www.estorickcollection.com
Fausto
Pirandello (1899 – 1975) was one of the most important and influential painters
working in Italy between the 1930s and the 1950s. This, the first exhibition to
be devoted to his work in the UK, presents the work of a figure who was central
to Italian culture during the mid-twentieth century but who is perhaps less
familiar outside his native country than his famous father, the dramatist and
writer Luigi Pirandello. The exhibition runs
from 8 July – 6 September 2015 at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art
in London.
Comprising some 50 works, the show includes
many of Pirandello’s masterpieces in this complete
overview spanning his entire career. Like Lucian
Freud, Fausto Pirandello’s vision of reality was raw, carnal and unflinchingly
objective. Among the key
works on display are Women with Salamander (1928-30), Gymnasium (c. 1934), The Staircase (1934), Drought (1936-37), Women Combing their Hair (c. 1937), The Models (1945), Through the Spectacles (1953-54)
and Bathers on the Beach (c. 1961).
1.
Composition, 1928
Oil on canvas, 106 x 100 cm
Private collection
2.
Interior
in the Morning, 1931
Oil on canvas, 178 x 151 cm
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Musée national d’art moderne / Centre de création
industrielle
3.
View
of the Cupolas of S. Spirito, 1932
Oil on board, 48 x 64 cm
Private collection
4.
Golden
Rain, c. 1933
Oil on board, 100.5 x 130 cm
Galleria
Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome
5.
Gymnasium
(Athletes – Athletes in a Gymnasium),
c. 1934
Oil on board, 163 x 113 cm
Private collection
6.
Drought, 1936-37
Oil on board, 155 x 155 cm
Galleria
Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome
7.
Befana in Piazza Navona, c. 1951
Oil on board, 99 x 71 cm
Private collection
8.
Bathers
on the Beach (Large Bathers), c. 1961
Oil on board, 103 x 150 cm
Private collection, Rome
Fausto
Pirandello was born in Rome in 1899 and began to devote himself to painting
immediately after the First World War. His attention to unsettling details, use
of diagonal compositions and uncompromising realism meant that his style was at
odds with the prevailing spirit of the ‘return to order’. He became one of the
leading figures associated with the important Scuola Romana during the early
1930s, rejecting the classicism typical of the Novecento group which had
dominated the art of the preceding decade.
Between 1928 and 1930 Pirandello lived in Paris, where his work underwent a decisive change following his contact with the ‘Italiens de Paris’, and his imagery began to acquire an almost surreal character, despite its focus on harsh reality and use of a technique informed by the heavy textures of Cubist painting.
Returning to Rome
in early 1931 Pirandello adopted a resolutely personal
artistic approach, creating enigmatic compositions
which are remarkable for their spatial ambiguity,
lack of readily identifiable meanings and sense of existential drama, free from any narrative elements.
During the post-war years Pirandello continued
along his independent course, keeping his
distance from the main trends and
groups that emerged in Italy at the
time. Between the late 1940s
and the early 1950s he developed a new
style grounded in the use of broken, agitated planes and
elliptic, expressionistic geometry.
From the 1920s onward Pirandello participated in all of the most important Italian exhibitions, such as the Venice
Biennale and the Rome Quadriennale, and his work was also
included in many international shows. He was a
constant voice in Italy’s cultural
debate, espousing a consistently modern and international outlook.
The exhibition has been curated by Fabio Benzi and organised by the Estorick Collection in collaboration with the Fondazione Fausto Pirandello; the catalogue will include essays by the curator as well as Francesco Leone and Flavia Matitti, a member of the Associazione Fausto Pirandello, which has kindly supported the exhibition.
About the Estorick
Collection
The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art
is internationally renowned for its core of Futurist works. It comprises some
120 paintings, drawings, watercolours, prints and sculptures by many of the
most prominent Italian artists of the Modernist era. There are six galleries,
two of which are used for temporary exhibitions. Since opening in 1998, the
Estorick has established a reputation and gained critical acclaim as a key
venue for bringing Italian art to the British public.
