art rather than celebrating it”.

Also known under pseudonyms such as Terry Actor, Terry Mirrors, Terry Dog and Terry Enola Gay, Atkinson has exhibited in major museums around the world. Among his most significant appearances are Documenta 5 in 1972 with Art & Language, as an individual artist at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1983 and at the 41st Venice Biennale in 1984. In 1985, he was shortlisted for the Turner Prize.