Giorgio Morandi. 1890–1964

After more than 40 years since the 1973 exhibition of Giorgio Morandi’s works at The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum organizes an extensive retrospective show dedicated to the oeuvre of Morandi (1890–1964) – one of Italy’s leading artists of the 20^th century and an iconic figure of European art. Morandi’s art is internationally acclaimed, and his works that never lose their relevance represent a major interest for the audience and artists from all around the world.

The exhibition features over 90 works including 82 masterpieces from renowned museums and private collections.

The show is aimed at demonstrating the scale of Giorgio Morandi’s oeuvre. The artworks selected for the exhibition in Moscow cover the whole 50-year long period of the artist’s creative activity. The display presents nearly 70 paintings and watercolors that fully illustrate every period of the artist’s oeuvre – from avant-garde metaphysical compositions up to the latest emotionally perturbed works with distinctive rigidity and depth of images.  During his whole life, the artist kept his loyalty to two genres – those of still-life and landscape.

The display is organized chronologically and divided into several major themes: self-portrait still-life, landscape, and flowers. In some cases, a special emphasis is made on works that Morandi refers to as “variants” – similar compositions depicting the same objects.

In order to offer an opportunity for a closer study of Morandi’s methods, a separate section of the display showcases nearly 20 engravings demonstrating Morandi’s talent for this type of art – the talent that was internationally appraised and contributed to Morandi being awarded his first prize at Sao Paulo biennial in 1953. Along with engravings, the display includes several original engraving plates form the collection of Centro nazionale per la grafica (Rome).

The artworks showcased at the exhibition were meticulously selected by curators in major museum collections: Museo Morandi in Bologna – the official institution in charge of representing the artist, in foundations, particularly Fondazione Magnani Rocca (Traversetolo, Parma) and Fondazione Roberto Longhi (Florence), as well as major private collections.

Besides, the exhibition includes several items from Morandi studio provided by Istituzione Bologna Musei. This section of the exhibition also features photographs of the artist and of his studio.

This exhibition project aims at presenting Morandi’s creative ideas and his personality to the Russian audience.

Project curated by:

Victoria Markova, Main Research Fellow at The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, PhD (History of Art).

Maria Cristina Bandera, Director for Science at Fondazione di Studi di Storia dell’Arte Roberto Longhi, specialized in the oeuvre of Giorgio Morandi, Curator of major international exhibitions of Morandi’s works.