An exhibition of Alfredo Catarsini's self-portraits in Florence on the 30th anniversary of his death

2023 marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Viareggio artist Alfredo Catarsini, and to celebrate the anniversary and the close relationship that bound Catarsini to Florence, where over a span of more than sixty years he exhibited his works thirty times in prestigious venues, theAccademia delle Arti del Disegno and the Alfredo Catarsini Foundation present the exhibition L’Artista allo specchio. Alfredo Catarsini: self-portraits from 1930 to 1985, curated by Rodolfo Bona, which can be visited from January 17 to February 17, 2023.

Enriched by the catalog published by Grafiche Ancora of Viareggio with cards of all the works in the exhibition and other apparatus, the exhibition displays twenty-five of the artist’s self-portraits, made with various techniques of expression, of different sizes; most of the works come from the collection of the Catarsini Foundation, but there is no shortage of significant loans. After the exhibitions at Villa Bertelli in Forte dei Marmi and the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Lucca, this exhibition is the first organized by the Catarsini Foundation in 2023.

“In the city of the self-portrait par excellence, as Florence counts the well-known collection started by Cardinal Leopoldo de’ Medici with more than 1750 figures, and among them a Catarsini from 1934, donated in 2005 to the Uffizi Gallery, the exhibition validates the great commitment of the Alfredo Catarsini Foundation, energetically led by Elena Martinelli, which the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno is pleased to welcome and enhance,” Accademia President Cristina Acidini wrote in the exhibition catalog. Curator Rodolfo Bona writes that “the artist investigated the movement of the figure and the expression of man, recurring themes throughout his production, in the intense portraits of the 1930s and 1940s, in the nudes and self-portraits, in which he elected his own face as a terrain of formal and psychological investigation, recording its physiognomic and intellectual changes. [...] In fact, the key chosen to present his complex personality as a painter, writer and drawing teacher is precisely this genre that he long cultivated and interpreted through different modes of writing, ranging from the realist register to the caricatural or experimental, with a remarkable graphic variety.”

The decision to exhibit this selection of self-portraits in Florence is also linked to the fact that Catarsini participated in so many exhibitions in the capital, from the first group show in 1927 in the Chiostri di Santa Maria Novella to the large solo, anthological exhibition in 1981 at Palazzo Strozzi, where more than two hundred works were on display for three weeks. And between exhibitions, Catarsini often enjoyed self-representation.

For info: www.fondazionecatarsini.com

Hours: Tuesday and Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Other days by appointment by calling 055-219642.

Image: Alfredo Catarsini, Self-Portrait (1943; oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm; Viareggio, private collection)

An exhibition of Alfredo Catarsini's self-portraits in Florence on the 30th anniversary of his death

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