Giorgio Morandi

4 January - 2 February 1990

Hours: 9:30a.m.- 5:00 p.m.

Admission: charged

During the first half of the 20th century, Italy suffered heavily during the First World War, was drawn like Germany and Japan into the madness of Fascism, and became mired in the tragedy of the Second World War. Morandi began painting in c.1910, so he lived through a turbulent half century. The disturbances which shook the world during that period, however, never entered his paintings. In his early career, he was influenced by Cezanne and by avant-garde art movements like Cubism, Futurism and Metaphysical Paintings, but he gradually drew away from the clamor of society, building a fortress of isolation around himself and painting nothing but still lives and landscapes.

He spent his entire life in his birthplace of Bologna, living quietly as a bachelor. Both his paintings and his life were quiet, pure, simple, and deeply contemplative. Through repetition of the limited subject matter of still lives and landscape, he created musical reveries with subtle interactions of form and color. His art became a single, uninterrupted line of quiet melody which ultimately arrived at a deep level of art. In his contemplative painting, Morandi became the modern heir of the great tradition of Italian painting and an artist who made a quiet difference in a troubled, disaster-ridden age.

The present exhibition includes 84 paintings, 15 watercolors, 15 drawings, and 20 etchings. It is a retrospective exhibition in which we can follow the gradual, very natural changes in Morandi’s art from his early to late periods through excellent examples of his work.

We would like to express our appreciation to the museums, galleries, and individual collectors in Italy, who loaned works from their collections for this exhibition. We would like to give special thanks to Ms. Rosalba Tardito, soprintendente ai Beni Aristici e Storici della Lombardia Occidentale in Milan, who supervised this exhibition, Ms. Mercedes Garberi, director of Musei Municipali d’Arte Antica, Moderna e Contemporanea in Milan, for her concentrated works as the exhibition director, and Mr. Giuseppe Niccoli, director of Centro Culturale Arte Contemporanea Italia-Giappone (ACIG) for his coordinating efforts throughout the organization of this exhibition.