MILAN – Investigating the role and presence of women in painting and sculpture from the end of the nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century. The Landscape Museum of Verbania , after reopening in June 2016, reopens its main floor with the exhibition “ The faces and the heart, The female figure from Ranzoni to Sironi and Martini “, visible until next October 1st. FEMALE PORTRAITS– Curated by Elena Pontiggia, the exhibition includes about eighty works from the collections of the Landscape Museum of Verbania, integrated with works by Mario Sironi from the Isolabella collection and by Cristina Sironi, the artist’s sister. The exhibition is divided into eleven thematic sections. It starts from the female portraits “painted with breath” by Daniele Ranzoni, master of the Scapigliatura, of which the Landscape Museum has several female portraits: six works are presented here including two masterpieces such as Portrait of Princess Margherita of Savoy, 1869 with the typical dissolution of the form in a luminous dust and Giuseppina Imperatori Orsenigo, 1877. ICONOGRAPHIC WORKS – It then continues with six other iconographic sections:
1. THE PLACES OF LIFE: THE HOUSE, THE GARDEN, THE STREET, THE STABLE
2. THE AFFECTS: LOVE AND MATERNITY
3. FIGURES OF HISTORY
4. RELIGION
5. WORK
6. THE NAKED
In these sections the delicate Cave di Baveno, 1881 by Guido Boggiani, painted with a naturalism attentive to the values of light, stands out; The convention, 1918, by Ambrogio Alciati, guiding image of the exhibition, a timeless romantic idyll painted with impressionist sensitivity opposed to the taste of clear drawing predominant in the twenties of the twentieth century; Mother, 1916, moving and intense figure by Mario Tozzi; the splendid Maternita in plaster and the painful The farewell of the chimney sweep, 1898 bronze by Giulio Branca; the monumental Alla Vanga, 1890 by Arnaldo Ferraguti, a manifesto-work of social realism, awarded at the Milan Triennale in 1891 and The Laundresses in Pallanza, 1897 also by Ferraguti; The plowing in Miazzina, 1890, by Achille Tominetti, work-symbol of the female condition between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the modern female Nude, 1930,WOMEN ARTISTS – The exhibition continues with a section on two female artists to be rediscovered, such as the symbolist Sophie Browne (hers the disturbing Eva, 1898) and Adriana Bisi Fabbri, protagonist in 1914 of the futurist group “New Trends” and who died in 1918 in thirty-seven years, of which Princess Pignatelli is exhibited, 1917, also with a symbolist taste. THE MASTERS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY– Finally, there are three sections dedicated to three masters of the twentieth century: Arturo Martini, Mario Tozzi and Mario Sironi. By Arturo Martini (Treviso 1889-Milan 1947) fourteen female figures are exhibited, including Head of a girl, 1921, a masterpiece of the season of “Plastic Values”; La scoccombrina, 1928, a happy example of his expressionism; and a nucleus of female figures from the thirties and forties, such as Nudino, 1935 small plaster sculpture made in the happy creative period of the stay in Blevio on Lake Como, The family of acrobats, 1936-7 with the naked characters characterized by a strong visionary accent, Laundresses at the river, 1939 with the figures inserted in a perspective box, up to Incontro, 1946-7, all resolved in a dynamic tension, some belonging to Egle Rosmini, the young artist’s companion, and donated by her to the Landscape Museum. The Museum has 53 works by the great artist, including sculptures, paintings, engravings, etchings and lithographs, medals and drawings, purchased in 1908 by Rosmini through regional funding. By Mario Tozzi (Fossombrone 1895-Saint Jean-du-Gard 1979) and on display an anthology of works ranging from his youthful impressionism (Portrait of the mother, 1915; In the flower garden, 1920) to his magical realism (The morning toilet , emblem of anti-impressionism, where human figures impose themselves as volumetric forms without interest in their psychology, a masterpiece judged by French critics as “the most beautiful nude” of the Salon d’Automne 1922; and Serenita, 1923, a landscape also set on design and volume instead of color). The theme of women in Mario Sironi (Sassari 1885-Milan 1961), finally, and investigated through the works of the collection of Cristina, his elder sister. Among these Ars et Amor, 1901-2, documents the young and little-known symbolist season of the painter, while Cocotte and Figure, 1915-16, show the surprising, colorful and hitherto unknown Fauvist moment of him. These almost unpublished works are joined by the famous Mother Sewing, 1905-6, his most important pointillist painting, and the great Nude with a glass, one of Margherita Sarfatti’s most loved works. The exhibition ends with the impressive Vittoria Alata, 1935 (182 × 250 cm), one of the greatest testimonies of the monumental Sironi. show his surprising, colorful and hitherto unknown Fauvist moment. These almost unpublished works are joined by the famous Mother Sewing, 1905-6, his most important pointillist painting, and the great Nude with a glass, one of Margherita Sarfatti’s most loved works. The exhibition ends with the impressive Vittoria Alata, 1935 (182 × 250 cm), one of the greatest testimonies of the monumental Sironi. show his surprising, colorful and hitherto unknown Fauvist moment. These almost unpublished works are joined by the famous Mother Sewing, 1905-6, his most important pointillist painting, and the great Nude with a glass, one of Margherita Sarfatti’s most loved works. The exhibition ends with the impressive Vittoria Alata, 1935 (182 × 250 cm), one of the greatest testimonies of the monumental Sironi.
