Exhibition reviews

The extraordinary relevance of Giorgio Vasari, modern artist. What the Arezzo exhibition looks like

In a letter dated May 10, 1548, Annibal Caro expresses to Giorgio Vasari his desire to take possession of one of his works, suggesting that it would be better if the work were done with some haste: not so much because Annibal Caro was in a hurry (and...
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Vera Lutter, unique photographs that make the real ambiguous. What the exhibition at MAST in Bologna looks like.

That the aura of the work of art no longer derives from its uniqueness is a fact that has been acknowledged ever since Walter Benjamin, at the turn of the two world wars, published the famous essay The Work of Art in the Age of its Technical Reproduc...
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The revolution of the circle in Marina Apollonio

The word "abstractionism," in the arts, is in danger of being a meaningless word. And not because, conversely, "figurative" makes sense. On the contrary. It is a confusion that came about with the avant-gardes who, having faith in the new, considered...
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Return to futurism: here's what the National Gallery of Rome exhibition looks like

The public about to enter the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome has been queuing for seven years amid Davide Rivalta's lions, guardians against passatism, imperious felines ready to roar against everything that smacks of the ran...
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If the machine is an instrument of poetry. What the Jean Tinguely exhibition in Milan looks like.

Jean Tinguely returns to Milan seventy years after the first time and forty-four after he chose it to declare Nouveau Réalisme dead, on the tenth anniversary of its founding, that is, the time when all the artists of the movement gathered in M...
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Niki de Saint Phalle, total modern artist. What the exhibition at Mudec in Milan looks like.

Topical, captivating and complete: it is with these three adjectives that I would define the anthological exhibition that Mudec - Museo delle Culture in Milan dedicates to Niki de Saint Phalle (Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1930 - San Diego, 2002), the French-A...
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Berthe Morisot, the "dissident of the fairer sex" on Italian debut: what the Genoa and Turin exhibitions look like

Those who want to see Berthe Morisot's work from life this fall are forced to split their time between two venues within a couple of hours of each other: GAM in Turin and Palazzo Ducale in Genoa are hosting two exhibitions, both independent, to prese...
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One hundred years since the Surrealist Manifesto. What the Surréalisme exhibition at the Centre Pompidou looks like.

A long history, that of Surrealism. Not only because of its enduring influence, nor because of the centennial celebrations underway in Italy and abroad. Referring to the chronology that welcomes visitors to the Centre Pompidou from September 4, 2024 ...
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An intense journey among the great and forgotten of the 16th century in Ferrara. What the exhibition at the Palazzo dei Diamanti looks like

If we were to accompany Jacob Burckhardt on his visits to the galleries of Rome and listen to him as he pauses to describe the pieces that most and best captured his interest, we would most likely derive sharp adjectives from them, suitable for defin...
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Henri Cartier-Bresson, the decisive instant of the South

Henri Cartier-Bresson's travels in Italy are journeys, especially to the South, recounted in photographic "reportages" that have a vague ethnographic flavor. The tone with which the French photographer approaches our worlds is somewhat reminiscent of...
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Mongol Zurag: reimagining the art of resistance. What the Venice exhibition looks like

What might the art of resistance look like if the Marxian dream of revolution had collapsed and the neoliberal promise of salvation proved fraudulent? The group exhibition Mongol Zurag: The Art of Resistance, curated by Uranchimeg Tsultem, illuminate...
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A long, repetitive immersion in Munch's anguish. What the Milan exhibition looks like

It is true that Edvard Munch is one of the most anguished artists ever: he himself claimed that his suffering, anxiety and illness were so much a part of himself and his art that their destruction would also destroy his art, but from the exhibition t...
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Why Helen Frankenthaler's painting was "without rules." What the Florence exhibition looks like

The most poetic and coldest painting at the same time on display at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence (through Jan. 26) in the exhibition Helen Frankenthaler. Painting Without Rules, is titled Mornings and dates from 1971. The American painter was 43 years...
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Actuality and inactuality of flags. Luca Bertolo and Flavio Favelli in Castelnuovo Magra

A white flag flies listlessly amidst the vines, hoisted on a flagpole guarded from above, from the tower of the Castle of the Bishops of Luni that gazes down on the village of Castelnuovo Magra and keeps an eye on those who flutter down on the plain ...
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Picasso was also a migrant. What the Milan exhibition looks like

The story of the Demoiselles d'Avignon, which is among the founding masterpieces of twentieth-century art, can be taken as a very eloquent example of the damage that, in the field of the arts, can be caused by the most boorish, most obtuse, most reac...
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Andrea Baboni celebrated in Correggio with a valuable and fascinating exhibition

Curated by Francesca Manzini and Francesca Baboni, the city of Correggio honors with an exhibition(Viaggio tra Otto e Novecento. The Andrea Baboni Collection: a creative journey between painting and collecting) its illustrious son Andrea Baboni, born...
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