Ponti

Naples – In Naples, Christmas has the colors of Artemisia Gentileschi. From the collaboration of the Gallerie d’Italia with the National Gallery of London comes an exhibition full of surprises, which investigates the relationship of the seventeenth-century painter with the Neapolitan city. About 50 works have been brought together for the occasion in Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano in via Toledo and come from prestigious Italian and international public and private collections. Among the most anticipated guests are paintings that have never before been exhibited in Italy, such as the Saint Catherine of Alexandria acquired in 2018 by the London museum, or the Judith and the handmaid with the head of Holofernes, from September 2022 in the collections of the National Museum in Oslo, which will dialogue with the masterpieces of the Intesa Sanpaolo museum. Scheduled from December 3, 2022 to March 19, 2023, Artemisia Gentileschi in Naples it is not only a feast for the eyes, but also the culmination of an important research path: the studies conducted for the occasion between Italy and the United Kingdom have in fact clarified the circumstances of the painter’s arrival in the Bourbon capital and investigated his long stay in Naples, bringing to light interesting artistic and personal events.

“Artemisia Gentileschi in Naples” Courtesy of the Italian Galleries

It was the summer of 1630 when Artemisia moved to Naples from Venice. At 37, after an adventurous life and a successful career, she found a new home in the capital of the Spanish viceroyalty. The second European metropolis by population after Paris, Naples offered a rather lively cultural life: the memory of Caravaggio was still fresh, while masters such as Josè de Ribera and Massimo Stanzione adorned the city with valuable works. The painter did not lack patrons – from Don Antonio Ruffo of Sicily to King Philip IV of Spain – nor exchanges and collaborations with the best artists present in the city. For the first time Artemisia found herself painting three canvases for the same church, the Cathedral of Pozzuoli in the Rione Terra, and she demonstrated that she knew how to renew her art by responding to the transformations of taste with new subjects. The painter found the Bourbon capital so congenial to her spirit that, except for a short stay in England, she decided to stay there forever.

Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith and her handmaid with the head of Holofernes, 1639-1640, Oslo, National Museum | Courtesy National Museum

Incredibly, so far no exhibition had ever investigated Artemisia’s Neapolitan season, a fundamental chapter in her artistic career and by far the longest in terms of time. Curated by Antonio Ernesto Denunzio and Giuseppe Porzio, with the special consultancy of the director of the National Gallery Gabriele Finaldi, the project of the Gallerie d’Italia was born as a deepening of the great show dedicated to the artist in 2020 by the London museum and with the collaboration of the Museum and Real Bosco di Capodimonte, the State Archives of Naples and the University of Studies “L’Orientale”.
In the heart of the Neapolitan city, where Artemisia lived and worked, we will discover 21 paintings by the artist in dialogue with the works of artists active in Naples in the same years, from Massimo Stanzione to Paolo Finoglio, from Francesco Guarino to Andrea Vaccaro, ending with a recently rediscovered painter, “Annella” Di Rosa, the greatest Neapolitan artist in the first half of the seventeenth century, according to tradition, she too was a victim of gender-based violence like Gentileschi.

Artemisia Gentileschi (Rome, 1593 – Naples, after 14 July 1654), Santa Caterina d’Alessandria. Oil on canvas, 90 × 75.40 cm. Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, Purchase 2019 Wiros Fund, inv. NM 7538. Photo Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum

The itinerary of the Gallerie d’Italia opens with the Saint Catherine of Alexandria of the National Gallery, Artemisia’s youthful masterpiece, to then immerse herself in the story of her maturity with themes and subjects dear to the painter in her last twenty years of life. We see for the first time the cycle of canvases with Christ and the twelve Apostles commissioned for the Certosa of Seville by the Duke of Alcalà, where the effigy of Jesus painted by Gentileschi is flanked by figures created by Guido Reni, Giovanni Baglione and Battistero Caracciolo. An entire section is then dedicated to the image of Artemisia, with the artist who lends her face to characters from myth and the Holy Scriptures. And there are even self-portraits, such as the one in Palazzo Barberini, which celebrates the painter’s new status immediately after admission to the prestigious Academy of Drawing Arts in Florence.

Artemisia Gentileschi (Rome, 1593-Naples, after 14 July 1654), Susanna and the old men. Oil on canvas, 200.5 × 225.5cm. Bologna, National Art Gallery, inv. 6320. Courtesy of the Ministry of Culture–National Art Gallery of Bologna

From the great Neapolitan public commissions, such as theAnnunciation of Capodimonte and the monumental paintings of the Cathedral of Pozzuoli, we move on to the small canvases for private devotion and to the female figures who were one of Gentileschi’s specialties: saints and martyrs, biblical and mythological heroines with a bold character, which the artist describes with expressive naturalism. These include the aforementioned Judith of Oslo and the Saint Catherine of Alexandria of the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, another absolute novelty for the Italian public.

