Photographs and Drawings from the Galleria Civica Modena Collections

THE GALLERIA CIVICA DI MODENA COLLECTION: PHOTOGRAPHS AND DRAWINGS FROM THE COLLECTIONS

3 April - 17 July 2011 

Davide Tranchina, Gorilla, 2000, 

from the series “Safari metropolitano” (Metropolitan Safari)

Donated to the Galleria Civica di Modena Photography Collection. 

Courtesy of the Galleria Civica di Modena.

On Saturday 2nd April 2011 at 6pm the Galleria Civica di Modena will inaugurate a long-term project aimed at displaying the photographs and drawings of the permanent collections in turn and on a regular basis. Until the 17th July the Sala grande and the Sale superiori of the Palazzo will in fact feature the first display of the collections, organised and co-produced by the Galleria Civica di Modena and the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena. 

The Sala grande will host a selection of photographs showing broad views and tiny glimpses of Modena captured throughout the second half of the 20th century by great photographers such as Olivo Barbieri, Gabriele Basilico, Luigi Ghirri and Mimmo Jodice. A number of works from a set of 50 images (part of a major photo shoot on the city in 2009) donated by Jodice to the Galleria Civica di Modena Collection will also be presented here for the first time.

The exhibition then continues with a selection from the 1200 black & white images (which also only recently became part of the Collection), part of Franco Vaccari’s project “C’ero anch’io”, presented on the occasion of the solo exhibition dedicated to the artist in 2007, held between the Palazzina dei Giardini and the Fotomuseo Giuseppe Panini. Among the artists chosen for this show there is also Franco Fontana, the donator of the main corpus of the Collection itself, and who on this particular occasion has donated four of his own personal visions of 1970’s Modena.

From the series “Safari Metropolitano”, (1998-2000), Davide Tranchina has picked out three images that offer an estranging and at the same time ironic vision of the urban outskirts, to be donated to the Gallery.

In the Sale superiori, works on paper by Modenese artists will be displayed, artists whose careers are documented within the Drawing Collection, from the early 20th century right up to the present day. The entrance chamber hosts works in the collection by artists such as Davide Benati, Carlo Cremaschi, Giuliano Della Casa, Franco Guerzoni, Giovanni Manfredini, Wainer Vaccari, right up to Andrea Chiesi and Roberto Cuoghi. The second room, instead, is dedicated to artistic figures who have acquired a historic standing, such as Nereo Annovi, Vittorio Magelli, Mario Molinari, Tino Pelloni, Enrico Prampolini, Pompeo Vecchiati and Mario Venturelli. 

The last two spaces will be given over to Lucio Riva and Gianni Valbonesi, to whom a tribute will be paid – thanks to the heritage of the Collection and the new purchases – in the light of the thorough and coherent artistic activity which he has carried out over the course of the last half century.

GALLERIA CIVICA DI MODENA

La collezione della Galleria Civica di Modena: fotografie e disegni dalle Raccolte 

Palazzo Santa Margherita 

Corso Canalgrande 103 

41121 Modena 

www.galleriacivicadimodena.it 

Ghirlandaio: A century-long artistic saga - The Ghirlandaio Family. Italian Renaissance Painters in Florence and Scandicci

The Ghirlandaio Family
Renaissance Painters in Florence and Scandicci
Castello dell’Acciaiolo, Scandicci – Italy
Through May 1st, 2011

 

Always used in the singular, Ghirlandaio is actually the trademark of the dynasty of such artists and entrepreneurs, who, beginning in the second half of the 15th century, dominated the scene of the Florentine Renaissance for a century. DOMENICO GHIRLANDAIO (1449-1494) was therefore the first artist in the Ghirlandaio family of which were also part his brothers DAVID GHIRLANDAIO (1452-1525) and BENEDETTO GHIRLANDAIO (1458-1497), his half-brother GIOVAMBATTISTA, his brother-in-law BASTIANO, and his son RIDOLFO GHIRLANDAIO (1483-1561). Numerous artists who were apprenticed to their school (MICHELANGELO and GRANACCI being the most renowned) contributed to spreading in Italy and Europe their fame as masterly illustrators of Florence and its civitas.

