Achille Funi and twentieth-century painters featured, with unpublished works, in an exhibition at Milan's CMC

The CMC - Centro Culturale in Milan is hosting, from September 28 to November 24, 2018, the exhibition Achille Funi and his painter friends of "Novecento," dedicated to Achille Funi (Ferrara, 1890 - Appiano Gentile, 1972) and the artists who were part of the Novecento group with him: Mario Sironi, Piero Marussig, Leonardo Dudreville, Carlo Carrà, Anselmo Bucci, Ubaldo Oppi and Gian Emilio Malerba. Then there will be artists such as Carlo Carrà, Arturo Tosi, Alberto Salietti, Pompeo Borra, and Raffaele de Grada, who were Funi’s friends and companions in the Novecento adventure. In all, the CMC, in the exhibition curated by Nicoletta Colombo and Serena Redaelli in collaboration with the Funi Archive, presents thirty works (some of them unpublished) by Achille Funi, as well as a selection of the artists mentioned above.

The exhibition opens with the section that brings together paintings made by Achille Funi between 1911 and 1940: alongside famous masterpieces such as Giovinetta (Margherita) of 1913, Marinetti. Lust Speed of 1914-1920, Self-Portrait with Blue Pitcher of 1920, One Person and Two Ages of 1924, the public will be able to admire a number of unpublished works recovered through archival cataloguing, including Landscape (1912), Motorcyclist (1914), the Valdoltra view (1919), Imago Pietatis (1920), the dramatic Apocalypse of 1930, as well as a series of works rediscovered after decades of absence from exhibition circuits, including The Meal (1914), The Figure and the Window (1924), Nude (1929) and an unusual 1939 Study of the Painter made during his stay in Tripoli. An unpublished dusting and related colored pastel cartoon, dated 1936 and preparatory for the cycle of frescoes completed in the Church of St. Francis in Tripoli, complete the section devoted to Funi.

The exhibition continues with some masterpieces by fellow “Novecento” painters, made in the 1920s, some absent from exhibitions for more than fifty years, as is the case of Anselmo Bucci’s majestic Odeon (1919-1920), Alberto Salietti’s Ciociara (1925) (moved to Milan’s Permanente in 1926 and then dispersed) and Pompeo Borra’s Verso Como (1928) panel painting, presented at Milan’s Galleria Bardi in ’28 and never seen again. Among the best-known historical paintings are the celebrated Femmina volgo (1920) by Gian Emilio Malerba, Le Amazzoni (1924) by Ubaldo Oppi, Nudo allo specchio (1923) by Mario Sironi and Mulino delle castagne (1925) by Carlo Carrà.

Opening hours: Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 to 6:30 p.m., Saturday 3:30 to 7 p.m., Sunday closed. Free admission (suggested donation of 5 euros). The exhibition, promoted by the Municipality of Milan, is accompanied by a catalog published by Editoriale Giorgio Mondadori, edited by Nicoletta Colombo and Serena Redaelli, enriched by in-depth studies on the Funian magisterium and “workshop” and on the activity of Italian artists in Libya between 1934 and 1940. The papers are presented accompanied by the photographic documentation that emerged in the course of the research. The catalog is completed by a concise list of unpublished paintings that have reached the Archives, made by Funi between 1911 and 1940. For info: www.centroculturaledimilano.it.

Image: Achille Funi, Marinetti. Lust. Speed (1914 - 1920)

Achille Funi and twentieth-century painters featured, with unpublished works, in an exhibition at Milan's CMC

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