L'INFORMALE IN ITALIA
PAPER-BASED WORKS FROM THE GALLERIA CIVICA DI MODENA COLLECTION
22nd February-13th April 2014, Galleria Civica di Modena, corso Canalgrande 103, Modena
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Press Release No. 1
On Saturday 22nd February at 5.30pm, the Galleria Civica di Modena will open “Informale in Italia. Opere su carta dalla collezione della Galleria Civica di Modena”, an exhibition produced entirely with materials from its own collection and that of Don Casimiro Bettelli, granted on loan to the Gallery by the modenese curia. Curated by the museum director Marco Pierini himself, promoted and organised by the Galleria Civica di Modena and by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, the exhibition features more than 100 drawings and engravings by the greatest exponents of Italian informalism over a time span stretching from the mid-‘40s up to the end of the ‘60s.
Freedom of expression, the refusal of the norms – both those dictated by tradition and those that had by then become nothing more than formalisms in their own right established by the historical avant-garde – and a strong existential component led the artists of this current to experiment with a range of highly diverse media and materials. The results of these relentless experiments are clearly legible also in the paper-based works, with perfectly complete and autonomous outcomes, rather than mere sketches and notes of a planning nature. The main orientations in terms of the artistic language of Italian informalism are well represented within the Galleria Civica collection, with sheets demonstrating the alternating predominance of the stroke, the gesture, the material or the spatial articulation.
Staged in the upper rooms of Palazzo Santa Margherita, the exhibition itinerary features a room dedicated to the graphics of the ever innovative Alberto Burri, surprising both by virtue of the materials and the media adopted, and another one to Lucio Fontana, where along with works from seven different periods with seven different subjects, a number of engravings will be on display, including the splendid boards produced for “Six contes de La Fontaine“ a book of fables published in 1964 for “Apocalissi e sedici traduzioni” by Giuseppe Ungaretti, of which a limited edition of 150 copies was printed in 1965.
The Drawing Collection of the Galleria Civica di Modena also features numerous testimonies of the early works, of a clearly informal nature, of artists who in the later years of their lives were to follow very different paths, such as Vasco Bendini, Concetto Pozzati and Claudio Verna. These are little known sheets which, alongside the works of artists often unfairly relegated to the margins of historiography such as Annibale Biglione or Mario Nanni, represent perhaps one of the greatest sources of interest in this display.
Lastly, the exhibition on Italian informalism also offers the chance to reflect on the history of the Galleria Civica itself and the formation of its collection, given than over the last 30 years, solo shows have been staged at the Modenese museum dedicated to Accardi, Afro, Bendini, Fontana, Novelli, Peverelli, Pozzati, Scanavino and Turcato.
The artists featured in the show include: Carla Accardi, Afro, Vasco Bendini, Annibale Biglione, Alberto Burri, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Mino Ceretti, Piero Dorazio, Lucio Fontana, Pinot Gallizio, Virgilio Guidi, Bice Lazzari, Leoncillo, Mario Nanni, Gastone Novelli, Cesare Peverelli, Concetto Pozzati, Bepi Romagnoni, Antonio Sanfilippo, Emilio Scanavino, Tancredi, Giulio Turcato, Emilio Vedova, Claudio Verna and Giuseppe Zigaina.
Photo: Leoncillo, untitled, 1958, Galleria Civica di Modena
exhibition L’Informale in Italia. Opere su carta dalla collezione della Galleria Civica di Modena
curated by Marco Pierini
venue Palazzo Santa Margherita, upper rooms, corso Canalgrande 103, Modena
when 22nd February-13th April 2014
opening Saturday 22nd February 2014, 5.30pm
guided tours 23rd February 11am, 8th March 3.30pm (free, no booking required)
organisation and production
Galleria Civica di Modena, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena
press preview Thursday 20th February 2014, 11.30am
opening times Wed-Fri 10.30am – 1pm and 3pm – 6pm; Saturday, Sunday and public holidays 10.30am – 7pm. Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
entrance Free
Clp Relazioni Pubbliche Press Office, Milan, Anna Defrancesco, tel.+ 39 02 36755700,
images and press releases may be downloaded from www.clponline.it
Galleria Civica di Modena Press Office, Cristiana Minelli, tel. + 39 059 203 2883,
images and press releases may be downloaded from the Press Room on the gallery website
Galleria Civica di Modena Contact Info: corso Canalgrande 103, 41121 Modena, Italy. Tel. +39 059 2032911/40 – fax + 39 059 203 2932 www.galleriacivicadimodena.it AMACI Member