Palazzo Ducale in Genoa dedicates an exhibition to Franco Maria Ricci publisher in collaboration with his Foundation

From April 20 to June 30, 2024, the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa is hosting the exhibition Franco Maria Ricci. Opera al Nero, curated by Pietro Mercogliano and produced in collaboration with the Franco Maria Ricci Foundation. The Genoese exhibition aims to be a tribute to the great publisher, graphic designer and collector, creator and designer of the largest existing labyrinth in the world, composed entirely of bamboo plants.

The last exhibition dedicated to the figure of Franco Maria Ricci as a publisher was held in Parma, at Palazzo Pigorini, between 2021 and 2022. The new retrospective at Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, which is part of the Genoa Capital of Books events, aims to delve into Ricci’s publishing output in particular. “I know that the title of the exhibition, The Work in Black, can lend itself to misunderstandings,” explained Laura Casalis, Franco Maria Ricci’s work and life companion as well as current editor of FMR magazine, in the magazine’s new spring issue. “If Ricci loved black, it was not for liturgical or political connotations or even for esoteric ones (the alchemical nigredo); black - sum and dense mixture of all colors - was for him the color of life. It was also that of elegance, and it is in the name of both that this spring Franco returns to Genoa to end the year of Genoa Book Capital on a high note.” Franco Maria Ricci has a deep connection with Genoa, the city of origin of his ancestors, who later moved to Parma after the Unification of Italy: the Genoa exhibition project is therefore also a return to his origins.

The exhibition itinerary develops in seven rooms structured like a dead end, so that the first and the last coincide, as in the most ancient labyrinths. It starts from the entrance hall, set up similarly to one of the historic bookstores that Ricci had scattered around the world: here will be placed works dedicated to Genoa and Liguria, a tribute to the city and to the publisher’s origins. The next rooms, on the other hand, will be dedicated to the main series published by Ricci, with the intention of reconstructing through the works on display the career of the great publisher: the precious volumes of his master printer Giambattista Bodoni and theEncyclopédie degl’Illuministi, the works of art that come from the Ricci collection (from Luca Cambiaso to Antonio Ligabue) and the history of the FMR magazine.

Visitors will also have the opportunity to admire the important graphic proofs created by Ricci in the 1960s and 1970s, including the logos for Poste Italiane, Cariparma, Alitalia, and Smeg, then the covers of famous series such as I segni dell’uomo, bound in silk with gold embossing, La Biblioteca di Babele, with portraits of writers drawn by the pencil of Tullio Pericoli, and La biblioteca blu, with its characteristic sugar-paper blue color. An entire room will then be devoted to FMR magazine, with its iconic covers and the “invention of black” that envelops the images, creating unpredictable contrasts.

The layout of the exhibition, curated by Maddalena Casalis, designed to create a strong scenic impact, will be enriched by videos and unpublished images that recount the encounters, turning points and crucial moments in the publisher’s life as well as his stylistic trait.

For info: https://palazzoducale.genova.it/

Hours: Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Closed Mondays.

Tickets: 10 euros.

Palazzo Ducale in Genoa dedicates an exhibition to Franco Maria Ricci publisher in collaboration with his Foundation

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