GIORGIO DE CHIRICO “BIENNIAL IN FIRE” 1950-1954

Mario Rimoldi Museum of Modern Art - Cortina d'Ampezzo

7 December 2023 – 1 April 2024

The exhibition GIORGIO DE CHIRICO “BIENNALE A FOOCO” 1950-1954 , curated by Stefano Cecchetto and Roberto Zamberlan in collaboration with the Rimoldi Museum.

Starting from the correspondence between Giorgio de Chirico and the Venetian art dealers Giorgio and Uccia Zamberlan, the story linked to the "Antibiennali" exhibitions, organized by de Chirico and held in Venice from 1950 to 1954, is reconstructed.

De Chirico entered into controversy with the Venice Biennale and with the critic Rodolfo Pallucchini, who in 1948 had dedicated a room to Metaphysical painting with the presentation of works not appreciated by the Master; de Chirico also denounced the Biennale for having exhibited a fake painting of his: Il Trovatore . The artist therefore decided to organize, every two years, in contrast to the Biennale, a personal exhibition, aimed at proclaiming his painting as an emblem of 'true art' against the 'modernist' art exhibited at the Biennale. The story attracted a lot of attention and, thanks to de Chirico's media strength, it turned into an event.

Due to the strong bond that united de Chirico to Giorgio Zamberlan and Zamberlan himself to Mario Rimoldi, the exhibition was conceived within the Mario Rimoldi Museum of Modern Art; among other things, some paintings present at the "Antibiennali" were then sold to Rimoldi by Zamberlan himself and are now part of the Museum's prestigious collection. For Giorgio Zamberlan, Venice and Cortina, centers of wealthy tourism willing to invest in works of art, were very important: through his careful mediation, he consolidated a circuit of major collectors at both a national and international level.

The exhibition develops starting from the works of de Chirico present in the museum and continues with paintings by the artist from other collections and with works by those 'guest' artists that de Chirico himself invited to participate in his "Antibiennali" exhibitions: Carlo Guarienti , Felice Carena, Romano Gazzera, Alessandro Pomi, Antonio and Xavier Bueno Luigi Spazzapan, Carlo Socrate, Gregorio Sciltian, Luigi Zuccheri and other protagonists of the period.

Since, since the controversy with the Biennale, de Chirico has been, and still is, among the most falsified artists of the twentieth century, in order to remember and bear witness to the battle of the Pictor Optimus against fraudulent activity and for the protection of his pictorial work , some "counterfeits" seized by the Financial Police are also on display.

A section of the exhibition is also dedicated to the historic "Santo Stefano" Gallery of Giorgio and Uccia Zamberlan, where some of the most prestigious names of the twentieth century artistic panorama have paraded, including Giorgio de Chirico, Massimo Campigli, Michele Cascella, Giuseppe Cesetti, Mino Maccari, Zoran Music, Filippo de Pisis, Bruno Saetti, Corrado Balest, Franco Gentilini, Felice Carena, Marco Novati, Gennaro Favai, Ernani Costantini, Guido Cadorin, Virgilio Guidi, and the young promises of the time, who became witnesses of a new expressive language, such as Carlo Hollesch, Giorgio Valenzin, Franco Renzulli, Ferruccio Bortoluzzi, Giuseppe Gambino, Aldo Andreolo, Raoul Schultz... Many works by these artists then entered the collection of Mario Rimoldi who, in the renewed pictorial language of the twentieth century, knew how to choose - also through the advice of his friend Giorgio Zamberlan – the paintings that met his personal taste.