Leopoldo Metlicovitz, a pioneer of advertising on display at Trieste's Revoltella Museum

The Civic Museum Revoltella in Trieste is hosting, from December 16, 2018 to March 17, 2019, the exhibition Metlicovitz. The Art of Desire. Posters of a Pioneer of Advertising, entirely dedicated to the figure of Leopoldo Metlicovitz (Trieste, 1868 - Ponte Lambro, 1944), whose 150th birth anniversary falls this year. Metlicovitz is the author of dozens of memorable posters, dedicated to commercial and industrial products, as well as to major events such as the 1906 Milan International Exposition, famous operas(Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, Turandot) and films from the silent era (first and foremost Cabiria, the historic precursor of the colossal).

Along with artists such as Hohenstein, Laskoff, Terzi and the younger fellow citizen Marcello Dudovich, Metlicovitz (who was the latter’s “maestro”) worked for decades at the Officine Grafiche Ricordi in Milan, after a start as a landscape painter in his hometown and an apprenticeship as a lithographer (a profession he inherited from his father) in a graphic factory in Udine. It was precisely thanks to Giulio Ricordi’s intuition that Metlicovitz was able, from the last years of the nineteenth century, to unfold his full expressive potential, not only as a great expert in the art of chromolithography, but also as a draughtsman and inventor of those “figured notices” (so called then) that, affixed to walls and palisades, changed the face of cities with their lively chromatism, marking also in Italy the birth of that art of advertising tuned to what international “modernism” was proposing in the applied arts under the various names of Jugendstil, Modern Style, Art Nouveau, Liberty.

In the major monographic exhibition, curated by art historian and writer Roberto Curci and directed by Laura Carlini Fanfogna, director of the Museums and Libraries Service, and Marta Mazza, director of the National Museum Collezione Salce, the entire span of the artist’s production comes alive. The works on display, 73 posters (some “giant” in size), three paintings and a rich selection of “minor graphics” (postcards, magazine covers, sheet music, etc.), will be organized into eight exhibition sections, seven of which will be housed at the Civic Museum Revoltella and one, the section devoted to theatrical posters for operas and operettas, in the Attilio Selva Room on the first floor of Palazzo Gopcevich, home of the Civic Theatre Museum “Carlo Schmidl.” The works come mostly from the National Museum Salce Collection in Treviso (68 posters), as well as from civic collections (Civico Museo Revoltella and Civico Museo Teatrale “Carlo Schmidl”) and private collections.

“Metlicovitz’s poster production, as well as that of his friend Dudovich,” points out curator Roberto Curci, “was particularly intense in the years leading up to the Great War, with the creation of authentic masterpieces that have long remained in the visual memory of Italians and to this day are widely cited and reproduced in every study of the evolution of the advertising message in the twentieth century. To this excellent artist, characteristically shy and estranged from all worldliness, the trials (fascinating for verve and stylistic elegance) he devolved both to commercial realities such as the popular Neapolitan department stores of the Mele Brothers and to themusical and theatrical universe, spiritually congenial to him (an acquaintance of Verdi, he was especially a friend of Puccini), is dedicated to this exhibition, which aims to represent ’the whole Metlicovitz,’ an extraordinary poster artist, to be sure, but also an excellent painter and effective graphic designer and illustrator.”

This is the first major monographic retrospective on Metlicovitz. The exhibition, as anticipated, will remain on view at the Civico Museo Revoltella and Civico Museo Teatrale “Carlo Schmidl” from December 16, 2018 to March 17, 2019, and then move to the Museo Nazionale Collezione Salce in Treviso from April 6 to August 18, 2019. The exhibition is promoted and organized by the Municipality of Trieste - Department of Culture, Sports and Youth - School, Education, Culture and Sports Area - Museums and Libraries Service in collaboration with the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities - Polo Museale del Veneto - Salce Collection National Museum of Treviso and with the contribution of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region. The exhibition will be open during the opening hours of Museo Revoltella (daily, except Tuesdays, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.) and Museo Teatrale (daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.). For info visit the Revoltella Museum website.

Pictured: Leopoldo Metlicovitz, Sauzé Frères (1908-10; chromolithograph on paper, 110.1 x 79.6 cm; Treviso, Museo Nazionale Collezione Salce)

Leopoldo Metlicovitz, a pioneer of advertising on display at Trieste's Revoltella Museum

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