Date le numerose richieste pervenute, proponiamo l'articolo su Arca Arte Vercelli, pubblicato da Taccuini Internazionali nel mese di aprile, anche in lingua inglese:
Umberto
Boccioni, Controluce (Backlight), 1910
1900-1961
ITALIAN ART
in GUGGENHEIM COLLECTIONS
Mario Sironi, “Urban Landscape”, 1921 (from the exhibition catalogue, by
“Giunti art exhibitions museums”)
We have visited the
beautiful exhibition suggested this year by ARCA Arte Vercelli, “1900-1961 italian
art in Guggenheim collections”, after the wonderful exhibitions already
realized by ARCA City of Vercelli in collaboration with Guggenheim Foundation,
all centered on the “histocal” relationship between the gre american
institution and our countr
Giorgio
De Chirico, "La torre rossa" ("The red tower"), 1913
The exhibition that we saw
this year (open until june 5th 2011), promoted by Piedmonte region in
collaboration with the office for the promotion of culture in Vercelli, has
been organized by Luca Massimo Barbero inside the prestigious San Marco church,
and in particular behind the steel and glass casket that has been setup inside
it so as to host these initiatives of high cultural level.
Mario
Sironi, "Il cavallo bianco" ("The white horse"), 1919
We would like to highlight
these three components, since tourism often shows approval for the binomial “historical
artistic culture” and “creative intelligence” in the event’s exposition. It must express a great level of
preparation and selection of the works, the historical context in which you can
discover historical-artistic values, and a mounting able to connect the two
previous components. This exhibition, like the previous trilogy centered on
Peggy Guggenheim’s figure, had definitely got these characteristics, and
because of that it deserves to be promoted as a destination for the cultured
tourist, also coming from abroad, who is about to plan a trip in our region.
Moreover, he should have
the pleasure to see Vercelli, a city of art still little accessibile in the
International circuits, its squares and its markets, its famous monuments and
its estimable cooking. These last aspects deserve our attention, in another
site.
An
angle of the exhibition, with Burri and Afro. The display cabinet’s “sky” where
contemporary art exhibitions are organized, can be opened or closed so as to
see San Marco Church. The osmotic effect between the two complementary areas is
incredibly spectacular
But let’s now talk about
Arca and the exhibition, about San Marco Church, which contained Arca, which in
its turn contained the italian art chosen by the Big Apple. This precious whole
of historical-artistic values, one inside of the other, the “display cabinet” cointaining
Arca, which contained the “case”, is what struck us the most; the Church and
its frescos were being repaired, and you could clearly see the works; the
exhibitions’ room offered an output more and more prestigious, and the “Arca”
which separated them could highlight their osmosis, since it had a mobile ceiling,
able to open and close depending on the need of light and dark, link and
separation that you decided to use, even during the exhibitions’ course.
Another
angle of the exhibition, whose inauguration has been attended by a
numerous public
The display cabinet’s
device was really astonishing, even in its modest dimensions (m. 29 x 7,5), and
since it developed both indoor and outdoor on 374 square meters of surface, it
allowed the visitor to combine modern and ancient art. You could compare the
productions of lay culture and
sacred art, of that unicum, in the Piedmontese figurative panorama, constituted
by the “Genealogy of the Virgin”, which represents one of the best examples of
medieval frescos, endowed with a strong typicality, today present in our
geographical area.
Umberto
Boccioni, Unique shapes of the space’s continuity, 1913. This is one of the
three versions of this sculpture: it belongs to the Guggenheim collection.
Another version is exhibited in the Novecento Museum in Milan. The third one is
in the Tate Modern in London.
In the display cabinet, on the
day we visited it, the exhibition by Massimo Barbero was dedicated to the
italian art that fascinated Solomon Guggenheim, determining his choice in the
formation of his prestigious collection. We have had a chance to deeply
understand the american taste for the italian artistic currents which have
crossed the first years of the last Century, especially the Milanese ones, like
the futurism of Boccioni, Sironi, Carrà, and also of some italian artists in
Paris, like Modigliani. A discovery, the one of Solomon, which has certainly
influenced every following artistic event of the modern, until this day and
age.
Peggy
Guggenheim in the year 1957, next to "La nostalgia del poeta" ("The poet’s nostalgia") by Giorgio De Chirico,
promotes the new fashion bigness, wearing the big belt and the Alexander Calder earrings
(picture got from the Exhibition catalogue, of “Giunti art exhibitions museums”).
