‘Ennio Calabria. Verso il tempo dell’essere. Opere 1958-2018’

‘Ennio Calabria. Verso il tempo dell’essere.

Opere 1958-2018’

Curator: Gabriele Simongini

Rome, Palazzo Cipolla Museum

From 20 November 2018 to 27 January 2019

Exactly sixty years after his first solo exhibition (Galleria La Feluca, Rome, November 1958) and little more than thirty years after his last anthological show in Rome (Museum of Castel Sant’Angelo, 1987), a major anthological exhibition is going to pay a special tribute to Ennio Calabria. The exhibition will be hosted in the halls of Palazzo Cipolla and has been warmly supported by Professor Emmanuele F.M. Emanuele and sponsored by the #fondazioneterzopilastro – Internazionale. It has been realised by Poema in cooperation with the Archivio Calabria and #civita Mostre has provided the technical support. The curator is Gabriele Simongini.

It features about eighty works including paintings (some of them made specifically for the occasion) and pastels to illustrate how the career of this outstanding protagonist of visionary and existential figurative art in Italy and Europe has evolved. Since 1958, the Roman artist has been creating works of art overflowing with a complex and exuberant vivacity and an imaginative power which go hand in hand with unambiguous philosophical and anthropological speculation. Through the most recent surprising and giant leaps in his inventiveness, he has painted, and is still doing so, works that succeed in turning the changing processes of our society and contemporary man into images by almost prophetically anticipating possible future metamorphoses. For him, painting has first and foremost a testimonial value, it is a metamorphic and complex living unit in which the artist pours himself, from the depth of his being.

As Gabriele Simongini writes, ‘’During those sixty years of research, painting has taken up a powerful social value for Calabria in a broad sense. He uses it as a tool to learn about the endless transformations of a world that has shifted from the Cold War to the current global dominion of Hi-Tech corporations and an unrecognisable Italy. The latter, in particular, has passed from the enthusiasm of reconstruction and the economic boom to a sense of displacement stemming from its currently being a symbol of European crisis. It is a painting of ‘history’ in its broad, etymologically never illustrative sense (from the Latin historia, that is

‘research, investigation, cognition’) and carries a sense of profound identification between communal events and inner autobiography.” Being interested in understanding the symptoms and causes of social regression and the prevailing of a basically aggressive collective instinct which seems to match increasingly frenetic technological progress, Ennio Calabria believes that his painting today “should present itself as something one feels, rather than something one understands.”

Professor Emmanuele F.M. Emanuele, President of the #fondazioneterzopilastro - Internazionale says, “Ennio Calabria has guided Italian and European figurative art from the 20^th century to present, dominating as an absolute protagonist always in line with his time. I am particularly glad to dedicate such a rich and exhaustive anthological exhibition to this artist whose works generate an energy and vitality that mirror his critical and passionate approach to the world around him. His attitude leads to a comprehensive research about the existential condition of contemporary individuals and the dynamics of a constantly changing era.”

The opening painting of the exhibition will be the paramount Imponderabile nel circo, displayed at his first solo exhibition in 1958, to continue with the artist’s most famous masterpieces (La città che scende, 1963; Funerali di Togliatti, 1965, rarely exhibited; Pantheon, 1978-79; Il Traghetto per Palermo, 1984; La città dentro, 1987; Eretto antropomorfo, 1993, etc.). The exhibition leaves enough space for the works created from the year 2000 to now (Presentimento d’acqua and Ombre del future from 2008, Il pensiero nel corpo from 2010, Patologia della luce from 2012, L’Uomo e la Croce from 2016, etc.) and to the five works he has created over the past five months which have never been exhibited. A special emphasis will be placed on the portraits (from Stalin from 1964 and Mao Pianeta from 1968 to Italo Calvino. Voglia di eterno from 2013, only to mention a few without forgetting those dedicated to Pope John Paul II), and also on the pastels and a small selection of manifestos that Calabria has made over the past years.

The catalogue is published by Silvana Editoriale and will include texts by Professor Emanuele, Gabriele Simongini, Claudio Crescentini, Paola di Giammaria and Ida Mitrano, in addition to an interview with Calabria by Marco Bussagli and photos of all the works on display. It will also feature a selection of the artist’s texts (selected and commented by Tiziana Caroselli) and an extensive bibliography. The exhibition will also present some of the most remarkable documentaries and film footages dedicated to him. In particular, Raffaele Simongini has shot a videoclip with the artist receiving and introducing himself to the visitors at the Palazzo Cipolla Museum.

Biography

Ennio Calabria was born on 7 March1937 in Tripoli. In 1958, his first solo exhibition was organised at the art gallery La Feluca in Rome. Due to his ability to be a witness of his time through his painting dealing with social topics and autobiographical themes at the same time, he was then identified by art critics as one of the most interesting painters of the generation that emerged during the period spanning from 1950 to 1960. In 1961, he established the group ‘Il pro e il contro’ together with other painters like Attardi, Farulli, Gianquinto, Guccione and Vespignani, and art critics like Del Guercio, Micacchi and Morosini. It became a central point of reference for new research in Italian figurative art while informal art was prevailing.

The main theme of his artistic research is the high speed of social interaction in our time and the endless metamorphosis of human beings stemming from it. During his long artistic activity, Ennio Calabria has received numerous and prestigious prizes and has participated in major events such as the Venice Biennale and Rome Quadriennale. His first anthological exhibition dates to 1985 and was organised at the Rotonda della Besana in Milan; then, it went to Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome. A monograph accompanied it with essays by Mario De Micheli, Dario Micacchi and Giovanni Caradente, and was published by Vangelista.

Among the most recent exhibitions, worth mentioning is the one at Palazzo dei Normanni in Palermo curated by Gabriele Simongini and the small tribute to the painter organised at the headquarters of the Italian Council of State at Palazzo Santacroce-Aldobrandini in Rome where six large works of art were presented in April 2012. In 2011, the artist displayed his large sized works at the Italian pavilion of the Venice Biennale and at the Guatemala International Pavilion in 2015. In 2016, he participated in the #event ‘7 artisti in 7 chiese per il Giubileo della Misericordia’ with his work titled ‘L’uomo e la Croce’ on display at the church of Sant’Andrea della Valle. He lives and works in Rome.

Info about the Exhibition

Title

Ennio Calabria. Verso il tempo dell’essere. Opere 1958-2018

Curator: Gabriele Simongini

Running

From 20 November 2018 to 27 January 2019

Venue

Rome, Palazzo Cipolla

Via del Corso 320

Opening Hours:

Tuesday through Sunday, from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm

The ticket office closes at 7:00 pm

Closed on Monday

Festivities and Extra Openings

8 December from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm

24 December: Closed

25 December from 3:00 pm to 8:00 pm

26 December from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm

31 December: Closed

1 January from 03:00 pm to 8:00 pm

6 January from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm

Tickets:

Full price € 7.00

Reduced € 5.00: For #people up to 26 years of age, senior citizens (65 and older); Law Enforcement Agencies and Army Members, university students, accredited journalists, only upon presentation of their card; holders of special discount cards (valid in Italy) such as: Fai, La Feltrinelli, Biblioteche di Roma, Italian Touring Club;

Free Admission for children under the age of 6, differently-abled #people and one escort, ICOM members, licensed tour guides of Lazio Region.

INFO

Phone +39 0622761260

www.civita.it