Si chiude il 29 gennaio a Philadelphia Modigliani UP Close. una mostra importantissima che, basandosi su una ricerca iniziata nel 2017, con un’importante retrospettiva alla Tate Modern, esamina da vicino come Amedeo Modigliani ha creato le sue opere. Specialisti in tutta Europa e negli Stati Uniti hanno portato avanti un’indagine dettagliata sullo stile unico dell’artista, gettando nuova luce sulla sua pratica, in una mostra che riunisce pezzi importanti provenienti da collezioni museali.
Organizzato da un team di curatori e conservatori—Nancy Ireson e Barbara Buckley del Barnes, la consulente curatrice Simonetta Fraquelli e la conservatrice Annette King di Tate, Londra—Modigliani Up Close esplora i metodi di lavoro e i materiali dell’iconico artista.
Negli Stati Uniti, uno dei primi collezionisti statunitensi dell’arte di Amedeo Modigliani fu il dottor Albert Barnes che acquistò molti dipinti nello stesso periodo in cui fece nascere la Fondazione Barnes, compreso gran parte delle opere del periodo africano, dettaglio che sottolinea il fascino degli oggetti dell’Africa occidentale sull’arte contemporanea francese.
Diversi pezzi importanti furono acquistati dall’ex commerciante Paul Guillaume, che nel 1923 li presentò in una mostra di alto profilo a Parigi. Il dottor Barnes ha svolto un ruolo fondamentale per l’affermazione di Modigliani nel mercato internazionale. Nella metà degli anni ’20, le opere dell’artista iniziarono ad entrare nelle collezioni dei musei americani, e il loro valore aumentò costantemente. Con 12 dipinti, una scultura e tre lavori su carta, il Barnes ospita una delle più importanti collezioni Modigliani nel mondo.
Simposio Modigliani
Durante l’ultimo fine settimana di Modigliani Up Close, saranno ospitati esperti d’arte da tutto il mondo per approfondimenti sugli anni di ricerca alla base della mostra e sul significato di Modigliani al Barnes.
Lezione principale Venerdì 27 gennaio, 18:00-19:30
Modigliani Up Close, a Symposium sabato 28 gennaio, 10:30 – 17:30
I curatori di questa straordinaria mostra sono:
Barbara Buckley is the Senior Director of Conservation and Chief Conservator of Paintings at the Barnes Foundation. She joined the Barnes in 1992 and has overseen conservation treatments of works in the collection, including the recent treatment of Paul Cezanne’s Large Bathers, uncovering new information on the artist’s creative processes. She has published on the materials and techniques of artists Amedeo Modigliani, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Horace Pippin, and Joshua Reynolds and has a special interest in the history of artist stretchers. She is an active participant in the American Institute for Conservation and was recently honored with the prestigious Paintings Award from the Paintings Specialty Group of the American Institute for Conservation. She received her M.A. in Art Conservation from the Cooperstown Graduate Program at the State University of New York.
Simonetta Fraquelli, an independent curator specializing in early twentieth-century European art, is Consultant Curator for the Barnes Foundation. Fraquelli began her career at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, where she worked for over 20 years on a range of exhibitions. Since 2006, she has collaborated with several leading European and American museums. In 2017, she co-curated one of the largest exhibitions of Modigliani’s work, Modigliani at Tate, London, (cocurated with Nancy Ireson), and was a co-curator of Soutine / de Kooning: Conversations in Paint at the Barnes in 2021. She has published on many additional artists including Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, and Gino Severini. She holds advanced degrees from the Courtauld Institute, London.
Nancy Ireson is the Deputy Director for Collections and Exhibitions and Gund Family Chief Curator. She has held curatorial positions at several of the world’s leading arts institutions including the National Gallery, London, The Art Institute of Chicago and Tate Modern, London, before arriving at the Barnes in 2018. At Tate, she co-curated two major exhibitions: Modigliani (with Simonetta Fraquelli, 2017) and The EY Exhibition: Picasso 1932 – Love, Fame, Tragedy (with Achim Borchardt-Hume, 2018). Ireson has championed the use of technology in exhibitions, and has published extensively on artists including Georges Seurat, Paul Gauguin, and Henri Rousseau, and lectured across the world on impressionist, post-impressionist, and early twentieth century art. She holds a doctorate from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London.
Annette King is a Paintings Conservator at Tate, London. She has an MA in modern Languages from Cambridge University and Postgraduate Diplomas in Art History and Easel Paintings Conservation from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. She has worked at Tate for 25 years specializing in the study and conservation of Modern and Contemporary paintings. She has published on early-twentieth century artists including Pablo Picasso, Francis Picabia, Max Ernst, and Amedeo Modigliani. She is a fellow of the International Institute for Conservation (ICC).
