A major monograph celebrates the bicentennial of Vincenzo Vela's birth

On the occasion of the bicentenary of the birth of Swiss sculptor Vincenzo Vela (Ligornetto, 1820 - 1891), the Vincenzo Vela Museum, among the most significant artist houses of 19th-century Europe, will open to the public the major monographic exhibition Vincenzo Vela (1820 - 1891). Poetry of the Real. The exhibition will be on view from October 25, 2020 to December 5, 2021.

A leading artist of19th-century Europe, Vela profoundly renewed the language of sculpture, establishing himself as one of the main exponents of the realist current. He was also a protagonist of the cultural and political scene of his time: a radical republican, torn between two homelands, he did not hesitate to commit himself both to the Helvetic cause and to Italian independence.

The monograph is intended to be an extension of the permanent exhibition on display on the museum’s ground floor, presenting through twelve sections the artist’s two souls: that of an innovative and versatile sculptor and that of a committed citizen and participant of his time. Some specific aspects of the artist will be highlighted: among them, the innovative working method, which aimed to represent the real in a way that was faithful to nature, inner expression and truth, and the more intimate, often neglected themes of his production, such as childhood sculpture, without neglecting the profound relationship with the representation of power and the political events of his time.

On display will be, in addition to plaster casts from museum collections, study materials, casts from life, funerary masks, drawings and photographs that were useful to the artist in developing his naturalistic style. In fact, in addition to being a sculptor, Vela also distinguished himself as a photographer, an aspect to which the second part of the monograph will be devoted.

Guided tours of the exhibition will also be organized.

For info: www.museo-vela.ch

Image: Vincenzo Vela, Monument to the Victims of Labor (1882; plaster, original model, 255 x 332.5 x 66 cm; Ligornetto, Museo Vincenzo Vela)

A major monograph celebrates the bicentennial of Vincenzo Vela's birth

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