This book shines a light, for the first time in a systematic way, on the development of Pop Art and the Beat generation in Italy, interpreters of the common feeling of those years. A wide-ranging overview that looks at various forms of art, from painting to sculpture, from literature to music, contextualizing them within the social fabric of the time. Since the beginning of the 1960s, endorsed by the euphoria of the economic boom, there has in fact been a heightened Pop awareness in Italy in every sphere, with a particular focus on the image, cinema, new media, the key players, and the architecture and landscape marvels of our country, as well as on Futurism, the first historical avant-garde of the 20th century. This common feeling will act as the touchstone of the political and cultural changes of the period as well as of the demands arising from the streets, squares, universities, and factories, whose people were all significantly involved in the changes of ‘68. The artworks presented in these pages highlight the uniqueness and absolute hegemony of Italian Pop Art in Europe, as well as the substantial differences, and consequent independence, of Italian artists from their American counterparts. Starting with the precursors of this common feeling – the likes of Enrico Baj, Titina Maselli, Pino Pascali, and Mimmo Rotella – we observe the formative artistic elements shared by Gruppo di Piazza del Popolo in Rome, with Mario Schifano as a leading figure, and those of the…