Antonio Ligabue, Leopard in the forest, n.d. (1956-1957). Oil on hardboard panel, 54×54 cm. Private collection I Courtesy Arthemisia
Trieste – Two great artists very different from each other, united by a life of madness and solitude, but capable of transfiguring their torments into a painting of exciting beauty: we are talking about Vincent Van Gogh and Antonio Ligabue, protagonists of next autumn in Trieste. After the successes of the exhibitions on Escher, Monet and the Impressionists in Normandy, the Macchiaioli, the Revoltella Museum explores the art of two outsiders much loved by the contemporary public.
It starts on November 8 with the ferocious and visionary worlds of Ligabue, to be discovered in a journey of over 60 works: landscapes full of colour, where the countryside of the lower Po Valley is transformed into tropical jungles, intense self-portraits, colorful roosters, tigers and lions with gaping jaws, snakes with a death grip, birds of prey that snatch their prey or fight for survival, described by thick and ardent brushstrokes of feeling. Curated by Francesco Negri and Francesca Villanti, the exhibition will reconstruct the artist’s entire career, restoring the stages of a dramatic existence and the traits of that restless and visceral personality which is reflected in his paintings.
Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of Joseph-Michel Ginoux, 1888. Olio su tela, cm 65.3×54.4. Kröller-Müller Museum © Kröller-Müller Museum I Courtesy Arthemisia
From 22 February the Revoltella Museum will give space to the art of Vincent Van Gogh: an ambitious project born from the collaboration of Arthemisia, the company that produces the exhibition, with the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, in the Netherlands, which houses one of the most large collections dedicated to the Dutch painter in the world. The 50 works that will enliven the Trieste exhibition in an itinerary curated by Teresa Benedetti and Francesca Villanti come from this important museum.