The Ghirlandaio’s workshop was above all a place with extraordinary professionals - very productive and organized according to modern criteria as to skills and roles - where Domenico and Ridolfo were the true creative masters of colour, some were extremely good at painting, and others besides expert in the workshop management.

Such a well-balanced, prolific and long-lived clan is now the focus of an extremely important exhibition, the first one on the family in its entirety, which involves the whole area from Florence to Scandicci as well as various other places in the hinterland. It is the land where the Ghirlandaio family lived and worked, rarely leaving it, disseminating it with masterpieces, so much so as to turn it into a spectacular and diffused museum.

Hence the title of the event: The Ghirlandaio Family. Renaissance Painters in Florence and Scandicci. The venues: the Castello dell’Acciaiolo in Scandicci, showcasing 15 works of art. From here visitors may follow a double itinerary leading them to large and small museums, palazzos and churches, villas and abbeys which house dozens of panel paintings, altarpieces and frescoes. Works which have mainly a religious character and represent the Madonna and Child, the nativity, the annunciation, but which also include portraits and figures that document the Florence of that time.

This implies that the exhibition is made up of a series of exhibitions and venues, ascribable to two well-known cultural projects: that of the Città degli Uffizi, conceived by Antonio Natali, director of the famous gallery, to showcase the immense artistic heritage kept in the Uffizi store rooms and promote the beautiful areas around Florence, and the Piccoli Grandi Musei one organized by the Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze with an expert committee presided over by Antonio Paolucci, which has the aim of promoting the artistic and monumental heritage of the Florentine area.

It was in honour of the Ghirlandaio family that the two aforementioned projects merged. The initiative is promoted by the Special Office for Monuments and Fine Arts of the Polo Museale Fiorentino, the Uffizi Gallery and the Municipality of Scandicci, along with the Ente Cassa di Risparmio, the Regional Office for the Cultural and Landscape Heritage of Tuscany, the Monuments and Fine Arts Office of the metropolitan area (Florence-Pistoia-Prato), the Provincial Administration of Florence, the Municipality of Florence, and the Romualdo del Bianco Foundation. It is under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and involves the collaboration of the Tuscan Regional Administration, the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, the municipalities of Calenzano, Campi Bisenzio, Sesto Fiorentino, Signa and Lastra a Signa. The catalogue is published by Polistampa.

As it is known, the true surname of Domenico Ghirlandaio was Bigordi, and he and his brothers ended up being identified with the nickname of their father, an excellent goldsmith renowned for his special skill in making garlands (ghirlanda in Italian). From Scandicci, their homeland, they moved to Florence in the first half of the 15th century, and in this town, which was then the world capital of art, their workshop became established in the second half of the century. The exhibition tour starts from Scandicci. Curated by the art historian Annamaria Bernacchioni, the exhibition at the Castello dell’Acciaiolo showcases a famous painting by Domenico Ghirlandaio (Saints James, Stephen and Peter), the beautiful Madonna by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (from the Fuligno Refectory) and another 14 works loaned by various museums in Florence.

From here two different Ghirlandaio exhibition tours start. The one in Florence includes the frescoes in the Sala dei Gigli of the Palazzo Vecchio, the Sassetti Chapel and the Tornabuoni Chapel - respectively in the churches of Santa Trinita and Santa Maria Novella - and the Adoration of the Magi at the Museo degli Innocenti. Numerous other masterpieces by such artists are in the Uffizi Gallery, the Accademia Gallery, the Palatine Gallery and in the Ognissanti and San Marco Refectories, all of which are to be visited even though not part of this specific programme.

The other tour is in the area north-west of Florence, on both sides of the Arno, abounding in works of art that the Ghirlandaio family left behind: in the houses which belonged to the family in San Martino and Colleramole, in the millenary Settimo Abbey, in the Church of Sant’Andrea in Campi Bisenzio, in the Sacred Art Museums of San Donnino and San Martino a Gangalandi. And also Mosciano, Giogoli, San Martino alla Palma, and San Colombano.

