The exhibitions to see in October in Italy
From the photography of Vivian Maier and Tina Modotti to the painting of Helen Frankenthaler
G-Club
October 2nd, 2024
October 2nd, 2024
"Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth" Picasso once said. And in such a troubled period as this listening, observing, analyzing, and experiencing the lies that artists create may allow us to see more clearly what is happening around and within us when standing in front of one of the many exhibitions in Italy this October. Some of us might have a revelation exploring the social protest work of Tina Modotti or by visiting the 220 photographs taken by Vivian Maier and exhibited until January at the Royal Palace of Monza. Others might lose themselves, only to rediscover their truth, among the surreal and biomechanical images of Hans Ruedi Giger or find their answers in the past, through the artifacts of the Etruscan civilization on display at Centro Trevi-TreviLab in Bolzano. The possibilities are endless, as are the experiences and emotions that art can ignite. All it takes is to stand before a work and open yourself up to it.
Vivian Maier - Monza
Vivian Maier's story is both interesting and somewhat mysterious. In the 1930s, Vivian was one of many French women who emigrated to New York. Her first job was as a candy store clerk, and after moving to Chicago she became a nanny. She took photos with her Rolleiflex K8 T1 medium-format twin-lens reflex camera during her free moments. From the early 1950s to the 1990s, she meticulously documented every aspect of life around her, helping to pave the way for street photography. Over her life, she accumulated more than 150,000 negatives. Her work, long unknown, comes to Monza with Unseen, the never-before-seen photos of Vivian Maier, an exhibition featuring 220 photographs—black and white and color—rarely or never seen before, divided into nine sections that explore her distinctive style, from self-portraits to street scenes, from images of children to people on the margins of society. From October 17, 2024, to January 26, 2025, at the Villa Reale of Monza, visitors can also see Super 8 films, contact sheets, audio recordings of Maier's voice, and various objects that belonged to her, such as Rolleiflex and Leica cameras.
Title: Unseen, le foto mai viste di Vivian Maier
When: October 17, 2024, to January 26, 2025
Where: Belvedere, Reggia di Monza, Monza
Tina Modotti - Turin
Tina Modotti lived many lives. Born in Friuli in 1896, she emigrated to the United States and later to Mexico, from where she was exiled, migrating again to Germany, Russia, and Spain, before returning to Mexico, where she passed away at just 46. She was a factory worker, silent film actress, model, photographer, political activist, revolutionary communist, and even a secret agent for the Soviets. Her early steps as a photographer were influenced by Edward Weston, for whom she was a model and assistant, before she eventually moved towards social denunciation. From October 16, 2024, to February 2, 2025, the spaces of CAMERA in Turin will showcase a part of her artistic corpus that highlights the multifaceted nature and distinctiveness of Modotti. It consists of 300 works, including various unpublished materials, videos, magazines, documents, newspaper clippings, portraits of the artist, and photographs from the first and only exhibition that Tina Modotti held in 1929.
Title: Tina Modotti. The Work
When: from October 16, 2024, to February 2, 2025
Where: CAMERA – Italian Center for Photography, Turin
The 16th Century in Ferrara - Ferrara
The 16th Century in Ferrara. Mazzolino, Ortolano, Garofalo, Dosso is the second part of an exploration into the cultural and artistic fabric surrounding the Renaissance in Ferrara. The exhibition focuses on painting from the early 16th century when a new school emerged in the city, led by four masters: Ludovico Mazzolino, Giovanni Battista Benvenuti, Giovanni Luteri, and Benvenuto Tisi. What sets them apart? Mazzolino oriented his language in an anti-classical sense, looking to German painting from Albrecht Dürer to Martin Schongauer. Giovanni Battista Benvenuti, known as Ortolano, embraced naturalism, while Giovanni Luteri, known as Dosso, was influenced by Giorgione, Titian, and Michelangelo. Finally, Benvenuto Tisi, known as Garofalo, was Ferrara's main interpreter and promoter of Raphael's style. Want to know more? Head to Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, from October 12, 2024, to February 16, 2025.
Title: The 16th Century in Ferrara. Mazzolino, Ortolano, Garofalo, Dosso
When: from October 12, 2024, to February 16, 2025
Where: Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara
The Vinyl Covers of the Great Masters - Rimini
Music and art have always coexisted and collaborated in various ways, one of which is the vinyl covers we often see but may overlook. From October 10, 2024, to January 5, 2025, in the Isotta Wing of the Fellini Museum in Castel Sismondo, Rimini, visitors can admire over 150 of the most intriguing works of art, created from the 1940s to today, by artists who have shaped modern and contemporary art history. Some names? Picasso, Matisse, Basquiat, Damien Hirst, Araki, Mapplethorpe, and Keith Haring. Among the most famous covers included in the exhibition are those of Jeff Koons for Lady Gaga and Andy Warhol for the Rolling Stones.
