The MAN presents From figurativity to abstraction. Paths of Italian art between 1945 and 1960, from the Gnam collections, and offers with this new exhibition created in collaboration with the GNAM of Rome a unique opportunity to admire 55 paintings and 13 sculptures by some of the most important Italian artists.
The selected works re-propose the climate of linguistic experimentation and research of that fervent period of renewal of the Italian artistic language, experienced after the war and characterized by the need to open up to comparison with foreign experiences. At the end of the Second World War, the crisis of culture led, in fact, also in Italy to an introspection of consciences and a rebellion against the expressive methods of previous artistic research.
The debate on the future of Italian art is wide-ranging, it is discussed in magazines, in galleries and in the groups that are forming. In 1946 the Fronte Nuovo della Arti was formed between Milan and Venice, a grouping of the most innovative artists who defended an art inspired by the historical avant-gardes. Already within it two souls coexist, one tending towards abstraction, the other which chooses not to abandon the terrain of reality.
Forma 1 was created in 1947 in Rome, and the Concrete Art Movement in 1948 in Milan. Even in the following years, there were many groups that intended to formulate new artistic possibilities, from the Otto group to Originne, from Spatialism to Nuclearism, but there were also numerous artists who preferred to follow the path of renewal alone, sometimes towards abstraction and the informal sometimes towards a new type of figuration. The years from 1945 to 1960 allowed many Italian artists to choose a side and find, with originality and coherence, a mature dimension of their art.
This new generation, with its torments and its faiths, is the generation of the fathers of today’s artistic culture in Italy, present in this exhibition with important and significant works from that particular historical moment. Many of the works on display were purchased by Gnam at major national exhibitions, some during exhibitions at private galleries or directly from the artists.
Others, a large number, were deposited by the artists themselves, eager to gain a place of respect in what was considered the most important institutional showcase in Italy. These were the years, those from 1945 to 1930, in which the National Gallery of Modern Art was directed by Palma Bucarelli who, together with Giulio Carlo Argan, conducted a policy of acquisitions favoring the side of the abstractionists, but trying, at the same time, to enhance a conspicuous part of the most recent Italian art, even if, undoubtedly, their choices proved closed to more Italian artistic expressions and in some way continuity with the previous figurative tradition.
Artists: Afro, Marcello Avenali, Gino Bellani, Renato Birolli, Renato Birilli, Remo Brindisi, Corrado Cagli, Massimo Campigli, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Bruno Cassinari, Ettore Colla, Pietro Consagra, Antonio Corpora, Giorgio De Chirico, Nino Franchina, Franco Gentilini, Manlio Giarrizzo, Renato Guttuso, Bice Lazzari, Leoncillo, Mauro Manca, Marino Marini, Titina Maselli, Umberto Mastroianni, Giuseppe Magneco, Luciano Minguzzi, Mirko, Sante Monachesi, Luigi Montanarini, Enrico Paulucci, Achille Perilli, Nino Perizi, Fausto Pirandello, Armando Pizzicato, Enrico Trampolini, Mario Radice, Mauro Reggiani, Manlio Rho, Sergio Romiti, Piero Sadun, Bruno Saetti, Giuseppe Santomaso, Angelo Savelli, Alberto Savinio, Toti Scialoja, Antonio Scordia, Atanasio Soldati, Giulio Turcato, Giuseppe Uncini
