President: Giampaolo Pioli   |   Editor in Chief: Stefano Vaccara

  • Login
VNY La Voce di New York

The First Italian English Digital Daily Newspaper in the US

  • English Edition
  • Letters
  • New York
  • U.N.
  • News
  • People
  • Arts
  • Lifestyles
  • Food & Wine
  • Travel
  • Italian Edition
No Result
View All Result
VNY
  • English Edition
  • Letters
  • New York
  • U.N.
  • News
  • People
  • Arts
  • Lifestyles
  • Food & Wine
  • Travel
  • Italian Edition
No Result
View All Result
VNY La Voce di New York
No Result
View All Result
in
English
February 5, 2016
in
English
October 9, 2015
0

Not Your Usual Giorgio Morandi

Center For Italian Modern ArtbyCenter For Italian Modern Art
Time: 5 mins read

On Friday October 9th, the Center for Italian Modern Art opens its doors to the public for its third exhibition season, devoted to Giorgio Morandi. One of Italy’s best known and most loved painters of the modern era, the maestro and his works have been the protagonist of endless exhibitions, most recently in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2008, with the anthological show Giorgio Morandi, 1890–1964. 

So hasn't the public seen it all already? Is CIMA’s exhibition any different? This new installation, comprising approximately 40 works, focuses on the least studied and exhibited period of Morandi’s life: the 1930s. In this transformative decade, the artist became Professor of Etching at the Fine Arts Academy of BolognaÔÇòwhere he had been a student in his younger yearsÔÇòand consolidated his artistic interests through steady intellectual focus but endless formal variations, elevating him to among the most celebrated Italian artists of the 20th century.

1 v

Giorgio MorandiÔÇÖs Self-portrait, 1930 (Collezione privata) ┬® 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome.

2

Left to right: Installation view of Giorgio MorandiÔÇÖs Still Life, 1931 (MART Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Collezione Giovanardi) and Still Life, 1929 (Mattioli Collection)

Characterized by a thick use of paint and numerous structural experimentations, the works from this decade shed light on an unexpected Morandi: an artist whose complex practice goes beyond the harmonious forms and delicate colors for which he is known internationally. Some of the works on view, such as a 1930s Self-Portrait where the artist disquietingly stares inert at the viewer, have not been exhibited in the U.S. in almost fifty years.

For the first time in the US, this exhibition also brings together works from two major private collections of Morandi: those of Augusto Giovanardi  (now bequeathed to the Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto in Italy) and Gianni Mattioli. Both collectors had a relationship of friendship and patronage with the artistÔÇòexemplified by the flower still lifes that Morandi painted as a gift for the birth of their respective daughters. Giovanardi and Mattioli developed parallel collections with tastes so similar that it makes it difficult to distinguish at times which works belonged to whom. The result of the comparison, however, is illuminating and stunning.

cactus

Giorgio MorandiÔÇÖs The Cactus, 1917-19 (Private Collection) ┬® 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome.

Although focused on the 1930s, the exhibition also highlights the continuity of Morandi’s artistic career by exhibiting works from his early and last years. A highlight from his early period of the 1910s is an oil painting, The Cactus; in anticipation of the Met show, during conservation spearheaded by CIMA’s Founder and President Laura Mattioli, a Self-Portrait that for decades had been considered destroyed was discovered hiding on the reverse of the picture. On view also is a copper object specially made by Morandi as a model for his paintings. It is one of the only such objects in private hands; the rest are all kept today as part of the Morandi Museum in Bologna. This mysterious and non-functional object, one of the many made by the artist using humble materials, can be found in two nearby paintings from the artist’s last years.

Copper

Installation view of Giorgio MorandiÔÇÖs Still Life, 1963 (Private Collection), Still Life, 1960 (Private Collection), and the copper object, n.d. (Private Collection)

foto

Installation view of Joel MeyerowitzÔÇÖs MorandiÔÇÖs Objects, 2015 (Courtesy of the Artist)

Giorgio Morandi has long been considered an “artist’s artist.” His relevance to international artistic discourse is alive and thriving. In CIMA’s spirit of developing an international dialogue around Italian art and its tradition of presenting 20th century Italian masters alongside more contemporary art, the exhibition also features the work of four contemporary artists: Tacita Dean’s stills from a video on the fascinating marks that Morandi made on his work surfaces to indicate the placement of his still-life compositions; Wolfgang Laib’s monumental sculpture in honeybee wax, in material dialogue with Morandi’s dense works from the 1930s; Joel Meyerowitz’s photographic series on the objects the painter used as models; and Matthias Schaller’s photograph of Morandi’s diaphanous palette. 

autoritratto

Giorgio Morandi’s Self-Portrait, 1917-19 (Private Collection) ┬® 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome.

A rich calendar of contemporary artist talks, screenings, and study days will complement this special exhibition. Among the highlights of the fall season is a conversation on November 7 featuring Morandi’s former teaching assistant and New York-based artist Janet Abramovicz, who will discuss her experience working with the maestro and her thoughts on CIMA’s exhibition with Emily Braun, Distinguished Professor of Art History at CUNY and the Guest Curator of Alberto Burri: The Trauma of Painting currently on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. 