Artemisia Gentileschi, Samson and Delilah, 1630 ca, Naples, Intesa Sanpaolo Collection, Gallerie d’Italia – Naples

Love and death meet in complex compositions with an erotic background inspired by the Old Testament such as Bethsheba bathing of the Palatine Gallery in Florence e Susanna and the Elders of the Pinacoteca Nazionale of Bologna, ending with spectacular mythological tales of exceptional pictorial quality: the Corisca and the satyr from a private collection and the Triumph of Galatea of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, both by Artemisia, dialogue with a profane painting by Massimo Stanzione, theOrpheus torn apart by the Bacchae restored for the occasion and with the Rape of Europa by Annella Di Rosa, from a private collection and exhibited to the public for the first time.

“Artemisia Gentileschi in Naples” Courtesy of the Italian Galleries

Read also:
• At Palazzo Blu “Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well” by Artemisia Gentileschi
• Artemisia Gentileschi’s “Caritas Romana” found in Austria
• A new painting by Artemisia Gentileschi enters the collection of the National Museum of Art in Oslo
• The Getty Museum acquires “Lucretia”, the rediscovered painting by Artemisia Gentileschi
• The National Gallery acquires a rare self-portrait by Artemisia Gentileschi

Aosta – Not only snow and winter sports: Christmas in Valle d’Aosta has the colors and refined forms of Art Déco, the protagonist of a major exhibition arriving at the Forte di Bard. From 2 December 2022 to 10 April 2023, the spectacular exhibition space nestled in the mountains will be the scene of a fascinating journey through the first decades of the twentieth century, to discover one of the styles favored by contemporary designers. Paintings, sculptures, graphic works, applied art objects, wall decorations, posters, illustrations will outline the taste of an era in a vast choral fresco, focusing on the artists and personalities who have written its history.

Mario Reviglione, Zingaresca, 1920. Private collection

Set up in the Gunboat Halls and in the Cellars of Forte di Bard, Deco in Italy, the elegance of modernity will present 230 works chosen by the curator Francesco Parisi: different techniques and artistic expressions will dialogue with each other just as the spirit of Déco wanted, bringing to light the peculiar characteristics that this style of international scope assumed in the Italian panorama. There will be the glittering creations of Gio Ponti for Richard Ginori and the glass from Burano by Vittorio Zecchin, the ceramic panel painted by Galileo Chini and the portrait of Augusto Solari by Adolfo Wildt presented at the Italian Pavilion of the Exposition International des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris of 1925, the paintings by Aleardo Terzi and Umberto Brunelleschi, witnesses of a successful exchange between painting and illustration, the female portraits by Giulio Aristide Sartorio and Mario Reviglione, but also important Futurist works, which tell the link between the avant-garde and the Deco style: the preparatory studies for the great tapestry of the Futurist Genius by Giacomo Balla (which decorated the staircase of the Grand Palais at the 1925 exhibition), the furniture and tapestries by Fortunato Depero, the scenography by Enrico Prampolini.

Umberto Bottazzi, Circe, 1931. Private collection, Rome. Photo Photographic Art

In Parisi’s story, the temporal boundaries of Deco expand, embracing the twenty years between 1919 and 1939 and capturing the evolution of taste over time, while special attention is dedicated to two characters who have left their mark on the scene Italian woman of the 1920s, the gallerist and couturier Maria Monaci Gallenga and the patron and collector Riccardo Gualino.

Anselmo Bucci, Cleopatra, 1927-29 I Courtesy Matteo Maria Mapelli Modern and Contemporary Art

Bologna – A rare 1914 self-portrait depicting George Morandi at just 24 years old, with a cap pulled down on his head, wrapped in a black outerwear that shelters him from the cold of the winter season, the childish amazement of one who remains ajar at the magic of an enchantment.
And then a parade of flowers and still lifes created between 1918 and 1959, interesting for tracing the development of the research of the refined master of vases, bowls and bottles.
And again the landscapes, like The white road painted in Grizzana and revived in some variations in 1939 and 1941.
These are just some of the 27 works from the private collection of Antonio and Matilde Catanese, ready to be shown to visitors to the Morandi Museum in Bologna from 3 December to 26 February on the occasion of the exhibition George Morandi. Works from the Antonio and Matilde Catanese collection.
Starting in the 1960s, the passionate spouses began to buy the first Morandis, demonstrating their refined and far-sighted taste in a city like Milan, which played a fundamental role in the world of art and collecting in the twentieth century. An attitude, that of the Catanese spouses towards the production of Giorgio Morandi, well described by Antonio in some passages of the interview granted to the curator of the exhibition Mariella Gnani.

Giorgio Morandi, Self-Portrait, 1914, Oil on canvas, 35 x 44 cm, Antonio and Matilde Catanese Collection © Giorgio Morandi by SIAE, 2022

“When faced with a work by Morandi – confesses Catanese – I feel like an active subject, not a passive one, as it doesn’t happen to me for other authors, albeit important ones, that I have chosen and with whom I surround myself. But with Morandi it’s different. His painting forces me to observe the subject for a long time. With each reflection on the brushstroke, on the slight variation of color, on the perceived dust, I feel that I have to stay longer, return with my thoughts to grasp more”.

