Geometric abstraction in Italy between 1930 and 1965: an exhibition at MA*GA Gallarate

From September 22 to December 29, 2019, MA*GA Gallarate is hosting the exhibition A Distant Utopia. Geometric Abstraction in Italy (1930-1965). The exhibition, curated by Alessandro Castiglioni, showcases works from the museum’s collection and institutions such as the Angelo Bozzola Foundation in Novara, the JSA Manifattura in Busto Arsizio, Moshe Tabibnia Galleria and the Textile Art Research Center in Milan, with the aim of investigating the period of the development and affirmation of Geometric Abstraction in Italy, between the 1930s and the 1960s.

The aim of the exhibition is to highlight the multidisciplinary, utopian nature, capable of transcending the boundaries of the visual arts of the concretist project, and enter into dialogue with literature, architecture and design. The path begins with an analysis of the abstractionist research developed between the two wars, with particular attention to the Como and Milan area, with the works of two great artists such as Mario Radice (Como, 1898 - Milan, 1987) and Atanasio Soldati (Parma, 1896 - 1953), but also photographic interventions documenting particularly significant architecture such as theAsilo Sant’Elia by Giuseppe Terragni (Meda, 1904 - Como, 1943) in Como.

The second section focuses on the birth of MAC(Movimento Arte Concreta) in 1948 by Gillo Dorfles, Bruno Munari, Atanasio Soldati and Gianni Monnet. The body of work related to MAC outlines a detailed panorama of great critical and documentary value of what was a historical moment of extraordinary importance for the birth of the abstract concrete pictorial language in Italy and its connections with design, architecture and the aesthetic re-foundation of taste. These historical works also dialogue with the unpublished project by Valentina Casalini, who over the past year has been working on the photographic documentation of QT8, starting with a residency project promoted by the Biennale of Young Mediterranean Artists and the City of Milan.

The third part of the exhibition aims to document the developments of MAC following its transformation between 1952 and 1953 and the development of abstractionism in Italy until the movement’s final dissolution in 1958. In this context, the exhibition aims to investigate the relations with industrial design that was emerging in that period, as well as with furniture and object production starting from hybrid authors such as Bruno Munari and Angelo Bozzola to designers such as Magistretti, Sambonet, Sottsass, and Campi.

The exhibition ends with an in-depth look at textile production, which considers some interventions by Italian abstractionists who collaborated with industries in Lombardy in the production of precious textile materials used mainly in furniture (this is the case of Bruno Munari with Manifattura JSA in Busto Arsizio and Luigi Veronesi with Elio Palmisano’s Atelier d’Arte Tessile).

The exhibition can be visited during MA*GA’s opening hours: Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 to 6:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Closed Mondays. Tickets: full 7 euros, reduced 5 euros (for students under 26, over 65, FAI - Fondo Ambiente Italiano, Touring Club Italiano members, Gite in Lombardia members, Castaldi Lighting SpA employees, Lamberti S.p.a. employees). Free for children under 14, disabled persons who need a chaperone, chaperone of the disabled person, MiBAC employees, chaperones and tour guides Lombardy Region, 1 teacher for every 10 students, ICOM members, AMACI members, Friends of MA*GA, Mart membership, GAMeC Club members, accredited journalists, journalists with valid badges, Abbonamento Musei Lombardia Milano members.

Pictured: Bruno Munari, Progetto per negativo positivo 1950 (1950; drawing and tempera on paper, 35 x 50 cm)

Geometric abstraction in Italy between 1930 and 1965: an exhibition at MA*GA Gallarate

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