Title: From Picasso to Warhol – The Vinyl Covers of the Great Masters
When: from October 10, 2024, to January 5, 2025
Where: Fellini Museum of Castel Sismondo, Rimini
Helen Frankenthaler - Florence
Over a career spanning more than sixty years, Helen Frankenthaler challenged conventions and expanded the boundaries of painting by breaking traditional norms, earning recognition as one of the most revolutionary artists of the 20th century. Her unique ability to combine technique and improvisation led to the creation of the soak-stain technique, where diluted paint merges with the canvas, creating transparency and fluidity effects. A part of her artistic corpus, which played a crucial role in the transition from Abstract Expressionism to Color Field Painting, will be on display until January 26, 2025, at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence. The exhibition includes large canvases, works on paper, and sculptures, in dialogue with works by contemporary artists like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Robert Motherwell.
Title: Helen Frankenthaler. Painting Without Rules
When: until January 26, 2025
Where: Palazzo Strozzi, Florence
Photography and Feminisms - Ravenna
PHOTOGRAPHY AND FEMINISMS. Stories and Images from the Donata Pizzi Collection is a group exhibition curated by Federica Muzzarelli that documents the struggles and achievements of the feminist movement, the changes in the role and image of women, depicted through four main thematic sections: Family Album, Gender Identity, Stereotypes and Domestic Spaces, Social Roles and Censorships. The exhibition leads visitors through the works of several generations of photographers and artists who have been part of the Italian art scene over the past fifty years. The exhibition, open until December 15, 2024, at the Fondazione Sabe per l'arte in Ravenna, includes works by Liliana Barchiesi, Lisetta Carmi, Lucia Marcucci, Paola Mattioli, and Tomaso Binga, as well as works by Martina Della Valle, Giulia Iacolutti, Moira Ricci, Alessandra Spranzi, and Alba Zari.
Title: PHOTOGRAPHY AND FEMINISMS. Stories and Images from the Donata Pizzi Collection
When: from October 5, 2024, to December 15, 2024
Where: Fondazione Sabe per l’arte, Ravenna
Hans Ruedi Giger - Turin
Hans Ruedi Giger is one of the most visionary artists of the late 20th century, best known for creating the visual world of the film Alien. The Mastio della Cittadella Museum in Turin is dedicating a wide retrospective to him, featuring over a hundred original pieces, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, design objects, and videos from the Giger Museum in Switzerland. The exhibition is divided into four sections inspired by the key areas of the master's work: cinema, music, surrealism, and cosmic horror. Exploring Giger's dark, surreal, and biomechanical universe, the exhibition highlights the works that contributed to the Alien myth and those created for Dune, the unrealized film by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Title: Beyond Alien: H.R. Giger
When: from October 5, 2024, to February 16, 2025
Where: Mastio della Cittadella Museum, Turin
Cutting Clouds - Naples
A title referring to Cloud Scissors, a piece conceived in the early 1960s by George Brecht, and the ephemeral and impermanent as common themes. From here comes Cutting Clouds | Tagliando le nuvole, a series of works and interventions developed using different media and scattered throughout the liminal spaces of the Madre Museum. What connects them is a sense of potential, an idea of incompleteness, while they are directed by aleatory prompts like cards indicating places, times, and ways for a possible happening.
Title: Cutting Clouds | Tagliando le nuvole
When: until January 7, 2025
Where: Madre Museum, Naples
Etruscans - Bolzano
An exploration of the great Etruscan civilization through its artistic and artisanal production. This is what visitors can expect from Etruscans. Artists and Artisans, the new exhibition at the Centro Trevi-TreviLab in Bolzano dedicated to the ancient population. The exhibition begins with artifacts related to funeral rites, then moves to an overview of typical artisanal productions such as bucchero pottery; the focus then shifts to illustrated ceramics and creations signed by Etruscan artists and artisans. The final section of the exhibition is centered on the sacred realm.
Title: Etruscans. Artists and Artisans
When: from October 2, 2024, to February 2, 2025
Where: Centro Trevi-TreviLab, Bolzano
Post Scriptum. A Forgotten Museum in Memory - Rome
The MACRO marks the end of Luca Lo Pinto's directorship, during which, over the past five years, he has explored the concept of the museum itself, going beyond the conventions of traditional exhibitions to incorporate elements of design, music, and publishing. From these premises comes Post Scriptum. A Forgotten Museum in Memory, an expression coined in the late 1960s by Vincenzo Agnetti that gives the title to a group exhibition spread across the entire museum. In this space extending over 10,000 square meters, visitors can explore the works of over thirty Italian and international artists, including Maurizio Altieri, Beatrice Bonino, Francesca Cefis, Pippa Garner, Lenard Giller, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and Rosemary Mayer.
Title: Post Scriptum. A Forgotten Museum in Memory
When: from October 4, 2024, to February 16, 2025
Where: MACRO - Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome