At the Vittoriale, Mastroianni's sculptures in dialogue with the poems of D'Annunzio and Quasimodo

From March 12 to September 11, 2022, the Vittoriale Park in Gardone Riviera will host the exhibition Il bronzo e la parola. Mastroianni, D’Annunzio and Quasimodo, curated by Marco Di Capua and Paola Molinengo Costa, promoted by the Vittoriale degli Italiani together with the Centro Studi dell’Opera di Umberto Mastroianni and Cigno GG Edizioni in Rome, in collaboration with Villaggio Globale International.

The exhibition aims to be an unprecedented dialogue between sculpture and word, between matter and poetry, around three significant figures of 20th century Italian culture: Umberto Mastroianni, Gabriele D’Annunzio and Salvatore Quasimodo.

Eleven large bronze sculptures by Mastroianni will be exhibited on this occasion, starting with two busts from 1939 still linked to classical forms and Man from 1942 that opens the abstract language, passing through Furia selvaggia from 1975, to masterpieces from the 1980s such as Macchina sacrale from 1988-89, the last of his monumental works.

In D’Annunzio’seclecticism of collecting, sculpture occupies a privileged role, and his poetry has reflections and influences on the figurative production of the time; we also know that classicism and modernity intertwine in the work of Mastroianni, who passionately lives the Futurist lesson, particularly that of Umberto Boccioni. For this reason, alongside Mastroianni’s sculptures, it was chosen to exhibit one of the Futurist artist’s iconic works: Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, a bronze casting taken from the cast of an important specimen of the sculpture, itself cast using Boccioni’s 1913 plaster.

The works on display are accompanied by D’Annunzio’s poems, such as La donna del Mare, Notturnino, Alba d’estate, as well as verses by Salvatore Quasimodo: the affinities of the themes around man, the pain of war, and the relationship with modern industrialization and the machines of the future are evident. In 1958 Mastroianni won the Grand International Sculpture Prize at the 19th Venice Art Biennale. The following year Quasimodo received the Nobel Prize “for his lyrical poetry, which with ardent classicism expresses the tragic experiences of life in our times.”

Also featured in the exhibition is the original sketch of Prima Quad riga(Quadriga with Long Tail) from 1941 by Francesco Messina, a friend of Quasimodo’s since his first frequentation of Italian artistic and intellectual circles in the 1920s. It is a sketch of the monumental sculptural group that the Catania artist had designed for the elevation of the Palazzo dei Congressi at EUR, which was never realized because of the war.

For info: https://www.vittoriale.it

Pictured: Umberto Mastroianni, Croto, detail (1984-85; colored steel, 176 x 110 x 60 cm)

At the Vittoriale, Mastroianni's sculptures in dialogue with the poems of D'Annunzio and Quasimodo

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