Category Archives: Italy

Italian President Sergio Mattarella To Visit United States February 6-13

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The White House announced today that President Obama will host President Sergio Mattarella of Italy at the White House on February 8, 2016. President

Sergio Mattarella

Sergio Mattarella

Mattarella will visit the United States February 6-13. Italy is a valued NATO Ally and a close partner on a broad range of global challenges. During their meeting, the Presidents will discuss our shared efforts to counter ISIL and the global refugee crisis. They will also exchange views on economic developments in Europe, the importance of concluding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and other issues of mutual interest.

Los Angeles – Taormina Film Festival opens in Los Angeles

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Los Angeles, the “City of the Angels”, hosts the first edition of the Taormina Film Festival (TTF) on Jan. 20 and 21, featuring Italian and Sicilian independent films. This event was made possible by an agreement between the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles, the Consulate General of Italy and the Italian Trade Commission (ICE). The screenings are hosted by the Italian Cultural Institute and attended by the authors of two docu-films, “L’ultimo metro di pellicola” (“The Last Metre of Film”) by Elio Sofia, and “Il carnevale eoliano” (“Aeolian Carnival”) by Francesco Cannava’. The documentary “Phil Stern. Sicilia 1943, la guerra e l’anima” (Philip Stern: Sicily in 1943, War and Soul”) written and directed by Ezio Costanzo with Filippo Arlotta, will also be screened.

Valeria Golino at Cannes 2015 (photo by Georges Biard)

Valeria Golino at Cannes 2015 (photo by Georges Biard)

“Phil Stern. Welcome back to Sicily “, a photo exhibition by Carmelo Nicosia will also be hosted by the Institute as a tribute to the famous American photographer, who died last year in Los Angeles at 95. The opening will coincide with the festival, and will be attended by Stern’s son Peter and his granddaughter Ashley. City councillor Joe Boscaino will attend the opening of the exhibiton and the screening of the documentary. He will present Peter Stern with a City of Los Angeles Award for the project “Phil Stern”, and Tiziana Rocca with , for the first TaorminaFilmFest Los Angeles.

Cecilia Peck, daughter of the unforgettable actor Gregory Peck, will present her docu-film “Brave Miss World” on the trauma of sexual violence, and host a party at her house in honour of the first TTF edition. The TaorminaFilmFest Los Angeles Award will be presented to Steven Gaydos, Executive Editor of Variety and actress Valeria Golino, who appeared in “Per amor vostro” (“For Your Love”) by Giuseppe Gaudino. The film will also be screened. Ms. Golino will be interviewed by Mr. Gaydos and Lorenzo Soria, the President of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which every year organises the prestigious Golden Globes Awards.

As an aside note, recent news report indicate that Ms. Golino’s name “turned up on the most recent list of Americans who’ve given up their passports,” and her British agent is quotes as saying she “is going home for good.”

Rosa Barba: The Color Out of Space

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Rosa Barba’s works encompassing sculptures, installations, text pieces, and publications are grounded in the material qualities of cinema. Her film sculptures examine the physical properties of the projector, celluloid, and projected light. Barba’s longer projected works are situated between experimental documentary and fictional narrative, and are indeterminately situated in the past or the future. These speculative stories probe into the relationship of historical record, personal anecdote, and filmic representation. For this first survey of her work in North America, Barba premieres The Color Out of Space (2015), a new film incorporating images of stars and planets collected over the last year at Hirsch Observatory at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The work expands upon Barba’s ongoing interrogation of geological time as measured against the span of a human lifetime. The exhibition includes works made over the last ten years including two of Barba’s cinematic large projections, which focus on natural landscapes and man-made interventions into the environment, as well as a group of small projector sculptures and wall works.

Rosa Barba (b. 1972, Sicily, Italy) lives and works in Berlin. Barba studied at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. Solo exhibitions include Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland; Bergen Kunsthall, Norway; Jeu de Paume, Paris; and Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany among others. She was a resident artist at Artpace, San Antonio in 2014 and at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa in 2013.

