Contemporary art in Rome

Once we'd seen the 'sights' there was some time to have a look at more contemporary art galleries.
 

First stop was the Galleria d'Arte Moderna Roma, which has two current exhibitions. The first, Roma Anni Trenta, Italian art of the 1930s during the rise of Fascism, features a range of sculpture, painting, film and prints dedicated to the cause of 'making the Italians heroic again'. The rural idyll, idealised male bodies and maternal role models, futurist painting...there is a coherence to the work, but also something chilling about it, given the context, and its relevance to contemporary movements for national identity.

The second was a retrospective of Emma (Mimi) Quilici Buzzacchi (1903-1990), an eminent 20thC Italian artist who produced a range of paintings, sculptures, etchings and engravings. Although quite an eclectic mix of work, I was impressed by some of her prints and her use of colour.





Daniela de Lorenzo: L'identico et il differente 2003


The exhibition I took most from was Time is Out of Joint, running at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea.


It is housed in a beautiful marble building in classical style, the Palazzo delle Belle Arti, designed by prominent Italian architect Cesare Bazzani. The light, high-ceilinged rooms are perfect setting for modern and contemporary art.

The title 'Time is out of Joint' references Hamlet and Derrida, and in the exhibition, 'time needs to be re-aligned or 'set to rights' by weaving new unexpected relationships in the symbolic space of the museum, in a sort of simultaneous co-existence'.

There is a good selection of 20thC artists, from Pollock and Morandi to Giacometti and Jean Arp.




Lucio Fontana: Concetto spaziale - Natura 1959-60


I was impressed by the breadth of work of the more contemporary artists, who are mainly Italian, but include other Europeans. In particular I was attracted by work by Alexander Calder, Daniela de Lorenzo, Lucio Fontana, Andrea Santarlasci and Marion Baruch. Lucio Fontana (1899 - 1968), an Italian-Argentinian artist and theorist, was the founder of Spatialism. He is best known for his slashed and cut monochrome canvasses. I was drawn to his sculptural forms in the Concetto spaziale series, which combine a range of media.  Baruch's large abstract textiles, using slashed and torn cascading fabrics, play with negative spaces, solids and voids, and speak of a beauty in found old materials that would have gone unnoticed. Born in Romania 88 years ago, she was working through much of the 20th C. movement and her works have the quality of abstract paintings. She feels that the compositions can have the elegance of an abstract painting - 'The first time I pulled one of these fabrics out from a plastic bag, I felt as if I were looking at a Klee'.





Andrea Santarlasci: Casa difesa 1992





Marion Baruch: Spirio della giungla 2015