Morandi and metaphysics: a dedicated focus at Casa Morandi

The Morandi Museum of the Bologna Civic Museums Sector presents at Casa Morandi the exhibition Morandi metaphysical. Three Drawings. A History, open to the public from February 1 to May 5, 2024, and curated by Lorenza Selleri. The exhibition is part of the 12th edition of ART CITY Bologna, the institutional program of exhibitions, events and special initiatives promoted by the Municipality of Bologna in collaboration with BolognaFiere on the occasion of Arte Fiera, dedicated to Giorgio Morandi on the 60th anniversary of his death.

In the house of Giorgio Morandi (Bologna, 1890 - 1964), the models that he used for the works of the metaphysical season, which took place between 1918 and 1919, are preserved. The exhibition focus was therefore created with the intention of documenting the discovery of the artistic current and its symbolic values within Morandi’s long creative life, putting on display the works, a documentary apparatus of letters, texts and photographs. Early in his career, Morandi kept up to date and assimilated through reproductions in books and periodicals the Cubist lesson of Cézanne, Derain, Picasso and Braque.

“I too,” the artist declared in 1928, “like many young people of good will, felt the need for a total renewal of the Italian artistic atmosphere. This initial adherence of mine went no further than a participation in the first exhibition of the Young Futurists at Sprovieri’s in Rome.”

During the First World War he produced a varied artistic production in which the beginning of an autonomous path was perceived, in which the overcoming of the Cubist lesson merged with the rediscovery of masters such as Giotto, Paolo Uccello and with an interest in the primitive Rousseau. Later through the literary magazine La Raccolta, founded and directed by young Bolognese intellectuals such as Giuseppe Raimondi and Riccardo Bacchelli, Morandi approached Metaphysics. La Raccolta, in fact, from March 15, 1918, to February 15, 1919, published writings by Ardengo Soffici, Carlo Carrà, Filippo De Pisis, Alberto Savinio, Vincenzo Cardarelli, and Giuseppe Ungaretti, and outside the text included black-and-white illustrations reproducing works by Giorgio de Chirico, Carlo Carrà, Ardengo Soffici, Mario Bacchelli, and Morandi himself. The artist thus shows the ability to attribute a universal value to everyday things, giving rise to what would be called by de Chirico himself the metaphysics of the most common objects. There are 21 works by Morandi in which a stylistic proximity to that of Metaphysics can be perceived, and they are mainly oil paintings. Although they are dated later than the period when Morandi approached correte, the three drawings owned by the Morandi Museum can be considered representative of that period. The documents, done in ink, depict two still lifes that recall the style of the paintings conserved at the Pinacoteca di Brera, as well as a vase of flowers that evokes the 1920 painting Fiori, known to be emblematic of the later phase of Valori Plastici. The documents come from the archives of the Roman magazine and were auctioned in Rome in April 1999, later purchased by the City of Bologna to enrich the collection of the Museo Morandi.

“I think,” writes Marilena Pasquali in the Finarte catalog, “that the young Morandi finding himself together with his friend Mario Broglio in a meeting, probably held in Bologna, wanted to tell him which paintings he wished to be published in issue IV of Valori Plastici, which appeared in 1921. I believe that these three drawings can be ascribed to 1919 - 1920 and that they combine the intrinsic documentary and historical value with a hint of poeticity and diversity.”

Regular opening hours: Saturday 2 p.m. - 5 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. / 2 p.m. - 5 p.m. Opening hours during ART CITY Bologna (February 1 - 4, 2024): Thursday, February 1 | Friday, February 2 | Sunday, February 4 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. | Saturday, February 3 10 a.m. - 10 p.m. Admission: Free.

Image: Giorgio Morandi, Still Life (s.d. [1919-20]; ink on paper; Bologna, Museo Morandi)

Morandi and metaphysics: a dedicated focus at Casa Morandi

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