Giacomo Balla Parrots1929, Oil on tapestry canvas, 125 x 125 cm, Mart, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto Long-term deposit
Trento – The great artistic currents of the twentieth century come out of the warehouses of the Mart to meet in Riva del Garda.
From 16 July the MAG, Museo Alto Garda, welcomes the exhibition From Futurism to the Informal. Masterpieces hidden in the collections of the Marta path in 36 works resulting from the decennial collaboration with the Mart Museum of modern and contemporary art of Trento and Rovereto.
Until 29 October, the general public will be able to admire a prestigious selection of masterpieces from the Rovereto museum, expressions of artistic currents such as Futurism, Post-World War II Realism, Abstractionism, the Informal. Born from an idea by Vittorio Sgarbi, president of MAG and Mart, and curated by Alessandra Tiddia, the itinerary weaves an exciting journey into 20th-century art by recounting the conception and experimentation of new languages.
Massimo Campigli, Idol (Cariatide), 1961, Oil on canvas, 81 x 100 cm, Mart, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto, Domenico Talamoni Collection
The initial section – which brings to mind the urgency of these artists in conceiving an “other” everyday aesthetic, rethinking lines, shapes, contents so as to revolutionize the aesthetic ideal of the time and implement a futuristic reconstruction of the universe – is a tribute to Futurism through works such as Rustic brawl (1936), Gallo (1937-1938 ca) and The carpenter (19326-1931) by Fortunato Depero in dialogue with i Parrots (1929) by Giacomo Balla.
These works are flanked by the works of Gino Severini, Tullio Crali and Mino Delle Site, futurist masters of the so-called “Aeropainting”, who, through their works, wanted to convey the emotions felt during the flight in order to experience a dizzying vision of the landscape.
Massimo Campigli, Carlo Carrà, Felice Casorati, Giorgio de Chirico, Giorgio Morandi have been operating since the first post-war period, in search of safe havens in which to take refuge following the disasters caused by conflicts. These are artists who have turned their gaze to antiquity as demonstrated by the emblematic works of Carrà Still life with fish (1954) e Venice and Health (La Dogana) (1938) with their simplified forms, but also Troubadour (1950), Piazza d’Italia-Afternoon of Ariadne (1972) e Figure of a young man with metaphysical objects (1969) by de Chirico who reinterpret classicism by giving the ruin an enigmatic value. Self The Idol (Cariatide) (1961) by Campigli places the visitor in front of a majestic female body, with stylized and geometric features, as if suspended in a distant time, Woman at the window (1942), Boogie woogie (Boogie-woogie a Roma) (1953) by Renato Guttuso o Ciclo 62.B.B.9 (1962) e Man and machine (1949) by Emilio Vedova highlight the new languages of two masters, one more popular, the other more gestural.
Emilio Vedova, Cycle 62-BB9, 1962, mixed technique on canvas, 250.5 x 148 cm, Mart, Museum of modern and contemporary art of Trento and Rovereto, Long-term deposit
From the Abstract art of Fausto Melotti and Mario Radice we move on to the reflection on the sign implemented by Giuseppe Capogrossi, Gastone Novelli and Carla Accardi, the latter also an exponent of Italian neo-feminism.
“The exhibition – announces the curator Alessandra Tiddia – traces the relationship between the artist and the work up to Burri and Fontana, to whom the last section of the exhibition is dedicated. If Fontana moves by urging our gaze to imagine large lunar spaces, a sidereal elsewhere, guided now by gold, now by white, or by bright colour, Burri investigates the possibilities of matter, in relation to time”.
So Alberto Burri, Antoni Tàpies and Lucio Fontana are entrusted with closing the exhibition with works such as Lots of burning (1952-1958) e White Plastic BL1 (1964) by Burri who delegate the intrinsic meaning of art to matter. Through the subversive action of concentrated and meditated holes and cuts, Fontana’s work seems to cross borders and project itself towards the infinite.
“From the funds, from the deposits, from the infinite reserves of the Rovereto Mart – explains Vittorio Sgarbi, president of the MAG and creator of the exhibition – come the paintings for the new summer exhibition of the Alto Garda Museum in Riva. They are not minor works, they are not forgettable works, they are masterpieces. The works exhibited at MAG are of the highest quality as one might see in a large international museum. And they were, until today, invisible”.
Giorgio de Chirico, Figure of Jupiter with metaphysical objects, 1969, Oil on canvas, 60 x 80.5 cm, Mart, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto, Domenico Talamoni Collection