PastPresentFuture
27 February – 3 June 2010
Press Preview: Friday 26 February, 11:30 am
The Fondazione Cariverona and UniCredit Group Collections:
art for the city
Verona, Palazzo della Ragione
Piazza dei Signori
On the occasion of the exhibition PastPresentFuture – The Fondazione Cariverona and UniCredit Group Collections: art for the city, to be held at the Palazzo della Ragione in Verona from 27th February until 3rd June, some 80 works of art belonging to the UniCredit Group Collection will be on show, together with eight masterpieces owned by the Fondazione Cariverona.
The exhibition, promoted by the UniCredit Group and the Fondazione Cariverona together with the collaboration and support of Verona City Council, constitutes the only Italian stop on its European tour, following its ‘debut’ at the Bank Austria Kunstforum in Vienna.
PastPresentFuture – The Fondazione Cariverona and UniCredit Group Collections: art for the city, curated by Walter Guadagnini with an exhibition display put together by Stefano Gris, highlights the continuity between the past, the present and the future through four centuries of European art, featuring both ancient and contemporary works grouped by topic, each characterising one of the seven sections of the exhibition. Visitors are thus encouraged to reflect on some of the classic themes running through art history: man’s relationship with the world and nature, the representation of the self, the body and objects.
The exhibition, which may be visited at http://www.artcollection.unicreditgroup.eu , opens with one of the masterpieces of 20th-century Italian sculpture: the “donna che nuota sott’acqua” (“woman swimming underwater”), a marble work produced by Arturo Martini in 1941-42, and purchased by the Fondazione in 2005. Among the other “Veronese” works to be found in the exhibition, we might mention “Barene a Burano” by Gino Rossi, two famous works by Alberto Savinio and Giorgio Morandi, as well as the imposing “Varsavia” (1960) by Emilio Vedova.
The Sections of the Exhibition
After Arturo Martini’s splendid swimmer, the section entitled “On Classic” places contemporary artists – including Candida Höfer, Olivo Barbieri and Giulio Paolini – alongside old masters, such as the Bambocciante Van Bloemen, the pictor classicus De Chirico, his brother Alberto Savinio and the decadent Makart.
The display itinerary then moves on to the “Objects of Desire“, a room in which an installation by Tony Cragg converses with a great composition by Recco as well as four extraordinary collages by Kurt Schwitters rubbing shoulders with the renowned “Flowers” by Andy Warhol and a “Natura morta” by Morandi.
The following section, “On Geometry“, includes works by Imi Knoebel, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Ghada Amer and several others.
This is followed by “Sublime and Picturesque“, with artists such as the 17th-century painter Paul Bril, Charles Daubigny – key exponent of the “Barbizon School” – and the contemporary artists Georg Baselitz, Gerhard Richter, Andreas Gursky and Hans Op de Beeck.
The “Metropolis” section, housing the works of some of the greatest contemporary photographers such as Andreas Gursky, Massimo Vitali, Gabriele Basilico, Fischli & Weiss, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Wolfgang Tillmans, Vincenzo Castella and Francesco Jodice, studies and develops the relationship between the individual and the urban fabric.
Representations of the body and the face and to be found in both “Body Talk” and “Face to Face“, alternating between a masterpiece by Antonio Donghi and a photograph by Valie Export, protagonist of the Viennese Body Art movement; the magnificent “Psyche abandoned by Love” by Dossi and the photographs of E.J. Bellocq; the astounding “Portrait of a Gentleman” by Savoldo and the anonymous faces portrayed by the young Austrian artist Hans Schabus; the extremely rare work “The Head of John the Baptist presented to Herod” by Baglione and the photograph by Trude Fleischmann of Alban Berg’s death mask. Equally meaningful is the juxtaposition of a photograph by Heinrich Kühn, which represents a close up on early 20th-century pictorialism, as well as a magnificent canvas by Cagnaccio di San Pietro belonging to the Fondazione Cariverona, both focusing on the theme of the mirror, of reflection.
The exhibition closes with two monumental works by Gerhard Richter and Emilio Vedova, in which the body of the artist and his gesturality take on the key role, through a fascinating pictorial translation of body language.
PastPresentFuture – The Fondazione Cariverona and UniCredit Group Collections: art for the city will be accompanied by an educational project borne out of the collaboration between the Councillorships of Culture and Youth Policy of Verona City Council and the Education Department of Rivoli Castle, Contemporary Art Museum.
Fondazione Cariverona and the UniCredit Group’s commitment to the field of culture, as part of their overall activities in support of the arts, also includes an artwork purchasing policy. With this aim in mind, the Fondazione has created a separate body, the Fondazione Domus for modern and contemporary art: a tangible reflection of the desire to valorise art as a whole and to enhance the collection of the Fondazione itself, based only marginally on the works held by the ex-Cassa di Risparmio. With the purchase of paintings and sculptures from the last century, the Fondazione Cariverona and Fondazione Domus have come to house one of the most important 20th-century Italian art collections in the country, made up of around 600 works.
The UniCredit Group stands among the main European groups offering banking and financial services through around 10,000 branches and more than 166,000 employees in 22 countries, with a wide-reaching presence in Italy, Austria, Germany and Central Eastern Europe.
UniCredit, as well as possessing one of the greatest art collections in the whole of Europe (with 60,000 works from the banks that merged to form the Group in Italy as well as those of the HypoVereinsbank in Germany and the Bank Austria in Austria), also promotes the spread of culture, with initiatives aimed at promoting the conservation and valorisation of the artistic heritage to be found in the countries in which it operates, as well as fostering young talent in the field of contemporary art. UniCredit has developed an innovative partnership model, based on the management of long-term projects shared with other key institutions in the field of visual arts, music and literature.
For information and bookings: tel. 199199111
Free entrance, 9 am – 7 pm, Monday – Sunday
Press Offices:
Fondazione Cariverona:
Renzo Cocco – Tel. +39 045 8057310 cocco [at] fondazionecariverona.org
Marcellino Caloi – Tel. +39 045 8057375, caloi [at] fondazionecariverona.org
UniCredit Group:
Viviana Vestrucci – Tel. +39 02 87275790 viviana.vestrucci [at] unicreditgroup.eu
In collaboration with:
Studio ESSECI – Sergio Campagnolo, Padua +39 049 663499 info [at] studioesseci.net
For further information and images: http://www.studioesseci.net