Venice, Ileana Ruggeri's watercolors on display at Ca' Pesaro

The recent donation of three watercolors by Ileana Ruggeri to the City of Venice for the collections of Ca’ Pesaro is the occasion for a small review of the artist’s recent production, articulated in two rooms on the second floor of the Museum, from February 11 to April 10.

In addition to the works donated by Ileana Ruggeri to the City of Venice for the collections of Ca’ Pesaro, the focus is on a tribute exhibition of works representative of the work of the Venetian artist, who has long been conducting pictorial research on the borders of abstraction on the light reflections of Venice and the water of its lagoon. The atmospheres of the lagoon’s reflections and the infinite shades of color that characterize Ruggeri’s artistic quality emerge through a refined selection of works on paper, where the artist’s inner, poetic and dreamlike gaze is expressed.

“The insertion of Ruggeri’s work, with an almost site-specific project, at the end of the itinerary of the permanent collection of Ca’ Pesaro does not seem out of place; on the contrary, the wide selection of watercolors and some significant pictorial works made by the artist almost seem to close the circle that opens at the beginning of the exhibition itinerary with the rooms dedicated to the great Capesarina season. Ruggeri’s works make it possible to suggest closing a circle and at the same time opening new suggestions about the elusive subject matter of the Venetian lagoon and the complex representation of the most iridescent city of modernity,” says Elisabetta Barisoni, curator of the exhibition and Head of Ca’ Pesaro.

The atmospheres of the lagoon’s reflections and the infinite shades of color have a long history of research that spans the avant-garde movements of the early 20th century and characterizes Ruggeri’s art, which becomes a modern interpreter of them. These are visions that emerge not only in the landscapes and waters described with skillfully dosed blues and greens, but also in the glimmers of red, orange, and gray that pierce the vibrant sky of the Venetian lagoon.

Reverberations of Venetian architecture emerge in the oil paintings, buildings that almost seem to emerge from the city’s magical atmospheres or seem to sink into them, in a continuous play between memory and the present, between real data and the visual path of the mind. The constructive and architectural capacity of Ruggeri’s suggestions is fully expressed in the construction in diptychs and triptychs and in the vibrant description of city landscapes, such as the Rialto market and San Giorgio, or of the vast lagoon of the Barene, dear to the tradition of twentieth-century Venice.

The exhibition, born from the desire to present a new donation to the public, thus becomes an opportunity to offer a renewed and passionate look at Venice, almost a love ode to the poetry of the city’s nature and architecture.

“The City of Venice’s patronage and collection enhancement activities for the International Gallery of Modern Art through bequests and donations has contributed over the years to a continuous enrichment of the collections and the creation of coherent nuclei in the Museum,” emphasizes Muve Foundation President Mariacristina Gribaudi. Who adds, "the focus dedicated to Ileana Ruggeri starts with the works donated by the artist, who is Mantuan by origin but Venetian by training and career. On display are the delicate watercolors that have recently entered the collections of the International Gallery of Modern Art together with an oil that has already arrived for the collections of Palazzo Fortuny, composing a tribute exhibition to her most recent production."

For all information, you can visit Ca’ Pesaro’s official website.

Pictured: Ileana Ruggeri, Barene

Venice, Ileana Ruggeri's watercolors on display at Ca' Pesaro

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