A fascinating journey in the Florentine Renaissance.

www.ghirlandaio.it

11-21-2010 / 05-01-2011

Matteo Basile - ThisHumanity Exhibition at Galleria Pack, Milan, Italy before the SAM, Singapore

Matteo Basilé, ThisHumanity 

Galleria Pack, Milan, Italy 

Through January 29, 2011 

MATTEO BASILE, From THISHUMANITY exhibition
Courtesy Galleria Pack, Milano, Italy

Galleria Pack in Milan is hosting an exhibition by MATTEO BASILE entitled THISHUMANITY, inspired by one of the foremost masterpieces of late Gothic Florentine artwork, The Battle of San Romano by PAOLO UCCELLO (1397-1475).

The exhibition includes 10 large-scale photographs by the Roman artist inspired by the famous triptych Paolo Uccello was commissioned to paint in 1438 by the Barolini Salimbeni family in order to commemorate the Florentine victory over troops from Siena allied with Milan that took place on April 1, 1432.

In the Florentine painter’s artwork everything appears frozen in place, ready for the final act. It was precisely this “image capture,” subdivided into three different moments, that inspired Matteo Basilé to create the subsequent frame, in other words the physical clash between its peoples and imaginary armies. In The Battle of San Romano, Paolo Uccello experimented for the first time ever with techniques in perspective that were revolutionary for his day, creating multiple visions within the same scene. The artwork THISHUMANITY is put together following the same rules of perspective employed by the fifteenth-century painter, this time created using postproduction digital photography techniques.

Faithful to his expressive intent, Basilé is creating the sets within which this great battle will be set directly in South East Asia. The artist has lived and worked there for some time now, and has been able to involve a multitude of identities and female characters ready for the clash.

Women are the protagonists of Basilé’s work – their fight for their own identities and independence – connecting two artworks divided by centuries; a female universe ready to take to the field for a world dominated by men. It is a sort of The Rape of the Sabine Women in reverse, in which rather than being raped, the protagonists fight to reveal and protect their own identities. It is a purifying battle in which women of different races and with different pasts face their enemies down in a fight to the last breath in order to escape a destiny that makes them increasingly resemble the opposite sex.

Following the show in Milan, Thishumanity will be put on display in SAM, the SINGAPORE ART MUSEUM.

MATTEO BASILE, From THISHUMANITY exhibition
Courtesy Galleria Pack, Milano, Italy

MATTEO BASILE BIOGRAPHY

Matteo Basilé (Rome, 1974) debuted in 1997, when he was just 23 years old, with a solo show at the Il Ponte Contemporanea gallery in Rome. His artworks have been exhibited in some of the most important art venues in Italy and abroad. He won the New York prize in 2002. In 2007, Basilé had his first solo show in an Italian art institution: the MART in Rovereto. In 2009, he was among the artists selected for the Italian Pavilion at the 53rd edition of the Venice Biennale.

Matteo Basilé is considered one of the foremost protagonists of European digital art. For the past decade he has been blending digital culture with classical iconography, re-inventing the portrait. The artist uses digital photography in order to develop and expand his personal code for contemporary painting, utilizing the computer as linguistic prosthesis in order to expand each vision and lend depth to the splendid surfaces of his artworks. Basilé’s world is an iconographic universe extending between technological mannerism and artistic surrealism. In his case, these two historic art movements mark a novel use of citation that tends towards synthesis and the affirmation of art as a meta-language.

Captured within the digital frame, his subjects become timeless icons. Marks traced upon their skins recount the geography of intimate memories. It is the face understood as voyage, memory as the warehouse for that which Basilé defines as the “archive of the soul.” His collection of faces and bodies tells the tale of a humanity dear to the artist. Women, children, men and the elderly are catapulted into the artist’s timeless imagination with the goal of passing on a three-dimensional verb capable of uniting painting with cinema, writing with material, photography with sound, and scenic space with an audience.

Basilé tests, manipulates and synthesizes his subjects’ DNA, transforming them into martyrs and saints within a world parallel to our own. Startling beauty and marvelous ugliness are blended together within the digital era. Reality and fiction travel side-by-side, ultimately blossoming into a new collective imagination.

