Three years after the pandemic, isolated life seems to have become the norm. However, there is such an artist in the world who has been isolated from himself almost all his life, but finally completed his own bloom. After more than half a century, when we have the opportunity to walk into the exhibition hall of this master and feel his paintings at close range, we hope to bring a little peace and tranquility to the isolated life.
At present, the solo exhibition of the famous Italian artist giorgio morandi is under way in Kyushu Art Museum. This exhibition is not only the first large-scale solo exhibition held by Mo Landi in Shanghai, but also the largest number of 51 original works of Mo Landi in previous exhibitions held in Shanghai. The exhibition was opened to the public on July 9 and lasted until October 9 this year.
Giorgio Morandi is famous for the color stories left in his palette, which was later called “Mo Landi Color”. Whether an artist or an ordinary person, his character is introverted. Apart from a little experience when he was young, he never joined an art group or participated in an art movement. He almost never left his hometown of Bologna (the only time he went abroad was to see Paul Cézanne’s art exhibition in Zurich), never married and had children, and lived a simple life as isolated as himself. This exhibition is named after the artist “giorgio morandi” in order to better explain his artistic career, and it is also the best embodiment of Mo Landi’s pure artistic accomplishment and achievements.
Giorgio Morandi (July 20, 1890-June 18, 1964) was born in the northern Italian city of Bologna. When he was young, he was admitted to Bologna Academy of Fine Arts, where he worked for a long time after graduation. As an art teacher, I teach printmaking courses. His life has experienced two world wars and stormy artistic experiments in the 20th century, but he has always been immersed in the ordinary life of the studio. Whether painting flowers or bottles, the low saturation color of gray can always give people extremely gentle spiritual comfort. Some western critics believe that Mo Landi’s paintings focus on some small themes, but reflect the state of the whole universe.
“giorgio morandi Exhibition” traces the complete artistic career of this Italian painting master in chronological order. The exhibition will be divided into three stages of Mo Landi’s art: “From the early experiment to the interaction between light and shadow”, “Mature stage: eternal landscape painting and still life painting” and “Mo Landi’s poems in his later years”, spanning giorgio morandi’s recent creation. 50 years of creative career. Four painting media used in Mo Landi’s creative career were exhibited, including oil painting, watercolor, pencil/graphite, etching, and well-known creative themes such as still life, flowers and landscape sketches. These works in different periods represent the artist’s different life experiences and creative essence, and show his true and pure artistic life.
From early experiments to light-shadow interaction
In his early years, Mo Landi’s artistic style was not finalized, and his artistic career was interrupted by the influence of World War I. During this period, he studied various schools, honed his painting and printmaking skills, and made several short trips (he never left Bologna and other hometown he loved in his life) to collect paintings along the way. Mo Landi’s earliest works, such as the two little-known early still life paintings shown in this part, reflect his cautious combination with the major art movements in the early 20th century.
Around 1920, he began to think about metaphysics with De chirico and Carla. The main features of Mo Landi’s works at this stage are sharp edges and corners, fine description and clear lines. In his works, there are not only silhouettes of characters that complement each other with De chirico, but also containers such as bottles, cups, cans and dishes. These ordinary objects will become the absolute protagonists in Mo Landi’s works in the future.
In the mature stage of still life painting, Mo Landi patiently and meticulously feels the arrangement of daily trivial things, which seems simple, but in fact it has far-reaching significance. In his works, infinite collocation is synthesized by means of color change, light and shadow application and shape juxtaposition. Although the bottles are made of obscure opaque glass, they have a soft resonance in Mo Landi’s works, just as delicate and clear as Mozart’s glass music.
In the middle of the creator’s career, Mo Landi not only created objects in the studio, but also extended the brush to the summer natural scenery in the quiet countryside: both ordinary objects and natural scenery.
After World War II, Mo Landi’s creation remained faithful to two long-standing themes: in some works, he composed inanimate objects; Looking out the window of his country house or apartment in Via Fontazza, Bologna. The nameless courtyard he glimpsed in the city was sandwiched between the high walls of the surrounding houses and was silent in the noise.
Mo Landi painted the scenery here repeatedly, and the picture was simple, warm and touching. As time goes by, his picture becomes narrower and narrower, and sometimes he even creates a small area in the center of the canvas to concentrate the vision of the image. Mo Landi has used similar techniques in printmaking.
In Mo Landi’s later works, the most recognizable feature is the new arrangement of objects: in the early years, bottles and cans were side by side and adjacent; Gather in the center of the canvas to make its elements dense and form a.
Mo Landi’s studio is located in Via Fondazza, and he died in his apartment in Bologna in 1964. The cabin was silent and dimly lit, and there were “rubbish and old things” everywhere. But it is here that emotions and facts are depicted on a small canvas, and the universal value of things is restored under the influence of art. It is here that Mo Landi finally shows the true colors of artists: eternal classics.
Mo Landi once said, “You don’t have to look at many things, but look carefully at what you see. One can travel around the world and see nothing. ” He also said: “I am essentially a still life painter, and my works reveal a sense of tranquility and privacy, and these two emotions are what I always value most.” Artists who have lived in a state of self-isolation all their lives believe that the “closed” self-state is the most real.
Balthus, a good friend, once commented: “Mo Landi is undoubtedly the closest European painter to Chinese painting. Be content to show the world you see, but use it to express your feelings. “
In recent years, Mo Landi color is very popular in China, and many people come into contact with this master’s name because they bought Mo Landi color products. In front of these products, as long as you intuitively feel the tranquility and Zen brought by the color itself.
The implicit use of color and tranquility in Mo Landi’s works not only makes the viewer enter a spiritual world similar to meditation, but also has similarities with China’s traditional painting and has the same effect. The exhibition under the epidemic situation also gives China audience a chance to appreciate the magical charm of art across cultures and regions, as well as the unique brilliance of world culture blending and learning from each other.