Important discovery in Savona: six carpets by Arturo Martini unearthed. Displayed in exhibition

Important discovery in Savona, where six unpublished textile works by Arturo Martini (Treviso, 1889 - Milan, 1947) have been found, which until now were known only as drawings mentioned in the critical literature: in fact, their actual execution was ignored. They are Ophelia, Il Veglione and Il Circo/I saltimbanchi (three subjects, each developed in two different variants, thus making a total of six works) are carpets designed in the late 1920s by Martini and made by MITA - Manifattura italiana tappeti artistici of Genoa Nervi for the newly established furniture company DIANA - Decorazioni Industrie Artistiche Nuovi Arredamenti of architect Mario Labò.

This find, described as “unexpected” and “exceptional” by experts at the Savona Museum of Ceramics, will be displayed at the Savona museum as part of the exhibition Arturo Martini. The Weave of Dreams. Fabrics, Paintings, Ceramics, scheduled to run from March 22 to July 15, 2024, with in-depth exploration also in the spaces of the city’s Pinacoteca Civica. The project is conceived and promoted by the Lino Berzoini Association, Center for the Study and Development of Art, and Fondazione Museo della Ceramica di Savona, curated by Carla Bracco, with the collaboration of Magda Tassinari and Donatella Ventura, the scientific contribution of Wolfsoniana - Palazzo Ducale Fondazione per la Cultura of Genoa and Museo Luigi Bailo of Treviso, with the support of Fondazione A. De Mari and the Municipality of Savona.

Manifattura MITA, Genova

The exhibition starts with the exceptional discovery and documents Martini’s relationship with textile art, cultivated between Albisola, Genoa and Vado Ligure, where the Treviso artist lived between 1920 and 1932, creating many of his best-known masterpieces. Thanks to the collaboration with the Wolfsoniana - Palazzo Ducale Fondazione per la Cultura in Genoa, the Bailo Museum in Treviso and the Museo del Paesaggio in Verbania, the three executive sketches of the carpets on display and a fourth subject - Bathers - currently still without a textile counterpart will be shown, along with graphic works also dedicated to the figures of Il Circo/I saltimbanchi and Il Veglione.

Arturo Martini. The Weave of Dreams intends to sketch the entire path of elaboration of textile works by the artist and the Ligurian manufactory: from the drawing, sometimes taken up in printed executions and then developed in the ’messa in carta,’ the graphic basis for weaving, to the technical analysis of the materials, from the knotting process of the woolen thread to the formal outcome of the work. The body of carpets on display at the Museum of Ceramics will be complemented by plastic works (in ceramic, terracotta, plaster and bronze) and pictorial and graphic achievements (paintings in particular, as well as drawings, keramographs and lithographs), for a total of about 50 works on display, set up in small part also in the spaces of the Pinacoteca Civica di Savona. All of the works deal with similar themes with different techniques: the dream, the fairy tale, childhood (recurring subjects particularly after the birth of Martini’s first daughter in 1921), up to play in adulthood, between circus, theater and melodrama.

Martini argued that “All works of art have the same right to place themselves at the balcony of the universe,” and, convinced that “Form has existence in matter,” he chose the most rugged and solid for the great themes of man and society, that more tender and flexible for fables and dreams, the latter often entrusted to ceramics, but also, as Savona’s discoveries show, to knotted woolen fabric. Through texts, documents and photographs, the exhibition also delves into the history of MITA - Manifattura italiana tappeti artistici. Founded in 1926 in Nervi by Mario Alberto Ponis and linked to personalities such as Fortunato Depero and Gio Ponti, the factory for fifty years has been able to combine the tradition of hand-knotted carpets with mechanical innovation aimed at quality industrial production. The Savona event thus aims to shed light on the applied arts season of the First Postwar period, which had a particularly lively development in Liguria, thanks in part to the figure of architect Mario Labò, who, among the many activities of which he was a promoter, fostered the birth of both DIANA and ILCA - Industria Ligure Ceramiche Artistiche, for which Martini created numerous ceramics, including monotypes.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog published by Sagep and will be accompanied by a series of lectures, guided tours, thematic meetings, workshops, performances and readings held between Savona and Vado Ligure. The exhibition is the natural continuation of the Arturo Martini project, curated by the Lino Berzoini Association, Carla Bracco, Magda Tassinari and Donatella Ventura, in the spring-summer of 2021. For the duration of the exhibition, the second floor of the Ceramics Museum will also host a display of Martini-inspired textiles and ceramics created by artist Alessandro Teoldi (Milan, 1987), in partnership with Shanghai-based Capsule Gallery.

“We are very proud to bring to the public’s attention this important find, which also gives us the opportunity to investigate some still little or not at all known aspects of Arturo Martini’s work,” said Luciano Pasquale, president of the Savona Ceramic Museum Foundation. “An artist who in part had made this land his home. The exhibition, the first to expand our research beyond ceramic art, underscores the increasingly active role of the Savona Ceramics Museum within the local, national and international cultural scene.”

Exhibition hours: Monday 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m. and 3:30-6:30 p.m.; Sunday 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

Important discovery in Savona: six carpets by Arturo Martini unearthed. Displayed in exhibition

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