Description

“Immaginate di restare senza gran parte della vostra collezione di tavole e tele, frutto di una appassionata ricerca durata anni; immaginate il senso di smarrimento davanti a pareti che rimarranno spoglie per mesi…

Ma questa volta ciò sarà la necessaria conseguenza di un progetto virtuoso, fortemente auspicato dalla mia amatissima moglie Elena Marco, mancata prematuramente: un progetto cui voglio tenere fede ‒ insieme all’intero team che ne ha concepito e realizzato l’allestimento, a cominciare da Domenico Piraina, Direttore di Palazzo Reale ‒ dedicando questa mostra proprio a Elena.

In queste sale viene approfondito un capitolo chiave della storia dell’arte italiana del Novecento, a partire dal provocatorio ossimoro che già in sé cela il magico fascino di un progetto che diviene finalmente realtà”.

Mario Bellini

Magic Realism is the title of the exhibition to be held at Palazzo Reale Milan from 19thOctober 2021 to 27th February 2022, curated by Gabriella Belli and Valerio Terraroli.

A new eye on the Movement, a new interpretation key thirty years after the last exhibition on the subject in Milan, curated by Maurizio Fagiolo dell’Arco in 1986. Now, Palazzo Reale offers a unique occasion to talk about a historical-artistic period – the one between the two world wars – that has suffered damnatio memoriae for long, which has been gradually rediscovered in recent years thanks to some monographic works on single artists who could keep interest alive and who are now the object of a true ‘revalorisation trend’ in a coral exhibition on Magic Realism after thirty years of continuous studies.

The chronological-philological path always revolves around Italian masterpieces of this specific movement that are in turn related to some pieces of the Neue Sachlickheit, the so-called German “New objectivity”, which Emilio Bertonati first promoted and disseminated into the Italian culture at the beginning of the Sixties through the Levante Gallery in its premises in Milan and Munich.

The exhibition will include the original works by Felice Casorati, like Portrait of Silvana Cenni (1922), and the first metaphysical inventions by Giorgio de Chirico like Self-portrait and October time (1924), but also the works by Carlo Carrà, with Loth’s daughters (1919), and Gino Severini with his Card players; they all offer an original and all-Italian “comeback to order”.

The chronological-philological structure – the bearing pillar of the exhibition – is then interspersed here and there with a thematic reading: from portraits to maternity and children, from female naked bodies and Eros to landscapes, still lives and allegories. An interesting interpretation key that allows the visitor to pick the interpretation novelties that magic Realism implemented as regards some genres in the painting tradition.

The exhibition is dedicated to Elena Marco, erudite and passionate journalist, a wise and farsighted collector, who shared the exhibition project and has always supported it.