Until January 3, 2016 at the List Visual Arts Center, MIT, Boston

 Rosa Barba: The Color Out of Space is curated by Henriette Huldisch, Curator, MIT List Visual Arts Center.

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The List Visual Arts Center, MIT’s contemporary art museum, collects, commissions, and presents rigorous, provocative, and artist-centric projects that engage MIT and the global art community.

Giorgio Morandi at the Center For Italian Modern Art

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The Center for Italian Modern Art is excited to announce its third season, dedicated to Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964), one of the best known Italian artists of the 20th century. The exhibition focuses on the artist’s rarely seen works from the 1930s—the decade when Morandi reached full artistic maturity and developed his distinctive pictorial language. These works until now have remained relatively little known or exhibited outside of Italy.

Featuring circa 40 paintings, etchings, and drawings by the acclaimed Italian modernist, the installation marks the first time in decades that many of these works have been on view in the US. CIMA’s show draws from major international public and private collections, including those of the MART Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto; the MAMBo, Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna; the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, Venice; and the Kunstmuseum Winterthur in Switzerland. The installation also presents select works from the very beginning of Giorgio Morandi’s career in the 1910s and from the very end of his life in the 1960s, to illustrate the thematic and pictorial continuities in the artist’s research. It also includes a selection of contemporary works inspired by Giorgio Morandi’s practice by artists Tacita Dean,Wolfgang Laib, Joel Meyerowitz, and Matthias Schaller.

 

GIORGIO MORANDI
ANNUAL INSTALLATION
09 OCTOBER 2015 – 25 JUNE 2016

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The Center for Italian Modern Art (CIMA) is a 501c3 nonprofit exhibition and research center established in 2013 in New York City to promote public appreciation and advance the study of modern and contemporary Italian art in the United States and internationally.

Each academic year CIMA presents in its spacious loft in SoHo an installation examining the work of modern Italian artists rarely exhibited in the U.S. These installations bring the art of inspiring masters into dialogue with contemporary artists, illustrating its impact and ongoing resonance today. The exhibitions serve as the theme for CIMA’s fellowship program, which aims to promote new scholarship and dialogue in the field through the support of emerging young scholars from around the world.

CIMA is open for visits to its exhibition on Fridays and Saturdays at 11am, 1pm, 3pm, and 5pm, and holds special tours, events, conversations, and study days as part of its programming.

First Ever US exhibition of Renaissance Painter Carlo Crivelli Opens at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

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Ornament & Illusion: Carlo Crivelli of Venice runs Oct. 22, 2015 – Jan. 25, 2016

Carlo Crivelli (about 1435–about 1495) is one of the most important – and historically neglected – artists of the Italian Renaissance. Distinguished by radically expressive compositions, luxuriant ornamental display, and bravura illusionism, his works push the boundaries between painting and sculpture. Crivelli manipulated the surface of each one with rare mastery of his medium, crafting visionary encounters with the divine, forging the modern icon, and offering a powerful alternative to new models of painting associated with Florence.

The exhibition brings together 23 paintings and the artist’s only known drawing. Newly cleaned and restored, the Gardner’s iconic Saint George Slaying the Dragon is the focal point for a two-part installation. The first reunites four of six surviving panels from Crivelli’s Porto San Giorgio altarpiece, of which the Gardner painting is a fragment. The second part introduces visitors to the artist’s repertoire of dazzling pictorial effects with some of his most important works in Europe and the United States.

carlo-crivelli-virgin-and-child-circa1480Included in Ornament and Illusion are unprecedented loans from The National Gallery, London; the Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, Frankfurt; the Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Together, the works assembled in Boston reveal the artist’s astonishing skill, encompassing artistic vision, and relentless ambition, restoring Crivelli to his rightful place in the pantheon of Renaissance painters.

