Two hundred original prints and artist's books by 80 national and international artists on display in Modena

From December 17, 2022 to March 19, 2023 in Modena, at the dual location of the San Paolo Complex and the Poletti Library, the exhibition La collezione rivelata. Papers and Artist’s Books from the Laboratory of Graphic Art in Modena, curated by Roberto Gatti and Francesca Mora. An itinerary, through the printed papers made by the Laboratorio, featuring some of the most significant works hidden in the archives.

The Modena Graphics Art Laboratory has produced in forty-three years almost two thousand original prints, involving artists of different generations, active from the mid-twentieth century to the present, from Enzo Trevisi to Zofia Zaccaria, from Roberto Barni to Zhang Hong Mei, giving life to a heterogeneous archive of original prints and artist’s books composed of works made by internationally renowned authors, alongside engraving art enthusiasts.

The exhibition features 194 works by 78 different artists, from Mimmo Paladino to Joe Tilson, Carla Accardi to Mimmo Germanà, Pablo Echaurren to Franco Guerzoni, Enrico Della Torre to Wainer Vaccari, Ferdinando Scianna and Sandro Martini, to name a few.

From the collection, a series of artist’s books, some of which are contained in the special fund of the Poletti Library, and loose-leaf works on paper of different sizes, from very small to large formats, will be on display. The extraordinariness of these works lies in the scrupulous approach to the chalcographic material by Roberto Gatti and Anna Maria Piccinini, who, in order to create the artists’ graphics, worked in accordance with the working methodologies born in the Renaissance period: etching, aquatint, black manner, ceramolle, carborundum, woodcuts and linocuts.

On display in the premises of the Complesso San Paolo are, among other works, more than forty artist’s books by authors from the Emilian area, such as Giuliano Della Casa, Carlo Cremaschi, Davide Benati, and Wainer Vaccari, alongside artists from the national and international spheres such as Mimmo Paladino, William Xerra, and Joe Tilson, authors who have worked with the workshop assiduously, leading to the establishment of true nuclei of archives (Paladino’s graphic works number more than four hundred). By the same authors, large-scale works obtained from 100x100 centimeter plates hang on the walls.

Part of the volumes exhibited at the São Paulo is in the Poletti Library’s Artist’s Book Fund, which now numbers nearly 1,500 copies. On the occasion of the exhibition, the fund is enriched with a new work, created by fifteen national and international artists. The volume, edited by Roberto Gatti, consists of fifteen papers measuring 160 x 57 centimeters, on which each artist intervened through the techniques of drawing, painting and collage. The library’s Reading Room houses these fifteen works created and donated by Assadour, Roberto Barni, Laura Castagno, Andrea Chiesi, Carlo Cremaschi, Giuliano Della Casa, Pablo Echaurren, Franco Guerzoni, Luca Leonelli, Nicoletta Moncalieri, Giulia Napoleone, Ugo Nespolo, Luca Maria Patella, Wainer Vaccari and William Xerra, which at the end of the exhibition will be combined into a single work, paying homage to the Library’s 150th anniversary.

On display in the same room, inside the reference tables, are twelve graphics belonging to the series I Cento amici del Laboratorio, which originated from the project of the same name begun in 2009 that annually invites an artist who has collaborated with the Laboratorio to donate a work for the “hundred” adherents.

On display at the entrance to the library is the Laboratorio’s Forty-Year Anniversary edition, which is also in the special fund of artist’s books. The work is presented in loose sheets: a total of twenty graphics created by as many authors. The edition consists of works by Assadour, Nanni Balestrini, Roberto Barni, Davide Benati, Andreina Bertelli, Carlo Cremaschi, Giuliano Della Casa, Enrico Della Torre, Pablo Echaurren, Franco Guerzoni, Hyun Joo Hong, Luca Leonelli, Sandro Martini, Giulia Napoleone, Mimmo Paladino, Luca Patella, Graziano Pompili, Ferdinando Scianna, Joe Tilson, and Wainer Vaccari.

The exhibition, with free admission, was organized by the Library and Historical Archives Service of the Municipality of Modena also thanks to a grant from the Emilia-Romagna Region.

Hours:

Poletti Library
Monday from 2:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Tuesday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Closed Sundays and holidays, Dec. 24 and 31.
Special openings: Dec. 17, 18 and 26, Jan. 6 and 31 from 3 to 7 p.m.

St. Paul’s Complex
Dec. 17 from 5 to 9 p.m.
Dec. 18 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Dec. 20 to Jan. 6 daily from 3 to 7 p.m. Closed Dec. 24, 31 and Jan. 2
Jan. 7 to March 19: Fridays from 3 to 7 p.m.; Saturdays, Sundays and Jan. 31 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 to 7 p.m.

Image: Corrado Bologna, Giuseppe Conte, Enzo Di Martino, Mimmo Paladino, Don Quixote (2005; artist’s book, aquatint, etching, collage, ceramolle, letterpress, 490 x 370 x 40 mm; Editalia - Gruppo Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato)

Two hundred original prints and artist's books by 80 national and international artists on display in Modena

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