The exhibition the City of Lugano dedicates to the work of Giorgio Morandi, unquestionably one of the most important figures of the Twentieth Century, will be one of the unmissable events of 2012 artistic panorama.

This important anthological exhibition is curated by Maria Cristina Bandera, Director of the Florence Fondazione di Studi di Storia dell’Arte Roberto Longhi and by Marco Franciolli, Director of the Museo Cantonale d’Arte and Museo d’Arte of the City of Lugano, in collaboration with Maria Pasini, assistant curator at the Museo d’Arte, and Simona Tosini Pizzetti.

The exhibition traces Morandi’s entire artistic career, from his first creations right up to the final works, covering all the themes and the techniques with which the great master engaged himself throughout his creative journey.
Exhibited work will include still-lifes, a genre with which his name is often associated, flowers compositions, landscapes and his most important self-portrait, completed in 1924. In addition to the oil paintings, there will be drawings, watercolours and engravings which reveal the artist’s extraordinary ability in translating volume, light and atmosphere into an absolute art which transcends the represented reality.

The exhibition will feature nearly one-hundred works from both public and private collections, many of which were first assembled by insightful friends, collectors and reviewers whom Morandi aimed his creations at, including Francesco Arcangeli, Augusto Giovanardi, Roberto Longhi, Luigi Magnani, Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, Giovanni Spadolini and Lamberto Vitali.
After many decades, and in some cases for the first time, important Swiss and Italian collections are presented side by side in Lugano, a city which was the destination of one of Morandi’s rare trips outside of Italy.

While on the surface his art may appear repetitive because it focuses on a limited range of subjects, upon closer inspection it reveals an extraordinary power of expression and a unique depth of analysis.

The exhibition will also feature works by Staurt Arends, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Lawrence Carroll, Craigie Horsfield, Franco Vimercati, and Rachel Whiteread, artists who have taken up Morandi’s legacy and whose works reassert the extraordinary modernity of the art of Giorgio Morandi, authentic precursor and maestro to many generations. The American artist Lawrence Carroll, who has stated in various occasions the importance of Morandi’s influence for his own artistic production, has created a series of new works specifically for this exhibition.

Cinema will also be present in the exhibition, in particular in relation to the movies where Morandi’s works appear in the background of domestic scenes and which bear witness to the interest raised by Morandi’s paintings among other intellectuals. Among the featured movies are: Kiss me Deadly, Robert Aldrich, 1955, La dolce vita, Federico Fellini, 1960, La notte, Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960, Io sono l’amore, Luca Guadagnino, 2009.

The exhibition catalogue published by Silvana Editoriale features reproductions and profiles of all the works on display as well as critical essays by the exhibition curators.