Antonio Ligabue on display at the Royal Palace of Monza, with 90 works

Antonio Ligabue. TheMan, the Artist is the title of the anthological exhibition tracing the art of Antonio Ligabue (Zurich, 1899 - Gualtieri, 1965), scheduled from February 11 to May 1, 2022, at the Reggia Reale in Monza. With ninety works, including paintings, sculptures, engravings and drawings, the exhibition curated by Sandro Parmiggiani traces the art of one of the most original authors of the Italian twentieth century.

The exhibition features some of the paintings considered among his masterpieces, such as Caccia grossa (Big Hunt ) (1929), Circo (c. 1941-42), Tigre reale, a work made in 1941 during the artist’s second hospitalization in the San Lazzaro Psychiatric Hospital in Reggio Emilia, Leopard with snake (1955-56), Head of a tiger (1957-58), Fox with bird of prey (kite) 1959-60, Crucifixion (early 1960s).There is no shortage of self-portraits, mirrors of existential malaise: Self-Portrait with Easel (1954-55), Self-Portrait with Flies (1956-57), Self-Portrait with Scarecrow (1957-58), the sorrowful Self-Portrait (1957).

The exhibition’s themes

The exhibition winds through the two main poles along which Ligabue’s artistic path developed: animals, wild and domestic, and portraits of himself, without forgetting other subjects such as scenes of rural life or landscapes of the Po Valley, in which the depictions of castles, churches, spires and houses with flags in the wind on the steep roofs of his native Switzerland, where he was born and where he had lived until his expulsion in 1919, burst forth: the memory of the lost homeland. Ligabue depicts both domestic animals, caught in a rural atmosphere, and wild animals (tigers, lions, leopards, gorillas, foxes, eagles) whose anatomy he knew very well, often depicted at the moment when they are about to pounce on their prey, with an exasperation of an expressionist nature, both in form and color, and with an almost spasmodic attention to the reiteration of decorative elements.

The self-portraits constitute a very poetic strand of Ligabue’s art. In them, the painter places himself in the foreground, almost occupying all the space of the scene, against the background of a landscape that seems almost always, with rare exceptions, an entirely unimportant detail. His self-portraits summarize a perennial and constant human condition of anguish, desolation and bewilderment, a slow journey toward the final outcome; his face expresses pain, fatigue, dismay, the ache of living. “These self-portraits tell all the artist’s suffering; we can almost hear his mute cry in the silence of nature and in the deafness of the people around him. When all hope is lost, now made ashes, the face cannot but have this dark, muddy color, this sort of petrification of features that pain has brought with it and imprinted on it,” says Sandro Parmiggiani. The exhibition will pay special attention to Ligabue’s plastic production with a nucleus of more than 20 bronze sculptures, mainly of animals.

The exhibition also has the ambition to stand as a further chapter in bringing Ligabue’s work back to a proper critical and historical evaluation, and is meant to be an opportunity to reaffirm, beyond the misleading definitions of naïf or artist marked by madness, the appeal of this highly valued “tragic expressionist” who blends visionary exasperation and decorative taste. Accompanying the exhibition is a Skira catalog with texts by Sandro Parmiggiani, Alberto Manguel, and Luciano Manicardi (prior of the Community of Bose) and an extensive section, rich in images, dedicated to the reconstruction of his “myth,” starting with the 1950s magazines and Salvatore Nocita’s 1977 television script to the works dedicated to him: the theatrical trilogy Progetto Ligabue by Mario Perrotta and the film Volevo nascondermi (I wanted to hide) by Giorgio Diritti.

An ah hoc itinerary and a kit for the little ones

For the duration of the exhibition, a series of educational activities, meetings and free guided tours for children and adults are planned. The exhibition includes an itinerary created ad hoc for children, a free educational kit to be picked up at the ticket office specially designed for the visit of the youngest, offering immersive experiences dedicated to them.

The exhibition is produced and organized by ViDi in collaboration with the Municipality of Monza and Consorzio Villa Reale e Parco di Monza “This exhibition is an extraordinary cultural opportunity for Monza. But it is also an opportunity to exploit the attractive potential of Antonio Ligabue for the benefit of the city: to attract visitors, including from outside the city and outside the region, to return to show art and beauty in presence, to make people discover or rediscover the extraordinary beauty of our Villa Reale, and to give oxygen to the local economy and induced activities. For all these reasons, we have believed in and bet on this exhibition, which we are sure will allow visitors to appreciate the natural and instinctive force of Antonio Ligabue’s genius and to share an artistic journey out of the ordinary,” explains Culture Councillor Massimiliano Longo.

The exhibition will follow the following hours: Mondays and Tuesdays closed; Wednesdays and Thursdays 10 a.m.-1 p.m./ 2 p.m.-7 p.m.; Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays 10 a.m.-8 p.m.

For information: mostraligabuemonza@gmail.com; www.vidicultural.com

Statements

“We are offering visitors the works of an extraordinary and completely unique artist,” explains the mayor of Monza, Dario Allevi, president of the Villa Reale and Monza Park Consortium. “An exhibition that combines talent and beauty with the troubled history of Antonio Ligabue: the Orangery of the Villa, with its charm, is ready to open its doors once again to Art in all its forms.”

“This exhibition is an extraordinary cultural opportunity for Monza,” explains Councillor for Culture Massimiliano Longo, “But it is also an opportunity to exploit Antonio Ligabue’s attractive potential to the benefit of the city: to attract visitors, even from outside the city and outside the region, to return to show art and beauty in presence, to make people discover or rediscover the extraordinary beauty of our Villa Reale, and to give oxygen to the local economy and induced industries. For all these reasons, we have believed in and bet on this exhibition, which we are sure will allow visitors to appreciate the natural and instinctive force of Antonio Ligabue’s genius and to share an artistic journey out of the ordinary.”

Antonio Ligabue on display at the Royal Palace of Monza, with 90 works

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