Paul VI loved contemporary art: an exhibition in Milan recounts the relationship between the pontiff and art

From February 15 to April 14, 2019, the Gallery of Contemporary Sacred Art (GASC) in Milan is hosting the exhibition "Let’s Be Friends Again. Paul VI and Artists, which documents the relationship between Pope Paul VI and the artists of his time. The exhibition presents 50 works, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, sketches and graphics, rarely or never exhibited to the public, by authors such as Aldo Carpi, Francesco Messina, Trento Longaretti, Silvio Consadori, Floriano Bodini, Luigi Filocamo, Lello Scorzelli, Virginio Ciminaghi, Angelo Biancini, Eros Pellini, and Ettore Calvelli, and testifies to the strong bond established between thethen archbishop of Milan and the Galleria d’Arte Sacra dei Contemporanei, founded in 1955.

The title of the initiative, curated by Luigi Codemo and Alice Tonetti, takes its cue from the question (“Shall we become friends again?”) that Paul VI addressed to the artists invited for the audience dedicated to them in May 1964 in the Sistine Chapel. It was an offer that tended to rebuild the dialogue between artists and ecclesial patronage that had weakened considerably for at least two centuries: on the one hand, the Church had limited itself to asking for a tired imitation of models, canons and stylistic features drawn from the old masters; on the other hand, artists had gone to seek inspiration elsewhere, far removed from the themes of Christian proclamation. The turning point impressed by Paul VI achieved the result of producing a jolt in artistic research in the sphere of the sacred. It was precisely at the Galleria d’Arte Sacra dei Contemporanei (founded in 1955, during his first year in office as Archbishop of Milan) that Giovanni Battista Montini had the opportunity, thanks in part to the charismatic figure of its first director, Dandolo Bellini, to come into contact and establish a relationship of friendship and collaboration with a group of authors attentive to combining the themes of the sacred with the artistic languages of the 20th century. These include Angelo Biancini, Floriano Bodini, Aldo Carpi, Virginio Ciminaghi, Silvio Consadori, Luigi Filocamo, Kengiro Azuma, Trento Longaretti, Enrico Manfrini, Francesco Messina, Luciano Minguzzi, Eros Pellini, Mario Rudelli, Aligi Sassu, Lello Scorzelli, and Gianluigi Uboldi.

The exhibition includes works by these authors such as Floriano Bodini’s bronze version of Portrait of a Pope and Lello Scorzelli’s astylar cross, as well as a series of documents and period photographs that testify to GASC’s relationship with the Pope. The review continues by recounting, through two concrete examples such as the New Churches Plan in Milan and Paul VI’s Private Chapel in the Vatican, how GASC, from the 1950s to 1978, continued to accompany Montini, first as archbishop and then also as pontiff, in promoting works of sacred art. In the former case, Montini promoted the plan that led to the design and construction of more than 100 churches to cope with Milan’s post-World War II expansion. So strong, in fact, was his pastoral concern for the desolate and anonymous suburbs that it led him to ask architects and artists that churches become like “flowers of spirituality in the desert.” In the exhibition, plaster casts of works made for these churches are offered as well as a slide show of photos illustrating churches today.

In the second case, preparatory drawings, sketches, plaster casts, bronzes, of Paul VI’s private chapel, made in the early years of his pontificate and curated for the artistic part by Dandolo Bellini, are exhibited, with interventions by authors, all linked to GASC, such as Enrico Manfrini, Lello Scorzelli, Luigi Filocamo, Silvio Consadori, Trento Longaretti, and Mario Rudelli. For the occasion, the Chapel of St. Theresa in Villa Clerici created by the same artists in the 1950s will be opened, which bears remarkable similarities to the one in the Vatican, which cannot be visited by the public because it is located inside the Apostolic Palace.

An important section will be devoted to the Galleria d’Arte Sacra dei Contemporanei, which during the period of Paul VI’s magisterium became a true cenacle where artists could unleash their creativity and promote research. It was precisely at Villa Clerici that meetings were held periodically, coordinated by Dandolo Bellini and Monsignor Pasquale Macchi, Paul VI’s private secretary, during which the masters discussed art and produced projects, sketches, drawings, and preparatory sketches (some of which are on display in the exhibition) that were later vetted by the pontiff himself. The GASC also played a large part in the formation of the Vatican Museums ’ Collection of Modern Religious Art (now called the Collection of Contemporary Art), inaugurated in 1973, where many of the authors associated with the Gallery converged. For this appointment, variations or multiples of bronze works as well as preparatory drawings and plaster casts also present at the Vatican Museums will be presented.

The exhibition ideally closes with the section that confirms the strong bond that had been established between Pope Paul VI and the GASC, through important loans such as a preparatory drawing by Pericle Fazzini, coming from the Vatican Museums, for the monumental work Resurrection now located in the Audience Hall in the Vatican and an etching by Marc Chagall and a lithograph by Henri Matisse that come from the Paul VI Collection - Contemporary Art in Concesio, the birthplace of Giovanni Battista Montini.

The exhibition is organized by GASC | Gallery of Contemporary Sacred Art Villa Clerici, a museum collection of the House of Social Redemption in Milan, under the patronage of the Archdiocese of Milan and theAMEI-Italian Ecclesiastical Museums Association, presents 50 works, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, sketches, graphics, rarely or never exhibited to the public, by authors such as Aldo Carpi, Francesco Messina, Trento Longaretti, Silvio Consadori, Floriano Bodini, Luigi Filocamo, Lello Scorzelli, Virginio Ciminaghi, Angelo Biancini, Eros Pellini, Ettore Calvelli and others, to which are added important loans from the Collection ofContemporary Art of the Vatican Museums and from the Paul VI Collection - Contemporary Art of Concesio (BS).

Hours: Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., Fridays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Single ticket museum and exhibition: full 7 euros, reduced 5 euros, schools and parishes 3 euros. For info visit www.villaclerici.it.

In Photo: Floriano Bodini, Last Supper (c. 1955; oil on panel, 21x28; Milan, GASC)

Paul VI loved contemporary art: an exhibition in Milan recounts the relationship between the pontiff and art

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