The artist Alik Cavaliere is recognized as one of the great masters of contemporary art of the second half of the twentieth century. He was the son of the poet Alberto Cavaliere and the Russian Jewish sculptress Fanny Kaufmann, and studied at the Accademia di Brera, where he eventually succeeded Marino Marini in the chair of sculpture. Characterized by a constantly renewed and versatile approach, the artist investigated the relationship between humanity, nature, and the foundational myths of existence. He resisted limitations, innovating through the conceptual fusion of techniques from classical tradition and the Dadaist avant-garde, utilizing a flexible and modern plurality of materials.
After an initial period of figurative realism, his key cycles began around 1957-58 with Giochi proibiti (Forbidden Games), which serves as a metaphor for the relationship between existence and nature, instinct and thought, and reason and violence; the theme of Metamorfosi (Metamorphoses) also became central to his subsequent research. This was followed by the series Avventure di Gustavo B. (1961-64), where sculpture became a surreal plastic narrative. Starting in 1964, inspired by Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura, he dedicated himself to exploring the theme of vegetation.

Alik Cavaliere, 1965, ph. Paolo Monti