CATALOGUE: THISHUMANITY is accompanied by a catalogue published by Damiani Editore (Bologna). The catalogue includes all the artworks from the exhibition, backstage images from the set in Bali, and several texts about the project and Matteo Basilé’s opus.

GALLERIA PACK 

Foro Buonaparte 60

20121 MILAN, ITALY

www.galleriapack.com

11-23-10 / 01-29-11

Michelangello Pistoletto Installation Exhibition at CCCS, Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy

Michelangelo Pistoletto

Metrocubo d'Infinito in un Cubo Specchiante 

Square Metre of Infinity in a Mirror Cube 

CCCS, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy

Through January 23, 2011

Michelangelo Pistoletto

MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO, Grande cubo specchiante - Luogo di riflessione e meditazione, 2007. Photo: Enrico Amici. Courtesy Galleria Continua, San Gimignano / Beijing / Le Moulin.

The CCCS – Centro di Cultura Contemporanea STROZZINA, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence – has invited one of the most celebrated contemporary artists in Italy to present an installation which is on view in the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi, a spectacular example of Renaissance architecture in Florence. Through 23 January 2011, visitors to Palazzo Strozzi encounters Metrocubo d'Infinito in un Cubo Specchiante – Square Metre of Infinity in a Mirror Cube, by MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO. 

This installation is on view concurrently with the exhibition Portraits and Power: People, Politics and Structures in the CCCS and Bronzino, Artist and Poet at the Court of the Medici on Palazzo Strozzi’s piano nobile .

Metrocubo d'Infinito in un Cubo Specchiante (Square Metre of Infinity in a Mirror Cube), an installation covered externally with opaque steel plates and internally clad with mirrors, is intended to offer the public an opportunity to experience boundless space. Its centre is occupied by one of this Piedmontese artist's historic works, the Metrocubo di Infinito (Square Metre of Infinity), 1966, which consists of exceptionally opaque surfaces on the outside and reflecting surfaces on the inside, thus taking the potential of refraction to its extreme limit.

Mirrors are a crucial element in Pistoletto's art. They represent the physical and intellectual extension of the human mind, revealing that which is normally hidden from the human eye. Pistoletto himself argues that “the mirror expands the eye's characteristics and the mind's capabilities to the point where it offers a vision of totality”. He also says that “this space for concentration is designed to be one of art's places of prophecy, a territory where art succeeds in expressing its religious value”. The work of art becomes a secular place for meditation, where man with his capacity for imagination is the only true value.

Michelangelo Pistoletto

MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO, Grande cubo specchiante - Luogo di riflessione e meditazione, 2007. Photo: Enrico Amici. Courtesy Galleria Continua, San Gimignano / Beijing / Le Moulin. 

MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO BIOBRAPHY

Born in Biella in 1933, Pistoletto is one of Italy's most famous contemporary artists. He started to exhibit his works in 1955 and in 1960 he had his first solo show, at the Galleria Galatea in Turin. His early work experimented with the painting of self-portraits. In 1961-1962 he produced the Quadri specchianti (Reflecting Pictures) that include the presence of the spectator in the work itself, creating a new real-time dimension and challenging the idea of perspective. These works brought him international recognition and success, resulting in solo exhibitions in prestigious European and American galleries during the Sixties. The Quadri specchianti would become the basis for Pistoletto’s entire artistic production and theoretic reflection. 