Crivelli was esteemed in his own time as a painter of rank and status. Born in Venice, he trained locally and joined a workshop in the mainland city of Padua, learning from the same master as the celebrated artist Andrea Mantegna (1430/1–1506). Exiled for adultery shortly after returning to Venice in 1457, Crivelli then embarked on a peripatetic career. Early successes on both sides of the Adriatic led to prestigious commissions in the Marches, a mountainous region of northeast Italy defined by its religious and ethnic diversity and ruled by competing feudal lords. He signed the immense high altarpieces for the cathedrals of Ascoli Piceno, in 1473, and Camerino, around 1490. Recognized for his remarkable artistic accomplishments with the aristocratic title of “knight,” Crivelli died around 1494.

The exhibition is organized by guest co-curator Stephen J. Campbell (Henry and Elizabeth Wiesenfeld Professor, Johns Hopkins University), guest co-curator Oliver Tostmann (Susan Morse Hills Curator of European Art, Wadsworth Athenaeum), and Nathaniel Silver (Assistant Curator of the Collection, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum).

Ornament and Illusion: Carlo Crivelli of Venice is accompanied by a catalog edited by Stephen J. Campbell. Seven essays challenge the prevailing view of Crivelli as a provincial artist working in an anachronistic “gothic” style, investigate the facture of his paintings, and shed new light on his rediscovery by collectors. Catalog entries deliver new insights and up-to-date bibliography for each work in the exhibition. Contributing authors include C. Jean Campbell (Emory University), Francesco De Carolis (Università di Bologna), Thomas Golsenne (École Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Nice), Gianfranco Pocobene (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum), and Alison Wright (University College London).

 

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
25 Evans Way, Boston MA, 02115

Presidential Proclamation — Columbus Day, 2015

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“Columbus’s arrival in the New World inspired many and allowed for generations of Italians to follow — people whose Italian-American heritage contributes in immeasurable ways to making our country what it is, and who continue to help strengthen the friendship between the United States and Italy.”

 

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Over half a millennium ago, Christopher Columbus — an ambitious navigator native to Genoa, Italy — set sail for new horizons. Aboard the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María, his expedition went west for a months-long journey. Though his first of four voyages across the Atlantic did not end at his desired destination of Asia, Columbus’s adventure reflected the insatiable thirst for exploration that continues to drive us as a people.

Columbus DayColumbus’s legacy is embodied in the spirit of our Nation. Determined and curious, the young explorer persevered after having been doubted by many of his potential patrons. Once opportunity struck, when Ferdinand II and Isabella I agreed to sponsor his trip, he seized the moment and pursued what he knew to be possible. Columbus’s arrival in the New World inspired many and allowed for generations of Italians to follow — people whose Italian-American heritage contributes in immeasurable ways to making our country what it is, and who continue to help strengthen the friendship between the United States and Italy.

Though these early travels expanded the realm of European exploration, to many they also marked a time that forever changed the world for the indigenous peoples of North America. Previously unseen disease, devastation, and violence were introduced to their lives — and as we pay tribute to the ways in which Columbus pursued ambitious goals — we also recognize the suffering inflicted upon Native Americans and we recommit to strengthening tribal sovereignty and maintaining our strong ties.

In the years since Columbus’s time, the legacy of early explorers has carried on in the wide eyes of aspiring young dreamers and doers, eager to make their own journeys and to continue reaching for the unknown and unlocking new potential.

In commemoration of Christopher Columbus’s historic voyage 523 years ago, the Congress, by joint resolution of April 30, 1934, and modified in 1968 (36 U.S.C. 107), as amended, has requested the President proclaim the second Monday of October of each year as “Columbus Day.”

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim October 12, 2015, as Columbus Day. I call upon the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities. I also direct that the flag of the United States be displayed on all public buildings on the appointed day in honor of our diverse history and all who have contributed to shaping this Nation.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this ninth day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand fifteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fortieth.

