The Labirinto della Masone welcomes the Ugo Celada da Virgilio exhibition for spring-summer 2023. Ancient and modern enigma curated by Cristian Valenti, with the desire to tell the story of an artist who, although isolated from the contemporary art circuit of the twentieth century, and therefore not included in the critical debate of the time, was able to navigate the last century by informing himself on what was happening, appropriating the references of past and contemporary figurative culture and reworking them through the filter of his style which he kept intact and constant throughout his life. 1931 remains a watershed in his career, the year of his harsh stance against Margherita Sarfatti's Novecento Movement, defined as an oppressive political-commercial formation and accused of having codified an Art of State. From that moment on, Celada begins a journey towards isolation that will lead him to be forgotten.

It was only in 1985 that his figure was rediscovered, thanks to Flavio Caroli, who dedicated an illuminating essay to him which, however, was not followed up in subsequent anthologies and exhibitions dedicated to the art of the early twentieth century. The Ugo Celada exhibition from Virgil. Ancient and Modern Enigma aims precisely to relocate the artist within the cultural context of his time, proposing new dialogues with the works of other artists - his contemporaries and ancient masters - which well exemplify how Celada was informed about the world around him and knew look at others without losing one's own characterizing elements.

And what better place to tell this story than the Labirinto della Masone, also home to Franco Maria Ricci's publishing house: two aesthetics, those of Celada and Ricci, which speak the common language of beauty, also demonstrated by the portrait of the artist already present in the Labirinto collections, an elegant gentleman with glasses created with extreme detail, almost hyper-realistic.

The exhibition displays around fifty works by Celada and other artists compared with him, mostly coming from private collections. The itinerary develops in three rooms which retrace the genres addressed by the painter: family affections, nudes, portraits and still lifes. The first room is dedicated to the years of training and the creation of a personal style, especially focused on the sphere of family affections, which lend themselves well to restoring the intimate dimension of magical realism painting; the second environment focuses on the representation of the human figure and therefore portraiture; finally we encounter still lifes, much loved for the infinite possibilities of rendering details, and plein air landscapes, few in number in the artist's corpus, but which help to convey an image of a versatile and diversified painter in terms of styles and genres .