From 1965 to 1966 Pistoletto produced a series of works entitled Oggetti in meno – Fewer Objects– which played a key role in launching Arte Povera. He began to take his art outside traditional exhibition venues in March 1967, leading to the first of the so-called “creative collaborations”. Pistoletto was to develop this approach during the following decades, always cooperating with several artists coming from different disciplines and social fields. In the Seventies he revived the mirror theme, developing it in such works and actions as his Divisione-Moltiplicazione dello Specchio – Division-Multiplication of the Mirror and L’Arte assume la Religione – Art Takes on Religion. In 1975 to 1976 he produced at the Galleria Stein, Turin, a work that stretched over time: Le Stanze – The Rooms –  was an exhibition lasting a year, divided into twelve sections of a month each. It was the first of a series of complex works intended to be shown for a full year, such as Anno Bianco – White Year, 1986, or Tartaruga Felice – Happy Turtle, 1992. In 1978 he had an exhibition at the Galleria Persano in Turin, where he showed two of the most important new directions of his artistic research and production: Divisione e moltiplicazione dello specchio – Division and Multiplication of the Mirror –  and L’arte assume la religione (Art Takes on Religion). At the beginning of the Eighties he created a series of sculptures in stiff polyurethane, which were translated into marble for the solo show at the Forte Belvedere, Florence, in 1984. From 1985 to 1989 he worked on his series of “dark” volumes, entitled Arte dello squallore – Art of Squalor. During the Nineties, through Progetto Arte (Art Project) and the creation of Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto, he created a straight and active link between different social fields aiming to achieve a responsible transformation of society. 

In 2003 he was awarded the Leone d’Oro, or Golden Lion award, for his career at the Venice Biennale. In 2004 the University of Turin awarded him an honoris causa degree in political sciences. On this occasion he unveiled the most recent phase of his work, which he called Terzo Paradiso – Third Paradise. In 2007 he was awarded the Wolf Foundation Prize in Arts at Jerusalem, “for his constantly inventive career as an artist, educator and activist, whose restless intelligence has created a prescient form of art that contributes to a new understanding of the world”. In 2008 Pistoletto – Cittadellarte received the Sasso Marconi city Special Award for his new use of languages. In 2009 he has shown at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano / Beijing / Le Moulin two installations dedicated to spirituality: Metrocubo d'Infinito in un Cubo Specchiante and Il Tempo del Giudizio. A retrospective of Michelangelo Pistoletto is on view at the Contemporary Art Museum, Philadelphia, since November 2010 through January 2011. He has been recently nominated Artistic Director for the Bordeaux Event in 2011. He has published the essay Il Terzo Paradiso (The Third Paradise), Edizioni Marsilio.

Michelangello Pistoletto

MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO, Grande cubo specchiante - Luogo di riflessione e meditazione, 2007. Photo: Enrico Amici. Courtesy Galleria Continua, San Gimignano / Beijing / Le Moulin.

The event follows similar initiatives in 2008 and 2009, when Wang Yu Yang (Harbin, China, 1979) and Yves Netzhammer (Schaffhausen, Switzerland, 1970) produced site-specific installations for the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi. The project, devised and produced by Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi – in cooperation with Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto and Galleria Continua, San Gimignano / Beijing / Le Moulin – marks the start of a new partnership with Castello di Ama per l’Arte Contemporanea in Gaiole in Chianti (Siena).

Lorenza Sebasti and Marco Pallanti, proprietors of the Castello di Ama wine company, decided to launch a project known as “Castello di Ama for Contemporary Art” in 2000. For this project, realized with the support of Galleria Continua, some of the leading artists on the international contemporary art scene have been invited to produce works of art designed to interact with the unique spirit of the small medieval village of Ama, nestling in the Siena hills. Over the years the Castello di Ama has hosted work by Michelangelo Pistoletto, Daniel Buren, Giulio Paolini, Kendell Geers, Anish Kapoor, Chen Zhen, Carlos Garaicoa, Nedko Solakov, Cristina Iglesias and Louise Bourgeois, offering personal reflections on this unique environment and producing permanent site-specific works now on display in the cellars and grounds of the company's two villas. (The works of art may be viewed by appointment only). 

CCCS, FLORENCE, ITALY

PALAZZO STROZZI 



www.strozzina.org
www.palazzostrozzi.org 

10-01-2010 / 01-23-2011

Stanley Kubrick Photographer 1945-1950 Exhibition in Italy

Stanley Kubrick Photographer
Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere e Arti, Venice
Through 14 november 2010

STANLEY KUBRICK, Self-portrait
Courtesy Giunti Arte mostre musei / Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti / Museum of the City of New York

 

After the great success at Palazzo della Ragione di Milano, with more than 38.000 people visiting the show, the Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere e Arti - Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti in Venice is hosting the exhibition of two hundreds pictures (many of them printed from the original negatives) taken by STANLEY KUBRICK from 1945 up to 1950, when at the age of 17 he was hired by the American magazine Look.