The exhibition at the Morandi Museum stems from the desire of the Catanese family to share part of their collection with the public and from the desire of the children to express their gratitude to their parents for having had the opportunity to refine their sensitivity in contact with similar masterpieces .

Thus walking in this “exemplary microcosm for deciphering and understanding Morandi’s activity”, as the art historian Maria Cristina Bandera defines the Catanese collection, it is possible to retrace the entire activity of the Bolognese master, the techniques and the themes dealt with by artist, appreciating the undoubted relevance of the pieces that are part of it. Starting with the rare Self-portrait youth of 1914, a work of primary importance, formerly in the Valdameri collection, the public will pass through still lifes, flowers and landscapes that allow them to follow the development of the master’s research who knew how to preserve the realistic rendering of his subjects despite the almost Cezannian simplification of their forms.

George Morandi. Works from the Antonio and Matilde Catanese collection, View of the exhibition at the Morandi Museum | Photo: © Ornella De Carlo | Courtesy of the Bologna Civic Museums Sector | Morandi Museum

Among the ten works – oils, watercolors and etchings – which favor the theme of flowers so dear to Morandi, a watercolor from 1918 stands out, an example of rare mastery which bears witness to an already fully acquired technical ability. Many of the works on display also boast an illustrious collecting history, such as the Landscape from 1941 passed from the important collection of Pietro Feroldi to that of Gianni Mattioli and later landed in that of the Plaza spouses; and again i Flowers from the Jucker collection, or even the Still life from 1940 already in the Rockefeller collection.

“I paint and engrave countries and still lifes” Morandi wrote about etchings, a technique that he masterfully mastered as a self-taught and which he always considered as a parallel language to painting. The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication published by Silvana Editoriale, with critical texts by Mariella Gnani, Maria Cristina Bandera, Luca Cecchetto, Federica Bucolini, Paolo Triolo, Sabrina Burattini, Laura Valentini, and the cards of the 90 works belonging to the Catanese collection by Stella Seitun.
The exhibition can be visited on Tuesday and Wednesday from 2 to 7 pm, Thursday from 2 to 8 pm, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and public holidays from 10 to 7 pm.

Read also:
• Giorgio Morandi and Luigi Magnani: the story of a friendship (and of a collection) on display in London

Varese – There’s the famous shot of the Empire State Building from dusk to dawn, and there it is Kissthe sequencing of kisses exchanged by heterosexual and homosexual couples.
And then the portraits of celebrities, a corpus of works and materials relating to publishing and the graphics of record covers, private drawings and the first advertising sketches from the 1950s.
A color thread woven by characters such as Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy, Mao Tsê-tung, the famous series Ladies and Gentlemenand then the album covers, from those dedicated to classical music and jazz of the forties and fifties to the famous album covers of the Velvet Underground and the Rolling Stones, runs from the MA*GA – Museum of Art of Gallarate (Varese) to the Milan gate of Milan Malpensa airport.
From January 22 to June 18, over 200 iconic works arriving from international institutions such as The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and the Ronald Nameth archive celebrate Warhol’s universe, from the first drawings made for publishing and fashion, to the famous pop works featuring musicians, politicians, famous designers, actors, commercial brands.

MA*GA Museum, Gallarate

The exhibition curated by Maurizio Vanni and Emma Zanella, entitled Andy Warhol. Serial Identity – to underline how much the research of the father of Pop Art is characterized by extreme versatility and the desire for transformation – will open with a comparison between some private drawings and the first advertising sketches. Famous cycles such as i Flowersthe Campbell’s Soupi Death & Disasters will complement the works related to publishing and disc cover graphics, while the viewer will be invited to grasp aspects such as the search for ever-changing identities that the artist wanted to give of himself, as well as the relationships between his work and the world of music, publishing, cinematography.

The five episodes of Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes, American talk show hosted by the artist for the iconic Andy Warhol TV, aired from 1985 to 1987, and the three video clips from 1981 for Saturday Night Live, America’s most famous TV show, the tops of the work Warholian television. This section will be further expanded at Porta di Milano – Milan Malpensa Airport, thanks to SEA, with a large video wall dedicated to Andy Warhol TV and a spectacular installation inspired by the artist’s most famous images.

Andy Warhol TV Productions, Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes, 1985, Collection of The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. © The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of the Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved. Film still courtesy The Andy Warhol Museum

On the occasion of the Gallarate exhibition, the video installation by the American photographer and director Ronald Nameth, born of the performance, will be exhibited for the first time in Italy Exploding Plastic Inevitable, a mix of Pop art, psychedelia and underground culture orchestrated by Warhol with the rock of the Velvet Underground and Nico. The show, a sort of ante litteram media mix performance, staged from April 1966 to May of the following year in various American cities, saw Warhol manipulate the lights and images in the environment, to experiment and recreate a psychedelic environment immersive as the Velvet Underground and Nico performed live acting as a mobile medium for film and slide projections with various images and colors.

Read also:
• Andy Warhol. Serial Identity