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Sixty years after his death, an original journey of over one hundred works reconstructs his entire artistic career

Milan, July 22 2021 – The exhibition “Mario Sironi. Synthesis and grandeur”, a large and in-depth retrospective that traces the artist's work sixty years after his death. The exhibition, scheduled from 23 July 2021 to 27 March 2022, is curated by Elena Pontiggia and Anna Maria Montaldo, director of the Museo del Novecento, in collaboration with Andrea Sironi-Strausswald (Associazione Mario Sironi, Milan) and Romana Sironi (Archivio Mario Sironi of Romana Sironi, Rome).

Over one hundred works on display, which reconstruct the artist's entire artistic career: from his youthful Symbolist season to his embrace of futurism; from his original interpretation of metaphysics in 1919 to the classic moment of the Italian twentieth century; from the expressionist crisis of 1929-30 to the monumental painting of the XNUMXs; until the Second World War and the Apocalypse painted shortly before his death. An original scientific project capable of providing an unprecedented reading of the artist's work and human story.

“The Museo del Novecento continues with its research work on Italian authors of the 20th century with an artist who, like few others, was able to live the spirit of our city, continuing to innovate style and languages ​​– declared the Councilor for Culture Filippo Del Corno –. And this attitude towards continuous renewal is an artistic hallmark of Sironi, who was able to become an emblematic interpreter of the plurality of expressive experiences that animated the early Italian twentieth century".

The exhibition also includes the "Sriamone" rooms of the Museum itself and of the Casa Museo Boschi Di Stefano, and makes use of loans from the major Italian museums, including the Pinacoteca di Brera, Ca' Pesaro and the Guggenheim Foundation of Venice, the MART of Trento and Rovereto and from private collections, thus bringing together the Maestro's most significant works in a single context. In fact, some masterpieces are on display that had not appeared in a Sironi anthology for almost half a century (the fascinating “Pandora”, 1921-1922; “Country in the valley”, 1928; “Houses and trees”, 1929;
“L'abbeverata”, 1929-30), and others still completely unpublished.

Widely represented in the exhibition is the cycle of urban landscapes, Sironi's most famous theme, which acquires intensity after his arrival in Milan in 1919 and expresses both the drama of the modern city and a powerful desire to build, in every sense. Among these are well-known masterpieces such as “Synthesis of urban landscape”, 1921; “The Cathedral”, 1921; “Urban landscape with tram” 1925-28, from the Museo del Novecento, exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1928; the “Periphery” of 1943.

Sironi, however, was also a great interpreter of the human figure. A large group of works bear witness to this in the exhibition, including the Pierfrancescano "Nudo" from 1923, favored by Margherita Sarfatti; the mysterious “Woman with a Vase” of 1924; the “Fisherman”, 1925; “The mountain fairy”, 1928; the “Niobide” of 1931, and the painful “Lazarus” (1946) where, for the first time in the millenary iconography of the subject, Sironi paints a Lazarus who does not rise again, symbol of the collapse of all his ideas, starting with the fascist one that he believed in.

Ample space is then dedicated to his connection with mural painting in the 1935s, of which he was theorist and interpreter. There are monumental masterpieces such as the luminous “Winged Victory”, the gigantic study for the great hall of the Sapienza University of Rome, the visionary “Condottiero on horseback” (all created in 1937) and the powerful preparatory study, almost six meters long, of the “ Corporate Justice” (38-XNUMX).
Leaving behind the section dedicated to mural painting, the "journey" through Sironi's art comes to an end in the last rooms which document the artist's dramatic final years, also tormented by the loss of his daughter Rossana, who takes her own life in 1948 at eighteen.
To accompany the exhibition, a prestigious catalog created by the Ilisso Publishing House. The volume, in addition to the introductory essay by Anna Maria Montaldo, contains an extensive essay and analytical sheets of all the works edited by
by Elena Pontiggia, scholar of the artist and author of his first biography (“Sironi. The grandeur of art, the tragedies of history”, 2015); furthermore, the insights of Fabio Benzi on Sironian futurism and of Maria Fratelli, director of the Casa Museo Boschi Di Stefano, who explores Sironi's relationship with the collectors Antonio and Marieda Boschi with unpublished letters.
“Mario Sironi. Synthesis and grandeur” is part of “La Bella Estate”, the summer cultural program promoted by the Municipality of Milan which, until 21 September, will offer Milanese people and visitors to the city a rich calendar of artistic, cultural, sporting, recreational and of free time (continuously updated program on yesmilano.it/labellaestate).

Opening hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday: from 10.00 to 19.30 Thursday: from 10.00 to 22.30 Monday closed

More information at: www.museodelnovecento.org

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