Entirely dedicated to the Bolognese painter Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964), the museum – officially inaugurated in October 1993 – is housed on the second floor of Palazzo d’Accursio, next to the Municipal Art Collections, in specially renovated and adapted spaces. Born from the Archive and Morandi Study Center section, opened in 1982 in dedicated spaces of the Modern Art Gallery, the museum was created at Palazzo d’Accursio by testamentary constraint expressed by Maria Teresa Morandi on the occasion of the donation of her brother artist’s works to the city; and integrated by the Gallery section. The exhibition also includes twenty-two works from the Francesco Paolo Ingrao collection, purchased by the Municipality in 1985, and numerous testamentary legacies, among which are the collection that belonged to Cesare Gnudi, and some deposits, such as the small Still Life once donated by the artist to the critic and friend Francesco Arcangeli. The itinerary is completed by a visit to the house at via Fondazza 36, where the master lived and worked between 1910 and 1964, presenting itself as a sort of “memory room” including personal objects of the artist and family. The path includes a visit to Morandi’s studio reconstructed with original objects such as the famous easel, palette, brushes, and the objects repeatedly portrayed in the paintings. The room where he received guests preserves the small but interesting collection of ancient art already owned by the master. Complementing the path are documentation spaces with photos, videos, and documents, a multipurpose room, and the library. The museum was directed until 2001 by Marilena Pasquali and, later, from 2005 by Claudio Poppi, who redesigned its organization with correct historical-artistic philology. The monographic collection consists of two hundred and fifty works, of which sixty-one oil paintings executed between 1910 and 1964, eighteen watercolors, eighty-eight drawings, seventy-nine etchings, two sculptures, and two matrix plates displayed in a philological and dynamic path aimed at recalling the atmosphere of the artist’s studio with his collection of ancient art masters. Giorgio Morandi developed his extraordinary artistic poetics with great originality, yet touching, within his research focused on the themes of still life with bottles, flowers, and landscape, all the evolutions of art, from metaphysics to informal art, drawing inspiration from the more geometric and silent medieval and modern painting, from Giotto to Masaccio and Paolo Uccello, from Chardin to Cézanne. The activity of the Morandi Museum aims to enhance its heritage and relate the figure of the painter and his work to similar or parallel experiences nationally and internationally, with particular reference to collecting: notable exhibitions include Zoran Music. Venetian Watercolors, Exhibition of twenty-seven paintings by Giorgio Morandi previously owned by the José Luis and Beatriz Plaza Collection, Jean Michel Folon. Watercolors and sculptures, Paul Klee. Figures and metamorphoses, Alberto Giacometti: drawings, sculptures and graphics, Max Klinger. Engravings from a private Bolognese collection, Julius Bissier. Works from 1925 to 1965, The Morandis from the Giovanardi Collection, Luciano de Vita. The first etchings. 1950-1956 and Domenico Rambelli. Drawings, Josef Albers. Homage to the Square – a retrospective, Mario Pozzati with Drawings and Concetto Pozzati. Morandi’s high artistic profile was promoted abroad in various exhibitions including Giorgio Morandi. Paintings and works on paper from 1914 to 1963, in Lisbon, Morandi retrospective exhibition in Madrid, Giorgio Morandi. Flowers and Landscapes, in Tokyo and Giorgio Morandi. Watercolors, in Vienna and Winterthur, and in Bologna, and among the most recent Rembrandt and Morandi: changing dances of engraved signs, Efrem Tavoni and Giorgio Morandi. Tribute to a friendship and Engraved Literature. Additionally, to highlight the figure of the Bolognese painter, the Giorgio Morandi engraving Prize was also established. The museum spaces have also hosted exhibitions of 20th-century and contemporary artists whose work establishes a profound dialogue with Morandi’s works, such as “Bernd & Hilla Becher” (2009), “Alla dolce patria: il ritorno in Italia di Filippo de Pisis” (2009), “Wayne Thiebaud” (2011), and “Alexandre Hollan. Silences en couleurs” (2011).
Information about Morandi Museum
Piazza Maggiore, 6,
40121 Bologna (Bologna)
051203646
mmorandi@comune.bologna.it
Source: MIBACT