BARACK OBAMA

Hirshhorn’s “Le Onde: Waves of Italian Influence (1914–1971)”

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Showing Rare or Never-Before-Seen Works
Collection Works Highlight Trends from Futurism to Arte Povera

“Le Onde: Waves of Italian Influence (1914–1971)” runs Aug. 22–Jan. 3, 2016, at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. This exhibition of nearly 20 works from the museum’s collection follows Italian contributions to the transnational evolution of abstraction, through movements and tendencies such as futurism, spatialism, op art and kinetic art.

The exhibition includes several works that have been exhibited only rarely or not at all since entering the collection. Among those that have not been on view since the Hirshhorn’s inaugural exhibition in 1974–1975 are works by Zero group founder Heinz Mack, French op artist Yvaral and Italian painter Carlo Battaglia and several works by Italian artist Enrico Castellani.

“Joseph H. Hirshhorn was a visionary collector whose generosity made possible a museum of modern and contemporary art on the National Mall,” said Melissa Chiu, director of the museum. “This exhibition celebrates his legacy and underscores his commitment to Italian art.”

“The Embassy of Italy in Washington is proud to be supporting this exhibition,” said Claudio Bisogniero, Italy’s ambassador to the United States. “For centuries, Italian artists have been cultural innovators whose ideas have reverberated around the world. ‘Le Onde’ sheds light on their contributions in the 20th century.”

A pivotal figure in the exhibition is Lucio Fontana, who was born in Argentina to Italian parents and divided his career between the two countries. “The pursuit of art forms that embraced the energy and ideas of a technological age was an international phenomenon, and Fontana was central to developments not only in Italy but throughout Europe and Latin America,” said Mika  Yoshitake, an assistant curator at the museum, who co-organized the exhibition with Hirshhorn curator Kelly Gordon.

In addition, Fontana was an active teacher and theorist, the influence of his ideas also extending to artists on either side of the Atlantic, among them Brazilian sculptor Sérgio Camargo and Argentinian-born French artist Julio Le Parc, who studied under him in Buenos Aires. Fontana’s installations and writings helped inspire the Parisian collective GRAV (Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel/Group for Visual Art Research), whose members undertook experiments that often had scientific overtones, such as François Morellet’s “Wave Motion Thread” (1965), which manifests mechanical vibrations in the form of a standing wave.

Fontana is best known for spatialist paintings in which the integrity of the picture plane is violated by slashes or holes. Three of these “Spatial Concepts” from 1967 are on view. These works inspired a generation of Italian artists that included Giò Pomodoro, whose towering fiberglass relief “Opposition” (1968) is marked with bulges and indentations, and Castellani, whose monochrome paintings have taut and pristine surfaces punctuated by nailheads.

From the vantage point of the mid-century, the exhibition looks back to the work of Italian futurists such as Giacomo Balla, whose “Sculptural Construction of Noise and Speed” (1914–1915)/(reconstructed 1968) attempted to capture the dynamism of the machine age in material form. And it looks forward in time to the exploration of immateriality by artists associated with Arte Povera, such as Giovanni Anselmo, whose “Invisible” (1971) is a slide projection that shoots the Italian word “visibile” (visible, evident, apparent) into space, so that it comes into view only when a visitor steps in front of it and becomes the screen.

“Le Onde: Waves of Italian Influence (1914–1971)” is organized by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, with support from the Embassy of Italy in Washington, D.C. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog published by Gangemi that contains texts from Gordon, Yoshitake and Renato Miracco, cultural attaché for the embassy

Italians born in Italy Continue to Be Treated As Second-Class Italian Citizens

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As Italian Americans who were born in Italy, we continue to be baffled by the Italian government’s inability to correct the bureaucratic nightmare that we must endure to “regain” our Italian citizenship – a constitutional right we never lost.

We thank our Representative Hon. Fucsia Nissoli for continuing to fight for those of us who under the Italian Constitution are Italian citizens by birth, and yet treated as non-citizens under Italian laws and regulations.

As a friend of CiaoAmerica who was born in Italy told us, “Had I know the bureaucratic roadblocks that I had to overcome, I would never had applied to regain my Italian citizenship!”

