Reggio Emilia, at the de' Bonis Gallery an exhibition on Antonio Ligabue and his land

The de’ Bonis Gallery in Reggio Emilia organizes, after a long and selective research work, presents, from March 18 to April 12, 2023, its first monographic exhibition dedicated to Antonio Ligabue (Zurich, 1899 - Gualtieri, 1965). The exhibition, entitled Antonio Ligabue. Land: place of origin, field of work, setting of an enterprise , displays fifteen oil paintings for a new exhibition project that celebrates the great artist and his land, investigating his visceral connection with nature.

Unlike other painters, Ligabue does not seem to observe nature in order to report it in a descriptive way, but seems to declare pictorially his own belonging to it, recounting it from within. The works on display, in fact, are genre scenes that narrate work in the fields, animated by farmers, solid and massive, like the draft horses at their side, tired, returning from a day spent working the land, but serene.

The de’ Bonis Gallery’s choice ranges between the great painter’s homeland, Switzerland, recognizable in quaint villages and castles that seem to come out of a fairy tale, and the land that welcomed him, the Po Valley, with its fields and typical vegetation. The wonder does not stop there: Ligabue’s free and inquisitive gaze continues to fly beyond and rests, in the same way, on the simplicity of a snail to which he dedicates a small canvas, but also on the exoticism of a ferocious tiger and a jackal, to end up attracted by the on his own face, which he portrays in a highly synthetic, but brilliant, self-portrait.

Finally, a core of the exhibition is devoted to paintings depicting dogs, a unique collection. This section includes works from the first, second and third periods, spanning the artist’s entire output. Lively hunting dogs, a small dog lost in the fields, another beside a racehorse, and finally a small, tired black dog returning from work with his master emerge from the paintings. Each painting is a perfect narrative, a masterfully executed setting in which all the details, even the most minute, such as the little stork lying on a chimney, play a sublime part.

Ligabue enchants himself in front of insects, blades of grass and animals, but also in front of a human face, with the same admiring awe as someone who is completely immersed in nature and has not received a traditional education. “Few other artists,” says gallery owner Stanislao de’ Bonis, “manage to make us see the world with these eyes, and this is priceless.”

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog with an introduction by Sergio Negri. The exhibition, with free admission, can be visited until April 12, 2023, Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., closed Easter and Easter Monday. For information: T. +39 0522 580605, M. +39 338 3731881, info@galleriadebonis.com, www.galleriadebonis.com

Antonio Ligabue,

Reggio Emilia, at the de' Bonis Gallery an exhibition on Antonio Ligabue and his land

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