This is the title of the current exhibition at the newly renovated Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art in Highbury, London. The Collection, opened in 1998, concentrates on Futurist paintings (Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà) and works by Giorgio De Chirico, Amedeo Modigliani, Giorgio Morandi and Mario Sironi. ‘War in the Sunshine‘ (13 Jan – 19 March) covers the largely forgotten British participation in the final stages of the war on one of its most difficult and dangerous fronts – North East Italy – depicted by official war artists (Sidney Carline, himself a pilot) and photographers (Ernest Brooks and William Brunell).
ACIS
Australasian Centre for Italian Studies
Tag Archives: exhibitions
Piero della Francesca: la fortuna, l’oblio, la riscoperta, la mitografia
Piero della Francesca da Francesco Laurana a Carlo Carrà, passando per Paolo Uccello, Edgar Degas e Edward Hopper (tra molti altri), è il tema della mostra, Piero della Francesca: indagine su un mito, che si tiene a Forlì nei musei San Domenico dal 13 febbraio al 26 giugno 2016. Le opere esposte (che comprendono anche libri) sono 250, distribuite nell’arco di cinque secoli in illustrazione dell’importanza di Piero della Francesca per artisti famosi e meno famosi, in Italia e oltre.
Enfilade, Venetian Painting, Remembering David Rosand
Sally Grant New York
Here is an item from a recent issue of the newsletter Enfilade that will interest ACIS readers (Enfilade is edited by the tireless and ineffably charming Craig Hanson who keeps everyone in eighteenth-century studies, especially art and architecture, informed about what is going on in the way of exhibitions, conferences and publications). It signals the opening this week of a Venetian painting exhibition, In Light of Venice: Venetian Painting in Honor of David Rosand, at the Otto Naumann Gallery, New York, which lasts until 12 February 2016. The title recalls the distinguished art historian of Renaissance Venice who died in 2014 and in whose honour a new Italian professorship is to be established at Columbia University. Some of the profits from the exhibition will be donated to the David Rosand Tribute Fund at the university to support the position.
Assessing creativity
Andrea del Sarto: Portrait of a Young Man (c.1517-1518)
From the transcript of an early research assessment exercise in the field of art history: ‘Professor Vasari, would you like to lead off for the panel on the work of Andrea del Sarto? I see he is currently exhibiting those odd drawings of his in New York.’ ‘Thank you, Chair, yes, at the Frick. Ah, the divine Andrea! Not the truly divine, I should say at once …. a certain timidity of spirit … a lack of elaboration perhaps, even of grandeur … a rare spirit of course ..’ ‘Yes, yes, Professor, fewer words and more numbers, please: what would you give him – 4* world-leading quality or is he just an ordinary 2* internationally-recognised chappie?’ ‘Difficult, Chair, such an odd fellow, prefers Florence to Paris, but certainly a scholar, a master of sfumato too. Perhaps the panel might consider a 3*?’. ‘Thank you, Professor. Our consultant, Professor Rowland, has been rather more generous about his work. Sublime, she says, exhilarating too…’
Venetian Old Master Drawings, and a Contemporary Response, at the Ashmolean, Oxford
Sally Grant New York
Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754), Head of a Youth © Ashmolean Museum
A major early-modern Venetian drawing exhibition has opened at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Focusing on works from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, Titian to Canaletto: Drawing in Venice should be a visual delight. Considering other recent exhibitions on this subject in Venice, LA, and New York (both in 2012 and 2013-14, as reviewed here), however, the museum’s emphasis on its “ground breaking” attention to the role drawing played for Venetian artists is perhaps a tad overstated. Nevertheless, when it comes to the art of Venice, the more shows the merrier.
This is particularly the case when exhibitions bring to view drawings that are often sequestered in archives away from the public’s gaze. Each opportunity to look closely at such works brings with it the chance of new understanding of aspects of art and humanity. And unlike the previously mentioned exhibitions, where the works were all drawn from US collections, the Ashmolean is displaying its own drawings alongside loans from the Uffizi in Florence and Oxford’s Christ Church. This will create the UK’s first prominent exhibition devoted to the drawings of the Venetian Old Masters.