FOLLOWING IS TEXT OF LATEST STATEMENT BY HON. FUCSIA NISSOLI

Ddl cittadinanza : presentato emendamento da Fucsia Nissoli(Pi)

“E’ ora di ridare la cittadinanza anche agli italiani che l’hanno perduta recandosi all’estero”

fucsiaROMA – September 15, 2015 – “La Commissione Affari costituzionali della Camera sta affrontando il delicato tema della cittadinanza e ha già elaborato il relativo testo unificato che affronta il tema solo in parte, restringendolo alla questione della cittadinanza per i minori stranieri in Italia. Si è così letteralmente cassata anche la mia proposta di legge che aveva avuto ben 317 firmatari, da tutti i gruppi parlamentari, sul riacquisto della cittadinanza per gli italiani che recatisi all’estero hanno perduto la cittadinanza”. Lo ha dichiarato l’on. Fuscia FitzGerald Nissoli (PI) allo scadere del termine per la presentazione degli emendamenti al testo di legge unificato sulla cittadinanza in Commissione Affari costituzionali.

“Per rimediare a quanto fatto – ha precisato la deputata eletta in Nord e Centro America –  ho presentato un emendamento che contiene il testo della mia proposta di legge ormai accorpata senza tener conto del contenuto. Infatti, il mio emendamento al Testo unificato sulla cittadinanza, AC 9 ed abbinati, prevede quanto segue: “Al comma 1, dopo la lettera f), aggiungere la seguente: f bis)  Il comma 1 dell’articolo 17 è sostituito dal seguente:  « 1. I nati in Italia, figli di almeno un genitore italiano, che hanno perso la cittadinanza in seguito a espatrio, per cause non direttamente imputabili a loro stessi o per motivi di lavoro, riacquistano la cittadinanza italiana facendone espressa richiesta al consolato italiano che ha giurisdizione nel territorio di residenza estera purché ciò non sia in contrasto con accordi bilaterali internazionali in vigore ».” ”

“Ora faccio appello – ha concluso l’on. Nissoli –  alla sensibilità di tutti i miei Colleghi circa la grande vicenda migratoria italiana nel mondo e a tutti i 317 che hanno firmato la mia Proposta di Legge affinché siano consequenziali e votino a favore del mio emendamento per permettere il riacquisto della cittadinanza italiana a quei concittadini che l’hanno persa perché trasferitis

Italian Republic Day Message from Italian Amb Claudio Bisogniero

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Dear fellow Italians,

Today, June 2nd, 2015 we celebrate the 69th anniversary of the Founding of the Italian Republic. This is also the first time that our new Head of State, Sergio Mattarella, celebrates this special day. We recognize, in particular, the core values at the base of our unity: freedom, democracy, equality, and peaceful coexistence between Peoples. These are the shared values which bind us, in close friendship, with the Country which hosts us: the United States of America.

This year also marks the 100th anniversary of Italy’s entry into World War I: a dramatic conflict which we paid heavily for, but which also completed our national unity. A war which, above all, did not only involve Italians in Italy, but also the 115.000 Italians in America who left their adoptive Country to answer the call of their native land.

Amb. Claudio Bisogniero

Amb. Claudio Bisogniero

The anniversary of the Founding of the Republic which we recognize today thus represents a solemn opportunity to celebrate the identity of Italians and Americans of Italian origin, and to strengthen the bonds which join us. It is also a time to underline our pride in our common roots and in the promotion of Italy’s cultural excellence – in its widest significance – throughout the United States.

Upholding our identity goes hand-in-hand with furthering the language of Dante. We are all steadfastly committed to this, and to the final goal of reinstituting Advanced Placement Italian via financial self-sufficiency. The goal is in sight. It is therefore right, and important, to make that final push to give the Italian language the room and role that it deserves in this country, where over 25 million citizens claim Italian ancestry.

