BPER Bank Gallery dedicates an exhibition to Ligabue. From works from his collection to major loans

From Sept. 16, 2022 to Feb. 5, 2023, the BPER Banca Gallery in Modena will offer a dossier exhibition dedicated to Antonio Ligabue, on the occasion of festivalfilosofia (scheduled for Sept. 16-18, 2022), of which BPER Banca is the main sponsor.

Curated by Sandro Parmiggiani, the exhibition entitled Antonio Ligabue. The Shadowless Hour. Recognition as an Artist and as a Person will kick off with four paintings that are part of BPER Banca’s art collection, acquired following the incorporation of UBI Banca’s business unit. Alongside the paintings owned by the banking institution, a selection of works from private collections will be exhibited in order to represent the main themes to which the well-known artist from Gualtieri devoted himself: from wild animal fights to self-portraits and scenes of work in the fields.

The exhibition will deal with the theme of the 22nd edition of festivalfilosofia, justice, in reference to the artist’s biographical story, from his exile from Switzerland to his forced hospitalizations in a psychiatric hospital.

“Justice is the key word of this edition of festivalfilosophy and allows us to bring attention, through art, to important issues such as diversity and inclusion,” said Sabrina Bianchi, head of Brand and Marketing Communication and Cultural Heritage at BPER Bank. “The works in BPER Banca’s corporate collection are also bearers of stories, histories and values that underpin the activities related to our Corporate Social Responsibility. The canvases by Antonio Ligabue owned by BPER Banca will allow us to open, for the first time, the doors of The Gallery of Modena to contemporary art and to accompany the public on an exhibition tour among the works and among insights on a highly topical issue such as justice.”

About twenty paintings will be on display, made from 1929 until the last period of the artist’s activity, who from November 1962 could no longer paint for health reasons.

Among the works from BPER Bank’s art collection are Lioness with zebra (1959-60) and Self-portrait with easel (1954-55). If the first canvas testifies to Ligabue’s attention to wild animals, whose anatomies are defined from images retrieved from zoology books and popular prints, the second depicts Ligabue himself in the act of painting a rooster in an open country setting, where nature, like the painter, is portrayed in all its primordial vitality. Also on display is Plowing with Oxen (1953-54), which depicts a farmer with his back turned, laboriously pushing a plow pulled by two white oxen over barren ground, while a verdant landscape and a city can be seen in the distance. Finally, Return from the Fields with Castle (1955-57) conceals an autobiographical detail: in the background, beyond the farmer, horses and dog returning to the village, is painted a lake at the center of which towers a castle with spires and weathervanes in the wind, perhaps a reminder of his native Switzerland.

The exhibition is accompanied by some documentary evidence from the Archives of the former San Lazzaro Psychiatric Hospital in Reggio Emilia, collected and selected thanks to the person in charge, Chiara Bombardieri, who reconstructs Ligabue’s personal history and his tormented psychiatric affair.

Promoted by BPER Banca’s La Galleria, the exhibition will be open to the public free of charge every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. On the occasion of festivalfilosophy, the art gallery will be open Friday, Sept. 16 and Saturday, Sept. 17 from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 18 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

For info: www.lagalleriabper.it.

Image: Antonio Ligabue, Self-portrait with easel (1954-55; oil on faesite panel, 199 x 130 cm; Modena, BPER Banca Collection)

BPER Bank Gallery dedicates an exhibition to Ligabue. From works from his collection to major loans

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