Viva l’Italia – by City and Region
An exhibition entitled Viva l’Italia. A Regional Romp through Italy is running from 11 June to 5 September 2014 (8.30-5.00 Mon-Fri) at the de Beer Gallery, Special Collections, University of Otago in Dunedin, NZ. It is constructed around images of Italian cities from a 17th century copy of Pietro Bertelli’s Theatro delle Citta d’Italia (1629). On display are books from the collections of Willi Fels, Esmond de Beer and Charles Brasch, including William Thomas’ The Historie of Italie (1549); Thomas Martyn’s The Gentleman’s Guide in his Tour through Italy (1787); Alexandre de Rogissart’s Les Delices de l’Italie (1706); Henry Kipping’s Antiquitatum Romanarum, Libri Quatuor (1713); and Jean-Jacques Boissard’s Pars Romanae Urbis Topographiae & Antiquitatum (1597). D. H. Lawrence’s Sea and Sardinia (1921) and Samuel Butler’s Alps and Sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino (1923) also feature – all interspersed with works by Piranesi, carnival characters and Italian recipes.
The Heroic Years of Italian-Australian Cycling
On Tuesday 20 May at 6.30pm the Museo Italiano (199 Faraday Street, Carlton 3053) is launching an exhibition of photographs from the Italian Historical Society and private collections illustrating The Heroic Years of Italian-Australian Cycling which will run until 18 July. The exhibition also contains memorabilia (period bicycles, original cycling gear and competition medals) made available by the Borsari and the Catalano families. It covers not only the sport but also the people and the community who made cycling a point of pride, an element of cultural identity and social integration. For those wanting to know more about the history of Italian cycling and cyclists, John Foot’s Pedalare! Pedalare! is an excellent starting-point.
William Kent: Designing Georgian Britain (under Italian influence)
Sally Grant New York
Chiswick House with statue of Palladio © Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth
Anyone heading to London in the next couple of months or so may want to check out the current exhibition being held at the V&A, William Kent: Designing Georgian Britain. While the title itself doesn’t convey any obvious Italian links, like so many others who made the Grand Tour during the eighteenth century, Kent was very much influenced by the art and culture of Italy. This is especially thought-provoking here as the organisers present Kent, who was a painter, designer, and architect, as integral to the development of a style of art that reflected the ideals of a new, Georgian, British nation. (The exhibition is one of a number of events this year that celebrate the 300th year anniversary of the Hanoverian accession to the throne in 1714.)
Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings in New York
Sally Grant New York
The recent post on Angelo Cattaneo’s upcoming paper got me thinking about Venice. Having recently completed my PhD at the University of Sydney on eighteenth-century Venetian gardens and villa culture, the city and its territory are never far from my thoughts. Recently, however, I was lucky enough to see a wonderful exhibition, ‘Tiepolo, Guardi, and Their World: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Drawings’, at the Pierpont Morgan Library in NYC, where I now live.
Imagining social equity – perspectives on migration, gender and community
For the exhibition Imagining Social Equity – Perspectives on migration, gender and community (26 February – 5 April, Mon–Fri 10am–5pm; Sat 12pm–5pm, at the Museo Italian, 199 Faraday Street, Carlton 3053, entry free) there will be a special opening event presented by artist Filomena Coppola in the Conference Room on Tuesday 25 February 2014 at 6.30pm (RSVP essential: ihs@coasit.com.au; p: (03)9349 9021). Born in regional Victoria to Italian immigrant parents, Filomena will show a video work and talk about a series of three major drawing installations which explore cultural loss: Chasing the disappeared, Mother Tongue and Alpha Sound. Since the death of her uncle in 2011 – the first of three Coppola brothers who migrated here to be buried in Australian soil – her work has reflected on the loss of the first generation of migrants and its cultural significance.