Italy and the US also enjoy strong economic ties. The strengthening of these relations, on a European level too, is an objective to strive towards to overcome current circumstances and to create new opportunities for growth and more jobs. In other words: prosperity and wellbeing. Italy therefore supports TTIP, the free trade project, which would unleash important economic benefits for both the United States and European countries – starting with Italy.

EXPO Milan 2015 – the spectacular world fair that opened its doors last month – is equally important, both in terms of economic potential and as a spectacular showcase to raise global awareness on nutrition and sustainability. Milan – and, through it, Italy – is currently the world forum for a decisive debate for humankind, centered on food and health – two areas in which Italy has long excelled.

My friends, let me take this opportunity also to underline once more my sincere appreciation for you, Italians of America: for your support of, and collaboration with, the Embassy and the entire consular network. This determination to be actively involved was reflected once more in the recent elections for the renewal of Comites. The results showed the different aspects of our emigration – traditional and more recent – join hands. They will, I am sure, play a pivotal role in promoting the interests of our collectivities.

Thank you for your work, your commitment, your study, your research and your creativity, and for the example that you set – all hugely contributing factors to the extraordinary, growing prestige of Italy in the United States.

You are our reason for pride.
Viva la Repubblica Italiana, viva gli Stati Uniti, and viva the Italians of America!

Claudio Bisogniero
Ambassador of Italy to the United States of America

Piero di Cosimo: The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florence

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The first major retrospective exhibition ever presented of paintings by the imaginative Italian Renaissance master Piero di Cosimo (1462–1522) premieres at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, this Sunday, February 1 through May 3, 2015. Piero di Cosimo: The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florence will showcase some 44 of the artist’s most compelling works. With themes ranging from the pagan to the divine, the works include loans from churches in Italy and one of his greatest masterpieces, Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Elizabeth of Hungary, Catherine of Alexandria, Peter, and John the Evangelist with Angels (completed by 1493), from the Museo degli Innocenti, Florence. Several important paintings will undergo conservation treatment before the exhibition, including the Gallery’s Visitation with Saints Nicholas of Bari and Anthony Abbot (c. 1489–1490)—one of the artist’s largest surviving works.

“We are delighted to share the brilliance of Piero di Cosimo—the Renaissance’s most spellbinding storyteller—with our visitors,” said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art, Washington. “This is also the first time the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence has co-organized a paintings exhibition with another museum and we look forward to many more projects with our Italian partners.”

After Washington, a different version of the exhibition, including work by Piero’s contemporaries, will be on view at the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence from June 23 through September 27, 2015, entitled Piero di Cosimo (1462–1522): Pittore fiorentino “eccentrico” fra Rinascimento e Maniera.

“No artist has given the world more rare and singular inventions while remaining in the shadow of the Renaissance greats of his time than Piero di Cosimo,” said Cristina Acidini, Superintendent of Cultural Heritage for the City and the Museums of Florence. “His beguiling pictorial creations will linger in the imagination of all those who see the exhibition.”

“Una iniziativa unica nel suo genere, di grandissimo prestigio – ha commentato l’Ambasciatore d’Italia a Washington Claudio Bisogniero – che conferma lo straordinario rapporto di collaborazione tra la National Gallery e il sistema museale italiano, grazie anche all’opera del Ministero degli Esteri italiano e della nostra Ambasciata. Per citare alcuni recenti esempi, penso alla mostra del David Apollo dal Museo Nazionale del Bargello e del Galata Morente dai Musei Capitolini che hanno rispettivamente aperto e chiuso il 2013 – Anno della Cultura Italiana negli Stati Uniti, la mostra della Danae di Tiziano dal Museo di Capodimonte per celebrare il semestre di Presidenza italiana dell’UE, e alla serie innumerevole di concerti, mostre, proiezioni di film che organizziamo costantemente con questo grande museo americano”.

