Fondazione Magnani-Rocca, Mamiano di Traversetolo – Parma
SEPTEMBER 14 2024 – DECEMBER 15 2024
Surrealism was born one hundred years ago; from that moment on, the perception of the world will never be the same. “Imagination is nothing but the revelation of what we are, of our own substance, which is dream, purity, energy, freedom.” wrote André Breton in the Manifeste du Surréalisme, published on October 15, 1924, officially marking the beginning of the movement.
This is how in the Villa dei Capolavori, home of the Magnani-Rocca Foundation in Mamiano di Traversetolo near Parma, a few steps from the rooms that host capital works by Renoir, Monet, Cézanne, Titian, Dürer, Van Dyck, Goya, Canova, Morandi, Burri and many others, from 14 September to 15 December 2024 one of the most decisive and long-lived avant-gardes of the 20th century – Surrealism – is celebrated, a century after its origins, also presenting its complex relationship with artists and the Italian cultural scene from the end of the 1920s to the end of the 1960s.
The major exhibition “Surrealism and Italy”, curated by Alice Ensabella, Alessandro Nigro, Stefano Roffi, through over 150 works by Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Yves Tanguy, Giorgio de Chirico and his brother Alberto Savinio, Enrico Baj, Fabrizio Clerici, Leonor Fini and other protagonists of this imaginative current, bears witness to the vastness of the means and languages of Surrealism and explores its impact and evolution in our country, offering a new and fascinating perspective on a movement that has left an indelible mark on the contemporary artistic imagination. The exhibition itinerary unfolds in two large chapters, divided into thematic sections.
International Surrealism and its arrival in Italy
The first chapter intends to present International Surrealism and its arrival in Italy; initially mediated by the work of de Chirico and Savinio returning from Paris in the 1930s, then represented through the works of the masters of the historical movement, which highlight a profound aesthetic and formal heterogeneity (abstract and figurative art), as well as a multitude of media used (painting, collage, assemblage, photography, ready-made, objets trouvés). Here important works by Magritte, Dalí, Man Ray, Ernst, Masson, Miró, Tanguy, Duchamp, Matta, Lam, as well as de Chirico, are presented.
The Italian Surrealist Scene
The second chapter identifies the protagonists of the Italian Surrealist scene, starting from the 1930s, in order to examine its connections with the French group, but also – and above all – to highlight its independence and originality.
In Italy, it is possible to observe the emergence of two main trends: on the one hand, the birth of a group inspired by new artistic practices and which maintains relations with the French group, as can be seen in the works of Sergio Dangelo or Enrico Baj. On the other hand, a fantastic figurative current, characterized by the production of visionary works, to which belong, among others, Leonor Fini, Fabrizio Clerici, Stanislao Lepri, for whom the work of de Chirico and Savinio was capital. The latter attracted international criticism, as demonstrated by their presence in the monographic issue of the American magazine View, published in 1946, entitled Italian Surrealists.
Finally, special attention is given to the context of the spread of Surrealism in Italy, highlighting the actors and places that were its architects, in particular gallery owners (Schwarz, Tazzoli, Cardazzo, Del Corso, Jolas, Sargentini, Brin, etc.) and collectors (Guggenheim, Passaré, etc.). The Magnani-Rocca Foundation thus invites the public to this fascinating journey, discovering how the surrealist movement liberated the unconscious and transformed the perception of reality, offering new keys to understanding art and life. A celebration that is not only a tribute but a lively and current reflection on how psychic automatism continues to influence our present and, quoting Breton once again, discovering that “The marvelous is always beautiful, indeed, only the marvelous is beautiful.”
Exhibition and catalogue edited by Alice Ensabella of the Université Grenoble Alpes, Alessandro Nigro of the University of Florence, Stefano Roffi scientific director of the Magnani-Rocca Foundation.
Catalog (Dario Cimorelli Editore) with essays by the curators and by Silvana Annicchiarico, Mauro Carrera, Walter Guadagnini, Davide Lacagnina, Eugenia Maria Rossi, Angela Sanna, Ilaria Schiaffini, Alessandra Vaccari.
With the contribution of
Media partner: Gazzetta di Parma, Kreativehouse.
With the collaboration of: AXA XL Insurance and Aon Angeli Cornici, Bstrò, Cavazzoni Associati, Society for Mobility and Public Transport.
Leonor Fini, Femme assise sur un homme nu, 1942, oil on canvas ©️ Leonor Fini, by SIAE 2024
Max Ernst, Divinité, 1940, oil on canvas glued on cardboard. ©️ Max Ernst by SIAE 2024
Joan Miró, Untitled (Biomorphic and Astral Figures), circa 1950, tempera and gouache on paper. ©️ Joan Miró by SIAE 2024
Rene Magritte, L’épreuve du sommeil, 1926, oil on canvas. ©️ Rene Magritte by SIAE 2024
Giorgio de Chirico, Il pomeriggio soave, 1916, oil on canvas. ©️ Giorgio de Chirico by SIAE 2024
