Dal paesaggio al territorio. L'arte interpreta i luoghi. Opere del Novecento dalle collezioni Intesa Sanpaolo
from 17 December 2011 to 26 February 2012
Gorizia
Dal paesaggio al territorio. L'arte interpreta i luoghi
The exhibition explores the theme of the ‘landscape’ and its evolution, not only within the realm of figurative art, through a selection of masterpieces from Intesa Sanpaolo’s prestigious collections.
The subject is examined from multiple angles, ranging from painting directly inspired by places, in the landscapes of the masters of the first half of the 20th century, to the naturalistic depictions in the art of the second half of the 20th century, via the painting of the 1950s and 1960s which developed within the Informalist movement, to the explorations undertaken by artists of the 1970s to the 1990s, who no longer focus on the charm of the landscape as a subject for contemplation, but rather on the analysis of the “territory” as a sphere of action. ‘Landscape’ and ‘territory’ are the two complementary terms of a dialogue that art has conducted not only through representation, but also through the examination and study of places, in relation to the various nuances of meaning they possess from an interdisciplinary perspective.
The exhibition is divided into three sections, following a chronological and thematic trajectory.
The first section examines forms of landscape representation in the painting of the first half of the twentieth century and its offshoots, with works ranging from the Divisionism of ‘minor’ artists, such as Ramponi and Manganelli, to the focus on the Italian landscape as a site for the expression of local and national identities, as seen in artists associated with the Novecento Italiano movement, such as Tosi, Bucci, Carrà, Sironi and Soffici, and unique focuses on specific settings—the Turin of Casorati and Menzio, the Rome of Mafai, the Venetian world of Moggioli, Semeghini and Guidi—right through to the ‘metaphysical’ representations of Zanini or the evocations of Calderara and Music.
The second section examines new forms of ‘naturalism’ and the relationship with landscape evocations in the art of the 1950s and early 1960s. In this area, where the theoretical positions expounded in those years by Lionello Venturi and Francesco Arcangeli find concrete expression, the works of artists such as Birolli, Santomaso, Morlotti, Moreni and Afro are noteworthy; all are linked to the memory or presence of a naturalistic motif, yet inclined towards a free expression of colour and form, as is also the case with other exponents of the diverse Informal art movement.
This section also examines the individual approaches of Baj, with his ‘nuclear’ landscape, and Tancredi, for his eccentric ‘naturalism’. Acting as a bridge to the subsequent period are the positions of a new ‘objectivity’ of a Pop Art nature, with Schifano, and, in a certain sense, with Novelli and Cavaliere, as well as the identification with a particular aspect of Sicilian identity in a visionary, rather than realistic, work by Guttuso.
The exhibition is rounded off, in its third and final section, by paintings, sculptures and photographs produced from the late 1960s onwards by artists who share affinities with the Arte Povera movement, such as Gilardi, Penone and Fabro, or who explore and represent contemporary sensibilities regarding the relationship between nature and artifice, between the personal and collective dimensions of environmental interpretation, in the works of Vaccari, Patella, La Pietra, all of which document environmental interventions, or in reflections on the meaning of landscape painting, as seen in the works of Mondino, Arienti and Ciracì, right through to investigations of place in its topographical or interrogative capacity, with the works of Vitone, Pietroiusti and Ballo Charmet. Alongside the historical-critical reflections on which the exhibition is based, developed in the catalogue by the curator, Francesco Tedeschi, the proposed approach offers the opportunity to consider, with the aid of the works on display, the cultural shifts in how we view the ‘landscape’ or the ‘territory’—no longer as a place to be contemplated, but as a model for comparing concrete practices, reflecting a critical analysis.
Hence the opportunity to reflect on the need to adapt the tools used for the observation and protection of cultural and landscape values, which constitute our country’s most precious asset.
Dal paesaggio al territorio. L'arte interpreta i luoghi
Rencontres, 1968
acrilico su tela, con interventi a matita e pennarello nero
115,5 × 89,5 cm
Opere correlate
Nessuna opera correlata trovata