Senigallia celebrates Mario Giacomelli on the 20th anniversary of his death

From Feb. 20 to July 5, 2020, Senigallia City of Photography presents the exhibition Glimpses of the Twentieth Century: Giacomelli and His Time, marking the 20th anniversary of the death of Mario Giacomelli (Senigallia, 1925 - 2000). This will be divided into two sections: Palazzo del Duca will host twenty of Giacomelli’s photographs that will be compared with about ninety shots by great photographers of the mid-twentieth century, while Palazzetto Baviera will host Glimpses of the Twentieth Century in Senigallia. The Misa Association, For Artistic Photography. Works from 1954 to 1958. The former is curated by ONO contemporary art, the latter by the Giacomelli heirs.

Glances of the Twentieth Century, bringing together the great masters of twentieth-century photography, such as Robert Doisneau, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Brassaï, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Kikuji Kawada, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Herbert List, Nino Migliori, Paolo Monti, Leo Matiz, Ara Güler, and placing them in dialogue with the Senigallian photographer, is inspired by the major exhibition held at MoMa in New York in 1964 titled The Photographer’s Eye, considered the first true international recognition of the artist. The review is not intended to be an exhaustive presentation of the many photographers who actively participated in that era, but a selection of those who, ideally or actually, can be placed in comparison with Giacomelli’s activity. Among them, therefore, appears Nino Migliori, in the Misa Group in the early years of his career, who focused on neorealist storytelling but at the same time discovered photographic informality; Paolo Monti, the great photographer who in 1955 awarded Giacomelli as the New Man of Photography; Gianni Berengo Gardin, a friend of Giacomelli’s who was often compared for the lyricism of his images to Henri Cartier-Bresson, another great photographer pioneer of photojournalism and founder of the Magnum agency. And again, Robert Doisneau, considered the forerunner of contemporary street photography; Brassaï who depicted Paris and all its characters; Jacques Henri Lartigue who intertwined his work as a photographer and a painter; Herbert List with his fashion photos and male nudes, Ara Güler who portrayed the metamorphoses of Istanbul for sixty years; Japanese photographer Kikuji Kawada with his links between abstract image, reality and feelings; and Colombian Leo Matiz, a photographer and caricaturist famous for his shots devoted to Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

From a young age, Mario Giacomelli was moved by a strong spirit of experimentation and a continuous desire for research: he joined and participated in the birth of the Misa photography circle, which took place in 1954 in Senigallia.

The section set up in Palazzetto Baviera starts precisely from this, as it intends to tell the story of the Misa Group, exhibiting in particular the shots of Giuseppe Cavalli, former founder of the La Bussola group, Ferruccio Ferroni and Mario Giacomelli. An affair linked to the city of Senigallia and particular because they were each other’s teachers.

Hours: Until June 7, 2020, Wednesday to Friday from 3 to 8 p.m., Saturdays, Sundays holidays and pre-holidays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 to 8 p.m. From June 9 to July 5, 2020, daily from 5 to 11 p.m. Closed Mondays.

Image: Mario Giacomelli, Death will come and it will have your eyes (1964-68; gelatin silver print) Courtesy Collezione Civica Senigallia © Archivio Eredi Mario Giacomelli

Senigallia celebrates Mario Giacomelli on the 20th anniversary of his death

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