Rancate has an exhibition celebrating Luigi Rossi on the occasion of his centenary

On the centenary of Luigi Rossi (Cassarate, 1853 - Tesserete, 1923), the Pinacoteca Cantonale Giovanni Züst in Rancate is offering a retrospective where, alongside well-known masterpieces by the multifaceted Ticino artist from prestigious Swiss museums(MASI in Lugano, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva, Collections of the Confederation) and Italian museums(GAM - Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Milan, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin) works preserved in private collections are exhibited, some of which have recently re-emerged.

This is a valuable opportunity to deepen the historiographic and critical investigation that the Züst is conducting on an artist who can rightfully be defined as “European.” European not only because he lived between Italy, Switzerland and France, Paris above all, but because he elaborated, in a wholly original way, the new that ran through the Europe of art. He applied these achievements of his to painting and illustration, also making use of photography.

What made him popular throughout the continent were above all his illustrations of some of the major best sellers of the late 19th century, from the various editions of Tartarin by Alphonse Daudet - of whom a large portrait is exhibited for the first time - to Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, to Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti until the Pastorals by Longo Sofista, illustrated with his friend Luigi Conconi. Prévost’s Les Demi-Vierges, which came out in 1900, represented his last endeavor for major Parisian and international publishing.

A successful illustrator but also-and above all-a great painter, whose work is placed at the center of the Ticino exhibition. The works brought together at the Züst - paintings and watercolors - make it possible to follow the evolution of his painting from realism to symbolism to arrive at Art Nouveau, moments he interpreted in a sincere and original way. In a path that leads him from genre painting to portraits and landscapes.

The exhibition, curated by Matteo Bianchi, author of the catalog raisonné of Luigi Rossi’s work, head of the Casa Museo in Capriasca and great-grandson of the artist, concludes a cycle of exhibitions that Pinacoteca Züst director Mariangela Agliati Ruggia, in collaboration with Alessandra Brambilla, has reserved for Rossi’s work.

The catalog, published by Pagine d’Arte, alongside an original lexicon by Matteo Bianchi, features critical essays by Cristina Brazzola, on the presence of Luigi Rossi in the collections of the City of Lugano, Elisabetta Chiodini(The young Luigi Rossi: on the path of truth between genre and landscape), Franz Müller(The work of Luigi Rossi in the context of Swiss art) and Sergio Rebora ("Looking with the Eyes of the Mind. Luigi Rossi and Symbolism) and the reproduction of some eighty works to conclude with a rich documentary section. The apparatuses, updated for the occasion, are edited by Miriam Notari of the Luigi Rossi House Museum in Tesserete.

The exhibition and the book dedicated to the centenary of Luigi Rossi’s death enjoy the valuable support of Cornèr Bank of Lugano, which owns an important nucleus of the artist’s works and was behind the catalog raisonné published in 2000, and the Lucchini Foundation of Lugano.

Next to the main body of paintings, attention is paid to the activity related to book illustration successfully carried out by Luigi Rossi in Paris. This aspect makes it possible to read the artist’s work through the use of the different techniques of drawing, watercolor and photography. Also in the summary is the study of the social and educational commitment carried out by the democratic educator that was Luigi Rossi in the early 20th century: at theUmanitaria in Milan and the Drawing Schools in Canton Ticino.

For all information, you can visit the official website of the Giovanni Züst Cantonal Art Gallery.

Rancate has an exhibition celebrating Luigi Rossi on the occasion of his centenary

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