We also had the possibility
to get an idea of what Peggy’s father and Peggy herself were going to dedicate
themselves to, by growing attached to such art, buying works so as to widen
their collection, while the pioneer of american architecture, Frank Lloyd
Wright, was about to plan and build the temple of New York art during the 50’s,
commissioned by them. We discovered that Burri, Capogrossi, Fontana and Vedova
were some of their favourite artists, after the ones who had constituted the
20th-Century vanguards, in addition to De Pisis and Morandi, already belonged
to Gianni Mattioli Collection, and arrived at Ca' Venier dei Leoni in 1997. For
sure the american Master who was building the Temple (the primigenial Arca)
that would host them, was already imagining the collocation along the perimeter
of the immense degrading spiral which his genius was orchestrating, as the
project developed.
The
public was particularly attracted by “Portrait of a student”, work realized
between 1918 and 19 by Amedeo Modigliani. It was the exhibition’s icon,
together with Capogrossi’s work, and it had been placed in a central position.
The curator explained us
the reasons that had induced him to introduce a chronological logic in the
mounting which is opposite to the norm, starting from the 60’s and proceeding
backwards until the beginning of the century, along the exhibition’s path. It was
almost a discovery of modernity’s origins, starting from the big and beautiful
canvass by Capogrossi, entitled “Surface 512”, which have also marked the
moulding of a specific National artistic taste, internationally
well-recognizable, in the various stages of the centenary from Italy’s Unity, which
celebrates its 150th anniversary this year.
Giorgio
Morandi, "Natura morta" ("Still Life"), 1954
The canvasses, paintings,
sculptures exhibited were some of the most beautiful and meaningful ones from
the 20th Century, and some of them belonged to the big Guggenheim collection:
let’s mention, for example, the 8 works by Mario Sironi, the Urban Landscape
from 1921, which were particularly able to represent the effective and terse
style of the milanese artist. We want to mention also the beautiful “red tower”,
by De Chirico, from 1913, metaphysical italian square decorated with a few
symbolic figures of high “De Chirico” imprinting; the wonderful “Suburb” created
by Umberto Boccioni in 1909; and ‘Matter”, from 1912. The painting “Backlight”
from 1910, really fresh and modern, was really appreciated by us, especially in
this exhibition’s context.
Umberto
Boccioni, "Materia" ("Matter"), great oil from 1912, with renewals in 1913, of remarkable dimensions (226 x 150 cm) (from
the exhibition catalogue, of "Giunti art exhibitions museums")
Another work of really high
level was a “Still life” from 1954 by Morandi, of unusual dimensions, delicate
and soft like no one else of his other paintings; and then the typical works by
Vedova, Fontana and Burri, between which the “Big Plastic Black” by the latter
particularly stood out. In this work created in 1964, the material swells up
and boils so as to give an individual and new interpretation to art. Giuseppe
Capogrossi stood out in the exhibition because of the gigantic being at the entrance
of every path.
Medardo Rosso, Gaetano
Previati and Adolfo Wildt, respectively in "Ecce Puer" of 1906,
"Young boys with fruit baskets" of 1916 and "Cry on the closed
door" of 1915, open and close the entire exhibition, together with
Capogrossi, by welding its extremes.
The
public crowded the presentation of the exhibition’s curator, Luca Massimo
Barbero. In the background, the great painting by Giuseppe Capogrossi “Surface
512”, 200 x 300 cm, bought by Solomon Guggenheim but never arrived to its
natural site. Today, because of various vicissitudes, it is in Rome, inside the
National Museum of Modern Art.
We believe that exhibitions
of this kind can be really useful, together with the context described, the
structure that contains them, the whole city which has been able to express it
and create a territorial and urban context, to be aknowledge and recognized.
But also with a tourism that can produce other tourism, an economy which is
fundamental for our Country, in the sign of that “Knowledge Economy” which also
the assessor from Vercelli, Giorgio Fossale, has been able to enhance through
this initiative, since he would like to link it with the production of a new
and wide surplus value. He has certainly worked in this way, and he has been
able to create in his town a model that should be reproduced in other “smaller”
italian local realities.
The “Display Cabinet” of
the Arca, in San Marco Church in Vercelli, with its ceiling that can be opened
and closed, and that highlights the vaults rich in precious frescos. The
project has been realized by the Turinese architect Ferdinando Fagnola. The
display cabinet (the Arca) is a parallelepiped of small dimensions. It is only 29
x 7,5 meters wide, and it allows a path inside its rooms which is 110 meters
long. Despite the dimensions, due to the dimensions of the curch that contains
it, the Arca is completely suitable for accomodating some exhibitions of middle
dimensions; this has been demonstrated not only in this last exhibition, but
also in all the ones that have preceded it, always set up with moderation and
good taste, armony and balance.
We will certainly see that
this can happen, by using the means that we have available, so as to give our
contribution to the promotion of Vercelli’s cultural reality, and so as to
indicate this town as a centre of significant initiatives, inside a context of
urban and artistic history from far origins.
Vercelli aprile 2011
Enrico Mercatali
(dedicato a Eli F.)
(dedicato a Eli F.)
(Penelope Mirotti translated from italian)
Fotografie di Enrico Mercatali
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