The 10 most-read articles on Windows on Art in 2019

As is our long-standing tradition, we open the year with the ten most-read articles in our online magazine in 2019. And, while we’re ch-ate here, we remind you that from 2019 we are no longer only online, but also on paper: try our new print magazine! In the meantime, here is the long-awaited top ten below.

10. The review of the exhibition The Florence of Giovanni and Telemaco Signorini.
The exhibition La Firenze di Giovanni e Telemaco Signorini (The Florence of Giovanni and Telemaco Signorini) is being held in Florence, Italy, from September 19 to November 10, 2019, showing images of late 19th-century Florence created by the two painters, father and son. The exhibition is also the first to be held on the piano nobile of Palazzo Antinori, which opens to the public for the first time. It is the most-read review of the year. Read the article.

Telemaco Signorini, A Spring Morning. The White Wall (c. 1866; oil on canvas, 27.5 x 57 cm; Private collection)

9. Don’t call them vigilantes
At a time when there is the most discussion about the new call for applications launched by the ministry, intended to recruit 1,052 usability, reception and vigilance staff, an insider, Marco Turini, writes in Windows on Art a reflection on who are and what are the visitation workers doing. Read the article.

A visiting officer

8. Federico Giannini’s editorial on Cattelan’s banana.
Cattelan’s banana is causing discussion everywhere, and of course it is also causing discussion on Windows on Art. Our editor, Federico Giannini, tries to give his reading of the work Comedian that Maurizio Cattelan is presenting at the 2019 edition of Art Basel Miami. The audience is looking for meaning, and the article is the eighth most read of the year. Read the article.

Maurizio Cattelan, Comedian (2019)

7. Why see Van Gogh. On the Threshold of Eternity.
On January 3, the film Sulla soglia dell’ eternità (On the Threshold of Eternity), dedicated to the last part of Vincent van Gogh’s life, is released in Italian theaters, starring an extraordinary Willem Dafoe as the artist (a performance that earned him the Coppa Volpi at the Venice Film Festival). Windows on Art sees the film in preview and, on January 1, 2019, exactly one year ago, from the columns of the online magazine our Ilaria Baratta suggested some reasons to see this film. Suggestions that are still valid today! Read the article.

A frame from the film Van Gogh. On the Threshold of Eternity

6. Works of art passed through the FaceApp filter.
During the summer, the ephemeral FaceApp fad rages. In a few weeks everyone downloads the app that edits photographs by making faces smile or age. We had fun trying the app’s effect on images of some famous paintings, and the results were amusing.Read the article.

Botticelli’s Venus under scrutiny by FaceApp

5. Critics’ positions on Cattelan’s banana.
Comedian is certainly the star work of 2019. It has managed to outclass everything, even Leonardo da Vinci ’sVitruvian Man, which has been at the center of the debate between Italy and France for months. And to think that the news is from December, but curiosity has been such that whenever it has been mentioned, visits have skyrocketed. So it also applies to the article in which we have collected the main positions of critics on the work. Read the article.

Maurizio Cattelan, Comedian (2019)

4. The first sticker album entirely dedicated to the history of art is born
It’s a big publishing news: the Artonauts sticker album, the first one dedicated to art history, is depopulating everywhere, curiosity is high, and purchases ditto if the album has to go through reprinting several times. A resounding success! Read the article.

The Artonauts sticker album

3. First Museum Week kicks off
March kicks off the first “Museum Week,” the week of free admission to museums strongly advocated by former Minister of Cultural Heritage Alberto Bonisoli to replace summer free Sundays. Complicated by a half-hearted ministerial advertising campaign that starts late, the news on Windows on Art, which is among the first newspapers to talk about the new initiative, gets hundreds of thousands of reads. Read the article.

Frame of the video with which MiBAC advertised Museum Week.

2. How did Lucio Fontana make the cuts?
Lucio Fontana’s cuts are still being discussed sixty years after they were conceived. In June we thought we would write an in-depth article on how the great Italian-Argentine artist made his most famous works. It was the second most-read article of the year. Read the article.

Lucio Fontana, Spatial Concept. Waiting (1964; cementite on canvas, 190.3 x 115.5 cm; Turin, Galleria dArte Moderna). © Lucio Fontana Foundation

1. The ministry’s competition for receptionists.
The Ministry of Cultural Heritage announces a competition: this has not happened in three years. The 2019 competition is aimed at hiring 1,052 usability, reception and supervision staff. Discussions to no end, not least because the competition is also open to high school graduates, and then because the dates of the pre-selection tests come late, and more discussions about the modalities of the competition, and so on. The fact remains that the news of the announcement gets an impressive number of reads and towers far above all other articles. Read the article.

An open competition

The 10 most-read articles on Windows on Art in 2019

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.