Piero di Cosimo, Liberation of Andromeda, c. 1510-1513 Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Piero di Cosimo, Liberation of Andromeda, c. 1510-1513
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
Alinari / Art Resouce, NY

SOURCES:  NGA, IT-EMB

War & Art. Destruction and Protection of Italian Cultural Heritage During World War I

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During the First World War even Italy’s historical and artistic heritage became a powerful propaganda tool for the country affected by the war. The art and beauty destroyed during air raids or land battles were further proof of the “enemy’s barbarity.” The planned or accidental destruction of artistic monuments had already been condemned by France on Sept. 19, 1914, following the irreparable damages to Reims Cathedral, and even earlier, on Aug. 25, 1914, by Belgium when the historical library of Louvain was destroyed by fire.

Museum in Aquileia

Paul Adams of the Journal visiting the Museum in Aquileia, accompanied by the journalist Ugo Ojetti, 1916

Centuries-old art became an innocent victim of the war’s destruction. Stone sculptures could not survive steel shells.

In Italy, the destruction of culture was considered a cowardly and uncivilized act, a sort of blasphemous sacrilege, much like the violence perpetrated by invading armies against unarmed civilians. The idea that Italy’s national heritage could be used as a successful propaganda tool against the enemy was immediately put into action with photographs, like those in this special exhibition, that documented the damages of war to paintings, frescoes and churches. Photography was also used to sensitize the population in remote areas far from the front lines since this visual means proved the most effective instrument of persuasion—it could be easily understood even by the less educated members of the population and the illiterate. Newspapers and magazines thus detailed the beautiful artworks in the more famous Italian cities protected and defended against the “enemy’s barbarity.”

As shown in the exhibition, the photographs taken to document the protection of the art became art themselves. The sandbag walls and wooden structures built around precious sculptures and architectural features became art in themselves.

This exhibition, shown outside of Italy for the first time, has been organized by Istituto Per La Storia Del Risorgimento Italiano, Roma, the Embassy of Italy, Washington D.C., and the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago.

 

Photographic exhibit at the Kansas City (MO), National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial
November 18th, 2014 | February 17th, 2015

SOURCE: NATIONAL WORLD WAR I MUSEUM AT LIBERTY MEMORIAL

At National Museum of Women in the Arts, Picturing Mary: Woman, Mother, Idea

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Landmark exhibition explores images of Virgin Mary by renowned Renaissance and Baroque artists.

Appearing throughout the entire world, her image is immediately recognizable. In the history of Western art, she was one of the most popular subjects for centuries. On view Dec. 5, 2014–April 12, 2015, Picturing Mary: Woman, Mother, Idea, is a landmark exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), bringing together masterworks from major museums, churches and private collections in Europe and the United States. Iconic and devotional, but also laden with social and political meaning, the image of the Virgin Mary has influenced Western sensibility since the sixth century.

Picturing Mary examines how the image of Mary was portrayed by well-known Renaissance and Baroque artists, including Botticelli, Dürer, Michelangelo, Pontormo, Gentileschi and Sirani. More than 60 paintings, sculptures and textiles are on loan from the Vatican Museums, Musée du Louvre, Galleria degli Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti and other public and private collections—many exhibited for the first time in the United States.

“Among the most important subjects in Western art for more than a millennium was a young woman: Mary, the mother of Jesus. Her name was given to cathedrals, her face imagined by painters and her feelings explored by poets,” said exhibition curator and Marian scholar Monsignor Timothy Verdon, director, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence, Italy. “This exhibition will explore the concept of womanhood as represented by the Virgin Mary, and the power her image has exerted through time, serving both sacred and social functions during the Renaissance and Baroque periods.”

Picturing Mary is the newest project in an ongoing program of major historical loan exhibitions organized by NMWA, including An Imperial Collection: Women Artists from the State Hermitage Museum (2003) and Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, and other French National Collections (2012). In addition to illustrating the work of women artists, NMWA also presents exhibitions and programs about feminine identity and women’s broader contributions to culture. Picturing Mary extends, in particular, the humanist focus of Divine and Human: Women in Ancient Mexico and Peru, a large-scale exhibition organized by NMWA in 2006.