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Milan, October 3 2019 – The Museo del Novecento dedicates the largest Milanese retrospective of the last 50 years to Filippo de Pisis, which aims to restore the pictorial sensitivity of the Ferrarese artist and his leading role in the experience of Italian painting between the two wars.

The exhibition is promoted and produced by the Municipality of Milan | Culture - Museo del Novecento and by the Electa publishing house, with the support of the Association for Filippo de Pisis. Open to the public from 4 October to 1 March 2020, the exhibition is curated by Pier Giovanni Castagnoli with Danka Giacon, curator of the Museo del Novecento.

“The exciting investigation that the Museo del Novecento conducts on the most significant figures in the history of twentieth-century art in Italy and beyond continues with a true protagonist of the last century - declares the Councilor for Culture Filippo Del Corno -. An exploration that is always strongly connected to the Museum's collection, from which continuous stimuli for in-depth analysis emerge in different and multiple directions, as many as the varieties of expression of a very fertile time, in which Milan was the nerve center of talent and creativity" .

Poet and painter with versatile talent, Filippo de Pisis (Ferrara 1896 - Milan 1956) is an unparalleled figure in the artistic events of the Italian twentieth century. He crossed countries and pictorial movements leaving his mark without ever giving himself entirely to any artistic current.

A tireless traveller, he lived and worked in Milan, Rome, Venice, Cadore, but above all in Paris and London, all "fatal" places for him and hotbeds of continuous pictorial suggestions.

Throughout his career, de Pisis used an incredible variety of subjects, always filtered by his personal narrative and without ever conforming to a style that was not his own: lively city views, airy landscapes of the mountains dear to him, intense portraits capable to capture the personality of the figure described and unusual combinations of still lifes.

Divided into 10 rooms, the exhibition presents to the public over 90 paintings, among the most 'lyrical' of his production, coming from the main Italian museum collections: Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art of Ferrara, Mario Rimoldi Regole Museum of Cortina d' Ampezzo, Gallery of Modern Art in Turin, Mart in Trento and Rovereto, Ca' Pesaro in Venice and the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome.

The chronological path introduces and unfolds the world of de Pisis, from the beginning of 1916, in which the echo of the encounter with the metaphysical painting of de Chirico resonates, up to the dramatic period of the long hospitalizations in the psychiatric clinic of Villa Fiorita at the beginning of the fifties.

In a continuous game of references between word and colour, between poetry and painting, the exhibition also retraces the crucial themes of de Pisis' poetics through combinations of urban views, still lifes and seductive marine fantasies: from "The Onions of Socrates" (1926 ) of the Grenoble Museum to “Hysterical Still Life” (1919), to “Ring Square” (1935) from the Augusto and Francesca Giovanardi collection, to “French Soldier” (1937) from the Mario Rimoldi Museum of Modern Art - Regole d' Ampezzo di Cortina, up to the “Gladiolo fulminato” (1930) from the Ferrara collections, just to mention some of the masterpieces on display.

On the occasion of the inauguration of the exhibition, and until Sunday 6 October, from 19 pm until XNUMX am, on the facade of the Arengario palace you can admire a visual installation with a movement of butterflies, inspired by the invitation that the painter Alberto Savinio addresses his friend Filippo de Pisis "instead of hunting butterflies, hunt your talent". Creativity is by Orama.

From the spring of 2020, the exhibition will be hosted at the National Roman Museum of Palazzo Altemps curated by Pier Giovanni Castagnoli with Alessandra Capodiferro, as part of the program dedicated to the art of the Italian twentieth century: in the rooms of the Museum a large selection of papers and watercolors by Filippo de Pisis, an inevitable reflection on the ancient, together with a significant group of paintings.

The exhibitions will be accompanied by a single catalog published by Electa.

OPENING HOURS

Monday 14.30pm_19.30pm

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday 9.30am_19.30pm

Thursday and Saturday 9.30_22.30

the ticket service ends one hour before closing

TICKETS

full € 12

reduced € 10

special reduced € 6

family special €10 adult (1 or 2 adults)

€4 children (from 6 to 14 years)

By purchasing the entrance ticket to the Museo del Novecento, entry to the exhibition is reduced to €10

Information

T. +39 02 884 440 61 - c.museo900@comune.milano.it

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