“Between heaven and earth” is therefore perfect as the title of the retrospective dedicated to Crali which has recently opened at the Civic Museums of Palazzo Buonaccorsi in Macerata, presenting 40 works by the artist in the city where he lived and which houses his archive. «Between heaven and earth are the words that tell and collect in a dry synthesis the boundless horizons crossed by Crali’s always alive and inexhaustible research – explains curator Barbara Martorelli -. The exhibition presents a chronological path but also an interesting evolution of the artist’s work, from the vertiginous aerial views from the sky to the formal research with matter, stones and therefore the earth, two essential aspects of the artist’s production ».
In fact, the exhibition, in addition to proposing diaries, photos and unpublished archive materials, ranges from heaven to earth, from aeropainting to Sassintesi, fusion of stones and synthesis, later works by Crali that recall the desert and the nakedness of matter. The artist, passionate about geology, has managed to give life to pebbles, rocks and stones by creating sculptures that conclude the cycle of his research in the equally infinite space of reflection and meditation.
Last year the “Tullio Crali: a Futurist Life” exhibition at the Estorick Collection in London, also curated by Barbara Martorelli together with Christopher Adams, had been an extraordinary success. The British press had praised the rediscovery of a sophisticated artist with an “incredible vision”, “a total revelation”, author of “great masterpieces of futurist art.” A stark contrast to the disappointment suffered by the artist in 1986, a few years from death, when it was not included in the great Futurism & Futurisms exhibition at Palazzo Grassi in Venice.
Nemo propheta in patria, as the ancient saying goes. Now, however, thanks to the generosity of the Crali family and the dedication and determination of Barbara Martorelli, the city where the artist is buried pays homage to him with a large retrospective.
Tullio Crali. Between heaven and earth. Civic Museums Palazzo Buonaccorsi, Macerata, 7 May – 30 August 2021.