To learn about all the upcoming public programs, visit the Center for Italian Modern Art’s website  and while browsing, don’t forget to get your ticket to this one of a kind exhibition!

 


*Ilaria Conti is Exhibition & Program Associate at CIMA.

 

This article has also been published on the Center for Italian MOdern Art's blog.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Center For Italian Modern Art

Center For Italian Modern Art

Siamo una nonprofit con sede a SoHo, New York, fondata nel 2013 dalla storica dell'arte e collezionista milanese Laura Mattioli. La missione dell'istituzione è quella di promuovere lo studio e l'apprezzamento dell'arte italiana del Novecento negli Stati Uniti e a livello internazionale attraverso una mostra annuale dedicata a un artista poco conosciuto negli USA. Il centro offre inoltre borse di studio a ricercatori interessati ad approfondire lo studio del Novecento italiano e un programma di incontri e conferenze.  Questa rubrica è tenuta dallo staff del CIMA e in particolare dai suoi fellow, i borsisti in residenza a New York. Oltre ad offrire un approfondimento sull'attività di ricerca dell'istituzione, Slow Art è uno sguardo sulla scena artistica newyorchese vista con gli occhi esperti di studiosi del settore e allo stesso  tempo con la leggerezza di chi entra in contatto per la prima volta con la vivace creatività della Grande Mela. 

DELLO STESSO AUTORE

Giorgio De Chirico in New York museums

De Chirico in New York: a Guide for Museumgoers

byCenter For Italian Modern Art
Installation view of A Revolutionary Impulse: The Rise of the Russian Avant-Garde

How Can Art Be Revolutionary?

byCenter For Italian Modern Art

A PROPOSITO DI...

Tags: artartsGiorgio MorandiItalian artItalian artistpainterpaintingpaintingsStill Life
Previous Post

I traumi di Alberto Burri al Guggenheim e la luce della Scuola napoletana all’Istituto di cultura

Next Post

Dalla battaglia di Lepanto a quella del ventre

Discussion about this post

DELLO STESSO AUTORE

marisa-merz-aEN-006

Marisa Merz’s Great Sky

byCenter For Italian Modern Art
marisa-merz-a-006

Il grande cielo di Marisa Merz

byCenter For Italian Modern Art

Latest News

Crisi del latte in polvere negli Usa: L’Ad di Abbot chiede scusa

Crisi del latte in polvere negli Usa: L’Ad di Abbot chiede scusa

byLa Voce di New York
Biden: Usa studiano quale vaccino usare contro il vaiolo delle scimmie

Biden: Usa studiano quale vaccino usare contro il vaiolo delle scimmie

byLa Voce di New York

New York

Il Diavolo a un passo dal paradiso: la vigilia dei milanisti di New York

Il Diavolo a un passo dal paradiso: la vigilia dei milanisti di New York

byGennaro Mansi
Undicenne uccisa nel Bronx: arrestato un 15enne

Undicenne uccisa nel Bronx: arrestato un 15enne

byLa Voce di New York

Italiany

Design Day: il made in Italy mette al primo posto la sostenibilità

Design Day: il made in Italy mette al primo posto la sostenibilità

byEmma Pistarino
Su Madison Avenue rivive “La Dolce Vita”  con la festa del Made in Italy

Madison Avenue Relives “La Dolce Vita” with a Party for ‘Made in Italy’

byValeria Robecco
Next Post

L’autostrada Messina-Palermo senza segnali a terra e senza luci catarifrangenti

La Voce di New York

President: Giampaolo Pioli   |   Editor in Chief: Stefano Vaccara

  • New York
    • Eventi
  • Onu
  • News
    • Primo Piano
    • Politica
    • Voto Estero
    • Economia
    • First Amendment
  • People
    • EXPAT
  • Arts
    • Arte e Design
    • Spettacolo
    • Musica
    • Libri
    • Lingua Italiana
  • Lifestyles
    • Fashion
    • Scienza e Salute
    • Sport
    • Religioni
  • Food & Wine
  • Travel
    • Italia
  • Mediterraneo
  • English
  • Search/Archive
  • About us
    • Editorial Staff
    • President
    • Administration
    • Advertising

VNY Media La Voce di New York © 2016 - 2022
Main Office: 230 Park Avenue, 21floor, New York, NY 10169 | Editorial Office/Redazione: UN Secretariat Building, International Press Corps S-301, New York, NY 10017

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • New York
  • Onu
  • News
    • Primo Piano
    • Politica
    • Economia
    • First Amendment
  • Arts
    • Arte e Design
    • Spettacolo
    • Musica
    • Libri
  • Lingua Italiana
  • Lifestyles
    • Fashion
    • Scienza e Salute
    • Sport
    • Religioni
  • Food & Wine
    • Cucina Italiana
  • Travel
    • Italia
  • English

© 2016/2022 VNY Media La Voce di New York

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In