Franco Cardinali protagonist of the anthological exhibition Inquietudine necessaria in Lecco

Throughout the summer in Lecco you can admire the important anthological exhibition Franco Cardinali. Inquietudine necessaria, curated by Raffaella Resch, at the Palazzo delle Paure from June 29 to September 1, 2019.

Following the success of the Milan exhibition last January, the in-depth study of the figure of Franco Cardinali (Genoa, 1926 - Vence, 1985), a Ligurian artist of considerable depth, continues with an exhibition dedicated to him that traces his fervid activity through a selection of more than forty works, ranging from works from the mid-1950s to the large enigmatic canvases of his last years, preceding his death in 1985.

The exhibition route follows a chronological and thematic development aimed at fully illustrating the artist’s personality. As the curator points out, the works at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, such as the oil on canvas Saint Hilaire of 1955, which initially reveal Picasso and Modiglian influences, “are conditioned by the search for an original figuration, with results that bring out semblances of bas-relief, of early Christian statuary, immediately abandoned in favor of a more attentive study of the material. Experimentation still seems to hybridize the canvas with the three-dimensionality of sculpture, but it irreversibly shifts the focus of representation: the work is no longer an object placed to simulate another, but rather becomes the protagonist.”

It is there that the surfaces become thick, composite and lived-in, treated with deep interventions, lacerations or craters, imagining that on the “body” of the painting the elements can be unleashed: fire can incinerate as in Fleur incinérée of 1968, water can wash away as in Linge sale pour laver en familie of 1982, air can raise clouds of iridescent dust as in Site cosmique aux reflets d’aurore of 1983. “His canvases,” Resch continues, “dig beyond the dimension of the visible, with deep wounds that seem to pierce the surface, like Fontana’s cuts; the dense material with which he began to work from the late 1960s, which then immediately became sand treated with casein and pigments, goes from an inert to an active, experimental state, with combustions (which, unlike Burri, are ”reproduced“ with paint), desiccations, epidermis moults, imprints. The work becomes a living organism and becomes a participant in the mystery of an increasingly complex cosmos.”

Corresponding to this material process is a simplification of images that tends strongly toward abstractionism and recalls a private symbolism of the artist such as circles, sine waves, crosses; significant in this regard are Fossile lunaire of 1967, Trames liguriennes of 1968 and Segnale propiziatorio of 1977, as well as works inspired by the natural world, composed of environments and animals that go on to create curious and disturbing bestiaries, as if they were fossils imprinted on the canvas, and reveal a personal and artistic dissatisfaction that is evident in the deep hatching, restless landscapes and rippling surfaces. The size of the canvases also increases, as does their weight: they are like “new dolmens” of a temple that Cardinali is dedicating to his restless art, which seems to demand redemption or sacrifice.

Organized by the Municipality of Lecco - Sistema Museale Urbano Lecchese, the Como-Lecco Chamber of Commerce and theFranco Cardinali Cultural Association, the exhibition highlights the poetics of an artist whose works belong to important public institutions and private collections in Italy, Europe and the United States. The exhibition enjoys the patronage of the Municipality of Chiusi della Verna and the UNESCO Club of Aquileia.

Enriching the exhibition is a comprehensive catalog in Italian and English editions published by Scalpendi Editore, with all the works on display as well as a rich selection of the artist’s production, with an introduction and critical text by Raffaella Resch and a testimony by his friend Benito Boschetto.

Franco Cardinali (1926-1985) was born in Liguria, in Rapallo, in 1926 and moved to Paris in 1950, training in the Parisian environment of Montparnasse within theÉcole de Paris, the large group of artists and intellectuals who worked in Paris between the two wars. In ’53 he made his debut in Milan with a one-man show at the Galleria San Babila, and two years later he exhibited with the artists of the Cité Vercingétorix, under the patronage of Jean Cocteau, with whom he established a strong friendship and had frequent correspondence; he then met Jacques Prévert, who dedicated a poem to one of his paintings. Both Cocteau and Prévert promoted him to artistic circles in Paris and the French Riviera. Cardinali then participated in the summers of 1955 and 1956 in the exuberant artistic activity of Vallauris and exhibited at the Charpentier Gallery in the École de Paris group, with works selected by Raymond Nacenta. He then met the great Pablo Picasso, by whom he was stimulated to work with ceramics. He divided his time between Vallauris and Paris until 1968, when a deep need for solitude led him to retreat to Tuscany to a mountain village, La Rocca della Verna, where he built his house and atelier and continued his research for twelve years. In November 1980, still torn by dissatisfaction, he left for a trip to the French Riviera to find his friend Jean Haechler, who would become his mentor and patron. He then settled in Saint Paul de Vence in 1982 and in December held a solo show in Nice, then in February 1983 in Geneva, in March in Paris and in April in Sion, Switzerland. His last exhibition sees him in June with a solo show in Saint Paul de Vence. He committed suicide on April 12, 1985, aged only 59. In 1989 theBrera Academy of Fine Arts dedicated a posthumous exhibition to him curated by Osvaldo Patani.

The Franco Cardinali Cultural Association, established in 2018, initiated the creation of an archive of the artist’s works, establishing itself as a point of reference for European and American public and private collections.

Opening June 28 at 6 p.m.

For all information you can call +39 0341 286729 or email segreteria.museo@comune.lecco.it.

Pictured: Franco Cardinali, Astre incinéré (1983; casein oil and sand on canvas, 80 x 100 cm). Ph credit: Luca Maccotta

Source: press release

Franco Cardinali protagonist of the anthological exhibition Inquietudine necessaria in Lecco

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