In love and great artists: graphic design duo Licalbe Steiner in a free exhibition in Ravenna

It is scheduled in Ravenna, from February 25 to April 2, 2018, the exhibition Licalbe Steiner. At the Origins of Italian Graphics, which takes place in the halls of the Mar - Museum of Art of the City of Ravenna. The exhibition aims to document the work of the duo Licalbe Steiner, formed by Lica Steiner, born Matilde Maria Covo (Milan, 1914 - 2008) and her husband Albe Steiner, born Alberto Massimo Alessandro Steiner (Milan, 1913 - 1974). Proponents of a clear graphic language, devoid of formalism, and often also politically engaged, Lica and Albe Steiner, who moreover also fought as partisans during the Resistance (Albe was political commissar of the Val d’Ossola brigade, Lica was a partisan relay girl), promoted an important renewal of Italian graphic design with an art devoted to simplicity, optimism, and confidence in the future. The two were so close, both in life and work, that they received the nickname “Licalbe.”

To their activity we owe, for example, the original Coop brand, elaborated in 1963, and again all the graphics of Feltrinelli in the 1960s and 1970s, and again the advertising campaigns for brands such as Pirelli and La Rinascente. The exhibition itinerary of the Ravenna show, which is curated by Anna Steiner, the couple’s daughter, offers the public a variety of materials: works of art, photographs, documents and testimonies, and videos that recount their life paths as well as their artistic journey from 1938, the year they bonded (they would open their first graphic design studio the following year), onward, until Albe’s death in 1974. They were also leading figures in the intellectual life of the 1960s and 1970s, and are also remembered for their friendship with Elio Vittorini and Italo Calvino. The latter wrote that “for Albe the pleasure of formal invention and the global sense of the transformation of society were never separate.”

The exhibition is open daily (except Monday, which is closed), from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.Admission is free. The exhibition is organized by the Municipality of Ravenna - Department of Culture and Mar - Art Museum of the City of Ravenna.

Pictured: the poster for the opening of the “free service cooperative warehouse” in Corso Garibaldi in Reggio Emilia, with the original Coop logo.

In love and great artists: graphic design duo Licalbe Steiner in a free exhibition in Ravenna

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