The event's inauguration was timed to coincide with the 67th Venice International Film Festival, where Kubrick received the special Career Golden Lion Award in 1997.

The exhibition is curated by Rainer Crone and set up by Giunti Arte Mostre Musei, jointly with the Library of Congress, Washington D.C., and the Museum of the City of New York – where more than 20,000 still unknown negatives belonging to a young but already great photographer Stanley Kubrick are stored.

 

STANLEY KUBRICK, A tale of a shoe-shine boy, 1947, 16x16'
Courtesy Giunti Arte mostre musei / Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti / Museum of the City of New York

 

The pictures shown testify the ability of the artist to witness everyday life in America during the post-war period thanks to the ironical and withering shot of New York that was becoming the new world capital and of Dixieland musicians and circus’ epic.

The exhibition bring to the attention a less popular feature of the American filmmaker, conveying his way of taking pictures. Alongside with chess, photography is revealed as one of Kubrick’s main passions, activity inherited from his father and that he started as a teenager and terminated after only five years.
The first picture was published on June 26th, 1945 and portraits a newsvendor reacting to the death of Franklin D Roosevelt. A few months later, Look hired Kubrick as a photo reporter: at 17, he was the youngest photographer on the magazine's staff.

 

STANLEY KUBRICK, Personalities of the circus, march 1948
Courtesy Giunti Arte mostre musei / Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti / Museum of the City of New York

 

The Look Method, which took the form of a narrative by episodes, did not meet with the approval of leading contemporary photojournalists. The Magazine’s owners wanted a constant follow-up of the characters portrayed in every action. This intruding style was fascinating for Kubrick who loved to build up a story starting from those images. In order to obtain a natural posture, Kubrick would remain unseen hiding his camera’s wire below his jacket and pushing the shutter using a device hidden in his hand.

In the indoor shootings, he would try to use natural light as much as possible working on the exposure time and on the diaphragm opening time. Most part of his aesthetic ability shown in his films was already present in his work of those days.
Kubrick is able to give the spectator the ability to personally interpret the psychological features of those appearing in the pictures.

 

STANLEY KUBRICK, Portugal, 1948
Courtesy Giunti Arte mostre musei / Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti / Museum of the City of New York

 

“In this way, the first pictures taken by Stanley Kubrick see the light right after WW2 and they not only represent an era but they astonish for their surprising deepness. In this way, they cannot be simply considered as visual archives of the joie de vivre of a young and full of humour artist but they represent a conscious attempt to experiment the resources given by the technical mean with its ability to represent and perceive reality. This aspect will be maintained along the years in all Kubrick’s works.” -- Rainer Crone

An important step as the ambiguity of images and movies are the core of post-war cinema thus called modern and of which Kubrick is one unquestioned maestro.

 

STANLEY KUBRICK,  Untitled, 1950
Courtesy Giunti Arte mostre musei / Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti / Museum of the City of New York

 

The exhibition, divided in eight sections, will display some of the stories captured by the artist like Portugal, a post-war trip made by two Americans, or Crimes, which witnesses the arrest of two criminals, following the policemen activity, their strategy and their tricks in order to make the arrest.

Betsy Furstenberg, the main character of the section, is presented as the symbol of the elated New Yorker Lifestyle during those years and the counter part of the small shoe shine” standing on the street corners.

Furthermore, there are sections reproducing the life within the Columbia University, an elite place where the American ruling class was educated and at Campus Mooseheart, Illinois, a University dorm built up by donors aimed at forming war orphans bound to America’s future middle class. New Orleans Dixieland musicians’ epic and circus performers will close the show.

Produced and conceived by Giunti Arte mostre musei, the exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Giunti Arte wich is the most complete monograph on the topic never issued before in Italy.

 

STANLEY KUBRICK Photographer
28 August - 14 November 2010

Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti
Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti
Campo Santo Stefano
Venice - Italy