The Mart dedicates a focus exhibition to Achille Funi, 50 years after his death

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death, the Mart in Rovereto is dedicating a focus exhibition from October 30, 2022 to February 5, 2023 to the Ferrara painter Achille Funi (Ferrara, 1890 - Appiano Gentile, 1972).

Focus | Achille Funi (1890-1972). Il volto, il mito is the brainchild of Vittorio Sgarbi and is curated by Nicoletta Colombo, head of the Funi archive in Milan, and Daniela Ferrari, curator at the Mart, with the collaboration of Serena Redaelli.

Achille Funi is one of the most beloved authors among those in the Trentino museum’s holdings. He was one of the protagonists of Novecento italiano, the artistic current conceived by scholar and patron Margherita Sarfatti, whose collection the Mart has acquired part of, numerous archival and book funds and to whom it has dedicated a major exhibition in 2018. By Funi, the Mart preserves eight works, including Genealogy or My Family made between 1918 and 1919 and arrived in Rovereto only a few months ago. Moreover, Funi’s entire oeuvre and the events surrounding it are strongly documented in the holdings of the Archivio del ’900, the Mart’s research center.

It is from the interweaving of relationships, alliances, and stories about art history that the focus that the Mart dedicates to Funi on the 50th anniversary of his death is born.

As the title suggests, the exhibition presents his work following two themes: that of the portrait and that of myth. Through these two strands of research, nearly fifty works describe the entire artistic career of Achille Funi. If in the ten self-portraits it is interesting to note the stylistic and self-perceptive changes, as well as those brought about by the passage of time, in the portraits to friends it is possible to recognize artists and intellectuals such as Eugenio Montale, Piero Marussig and the patron and early supporter Margherita Sarfatti. Special mention should be made of the paintings dedicated to the closest affections, such as his mother and especially his sister Margherita to whom Funi was always very close.

The dimension of myth pervades every work. In the wake of the expressions that characterized the first half of the twentieth century, between Metaphysics, Magic Realism and Return to Order, the rediscovery of the classical is mixed with explicit references to the Renaissance tradition. All pervaded by that sense of suspension that characterized Italian art in the interwar period.

For info: www.mart.tn.it

Hours: Tuesday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Closed Mondays.

Tickets: Full 11 euros, reduced 7 euros. Free under 14 and people with disabilities.

Image: Achille Funi, Ragazzo con le mele (Boy with Apples), detail (1921; Mart, VAF-Stiftung Collection)

The Mart dedicates a focus exhibition to Achille Funi, 50 years after his death

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