Ah, che rebus! Cinque secoli di enigmi fra arte e gioco in Italia
from 16 December 2010 to 08 March 2011
Roma
Ah, che rebus! Cinque secoli di enigmi fra arte e gioco in Italia
The National Institute for Graphic Arts brings its celebrations marking the 35th anniversary of its foundation to a close with an original and innovative exhibition.
The two curators, with the advice of Stefano Bartezzaghi, the collaboration of a large group of scholars for the catalogue, and the Institute’s support for the organisational aspects, have made careful choices, focusing on the history of the relationship between art and rebuses, and selecting works of particular interest for the exhibition, either originals or facsimiles.
What is a rebus? A little puzzle to decipher, a drawing concealing a phrase, a pastime. A game. Yet this game has an ancient history which, when traced, reveals many surprises: in the past, great artists created rebuses, from Leonardo da Vinci with his figurative ciphers (presented in a video and also revisited by contemporary artists), to the engravers Stefano Della Bella and Giuseppe Maria Mitelli; a more recent surprise is the presence of the cartoons from the famous magazine “La Settimana Enigmistica”, drawn by the Milanese illustrator Maria Ghezzi (la Brighella), in Italian painting of the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in the works of Renato Mambor and Tano Festa.
The exhibition juxtaposes the ancient and the modern, in a round-trip journey between art and rebuses from the sixteenth century to the present day, with constant references between play and artistic expression. Nineteenth-century rebuses, with their animated letters, are juxtaposed with Futurist experiments, as in the Cangiullo brothers’ drawing *Marinetti ferito*. The metaphysical atmospheres of Giorgio De Chirico’s *Bagni misteriosi* engage in dialogue both with the vignettes of modern rebuses and with contemporary paintings, videos and drawings linked to the enigma.
The exhibition begins with the juxtaposition of two paintings: Lorenzo Lotto’s Portrait of Lucina Brembate, c. 1518, and Osvaldo Licini’s Figure in Grey, 1944. In both, the moon is combined with letters to suggest a name (Lucina) or a series of potential words, in an interplay between figures and letters, between the visible and the legible.
Renaissance coats of arms, emblems, typographic marks, as well as modern company logos and advertising, sometimes take the form of a rebus, an interactive mechanism that engages the intellect.
The rebus also lends itself to conveying veiled messages of a political, satirical or historical nature. From the Risorgimento to 1968, political and social ideals were expressed in the form of rebuses on leaflets, magazines, paintings and artists’ books. On display for the first time, restored for the occasion, is the large banner featuring a long rebus dedicated to Pius IX for the amnesty granted in 1846.
The mechanism of the rebus is present in many titles of contemporary works, and the interplay often occurs between title, work, material and technique. Furthermore, the rebus serves as inspiration for poems, such as those by Edoardo Sanguineti, interpreted in some of the graphic works on display. It is found in videos as a narrative technique, in graffiti on walls, as a lure to attract the viewer.
Not to mention that one of the main themes of the rebus over the centuries has been love, from Leonardo da Vinci to Paolo Conte, to whom this exhibition owes not only a work on display but also its title, Ah che rebus!, taken from the chorus of the 1979 song ‘Rebus’.
The two curators, with the advice of Stefano Bartezzaghi, the collaboration of a large group of scholars for the catalogue, and the Institute’s support for the organisational aspects, have made careful choices, focusing on the history of the relationship between art and rebuses, and selecting works of particular interest for the exhibition, either originals or facsimiles.
What is a rebus? A little puzzle to decipher, a drawing concealing a phrase, a pastime. A game. Yet this game has an ancient history which, when traced, reveals many surprises: in the past, great artists created rebuses, from Leonardo da Vinci with his figurative ciphers (presented in a video and also revisited by contemporary artists), to the engravers Stefano Della Bella and Giuseppe Maria Mitelli; a more recent surprise is the presence of the cartoons from the famous magazine “La Settimana Enigmistica”, drawn by the Milanese illustrator Maria Ghezzi (la Brighella), in Italian painting of the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in the works of Renato Mambor and Tano Festa.
The exhibition juxtaposes the ancient and the modern, in a round-trip journey between art and rebuses from the sixteenth century to the present day, with constant references between play and artistic expression. Nineteenth-century rebuses, with their animated letters, are juxtaposed with Futurist experiments, as in the Cangiullo brothers’ drawing *Marinetti ferito*. The metaphysical atmospheres of Giorgio De Chirico’s *Bagni misteriosi* engage in dialogue both with the vignettes of modern rebuses and with contemporary paintings, videos and drawings linked to the enigma.
The exhibition begins with the juxtaposition of two paintings: Lorenzo Lotto’s Portrait of Lucina Brembate, c. 1518, and Osvaldo Licini’s Figure in Grey, 1944. In both, the moon is combined with letters to suggest a name (Lucina) or a series of potential words, in an interplay between figures and letters, between the visible and the legible.
Renaissance coats of arms, emblems, typographic marks, as well as modern company logos and advertising, sometimes take the form of a rebus, an interactive mechanism that engages the intellect.
The rebus also lends itself to conveying veiled messages of a political, satirical or historical nature. From the Risorgimento to 1968, political and social ideals were expressed in the form of rebuses on leaflets, magazines, paintings and artists’ books. On display for the first time, restored for the occasion, is the large banner featuring a long rebus dedicated to Pius IX for the amnesty granted in 1846.
The mechanism of the rebus is present in many titles of contemporary works, and the interplay often occurs between title, work, material and technique. Furthermore, the rebus serves as inspiration for poems, such as those by Edoardo Sanguineti, interpreted in some of the graphic works on display. It is found in videos as a narrative technique, in graffiti on walls, as a lure to attract the viewer.
Not to mention that one of the main themes of the rebus over the centuries has been love, from Leonardo da Vinci to Paolo Conte, to whom this exhibition owes not only a work on display but also its title, Ah che rebus!, taken from the chorus of the 1979 song ‘Rebus’.
Ah, che rebus! Cinque secoli di enigmi fra arte e gioco in Italia
Opere correlate
Nessuna opera correlata trovata