Genoa, five exhibitions linked by Blue. From jeans to Yves Klein

The Villa Croce Museum of Contemporary Art in Genoa is preparing to offer an autumn in blue: until January 17, 2021, it will host the exhibition project Autunno BLU a Villa Croce. From the Blue of Genoa by ArteJeans to the Infinite of Yves Klein, produced by the City of Genoa and curated by Anna Orlando and Francesca Serrati.

Five contemporary art exhibitions linked by the theme of Blue, set up simultaneously in the nineteenth-century rooms of the main floor of Villa Croce, and accompanied by related dedicated meetings.

Below are the five exhibition events of the multifaceted exhibition dedicated to Blue.

ArteJeans: history of a myth in the plots of contemporary art.
In collaboration with the ARTEJEANS Association, London

The twenty-four works donated to the Genoa Civic Collections by artists from all over Italy are presented in a world premiere: Alberto Biasi, Henrick Blomqvist, Enzo Cacciola, Pierluigi Calignano, Roberto CODA Zabetta, Maurizio Donzelli, Ettore Favini, Goldschmied & Chiari, Riccardo Guarneri, Emilio Isgrò, Ugo La Pietra, Marco Lodola and Giovanna Fra, Carolina Mazzolari, Ugo Nespolo, Giovanni Ozzoli, Gioni David Parra, Francesca Pasquali, Pino Pinnelli, Fabrizio Plessi, Gianni Politi, Laura Renna, Marta Spagnoli, Serena Vestrucci, Gianfranco Zappettini.
In five spaces of Villa Croce, the works of these internationally renowned artists will be on public display for the first time. From an idea of Ursula Casamonti and Francesca Centurione Scotto, Artejeans was born as an association to support, with the creation of an ’unusual and rare collection of works in jeans, the long-awaited event of GenovaJeans, conceived by Manuela Arata, which will celebrate the cloth of Genoa, jeans in English, as the material with which the Superb has dressed since the Middle Ages and identifying the city itself.
The artists grappled with a 200 x 180 cm denim canvas, offered by event partner Candiani, freely interpreting and transforming it into works of art that descend into the city’s most intimate “blue” essence.

Klein vs. Strozzi. Under the sign of blue
In collaboration with the Musei di Strada Nuova, MART of Rovereto and the Matteo Lampertico Arte Antica e Moderna galleries of Milan and UniMediaModern of Genoa

An imaginary challenge between two palettes, that of the greatest painter of seventeenth-century Liguria, the Capuchin painter Bernardo Strozzi with one of the most interesting protagonists of the twentieth century, the Frenchman Yves Klein, universally known for his obsession with blue, which translates into evocative beauty, also conceptual.Thanks to the generous collaboration of some private collectors and gallery owners, some examples of the Frenchman’s pictorial and sculptural works, including a Nike, will be exhibited in Genoa.
Protagonist will be a magnetic painting by Bernardo Strozzi, the Saint Francis of the Strada Nuova Museums, whose silhouette stands out against a blue background.

Rocco Borella. Blue tribute for the centenary
In collaboration with the Rocco Borella and Luciano Caprile Cultural Association.

The Genoese master (1920-1994) to whom Villa Croce dedicated an anthological exhibition in 1992, two years before his death, known for his “chromemes,” is remembered on the centenary of his birth with works from Villa Croce’s permanent collection and loans from private collections. The selection, curated by critic Luciano Caprile, a profound connoisseur of the artist, will focus on highlighting his use of the color blue.

Ben Patterson. The Restored Constellation
In collaboration with La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Center.

Created by the artist at the Villa Croce Museum for the 2002 exhibition The Fluxus Constellationnel, which celebrated 40 years of the movement, and donated to the museum, Ben Patterson’s work Constellation of the first magnitude recreates an ironic starry sky, whose bright stars, lit intermittently, are the faces of Fluxus artists matched to their zodiac signs.
The exhibition is an opportunity to present the work to the public for the first time after restoration conducted between 2017 and 2019 by Venaria Reale Restoration Center student Alessandra Scarano, under the supervision of Alessandra Bassi.

Fluvio Magurno. Animulae, 2020
In collaboration with Stefania Ghiglione’s Capoverso Gallery, Genoa, Italy.

The artist-photographer, born in Sicily, raised in Naples and Genoese by adoption, presents on this occasion his unpublished work Animulae: a site-specific work that includes a series of ten UV prints on board 2 cm thick and with a reduced format (30 x 20 cm). As a kind of icons, and an avowed homage to Yves Klein, the works are inspired by Anton Maria Maragliano’s eighteenth-century Crucifixes that turn, through the effect of chromatic processing of multiple exposures, toward a vibrant symphony of blue.

Pictured: Yves Klein, Nike (private collection).

Genoa, five exhibitions linked by Blue. From jeans to Yves Klein

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