On reopening for the 2013-2014 season, the IMAGO Art Gallery is pleased to present "Reminiscences", an exhibition dedicated to one of the most important Masters of the 20th century in Italy, the great Artist Massimo Campigli
.
Although it is always a pleasure and an honour to present such important Artists, it is always extremely difficult to introduce the essence of the Artist into the projects dedicated to them. Over the years, in fact, distinguished historians, established critics and artists have been able to describe, analyse and appreciate the work of Massimo Campigli, to the point that adding our words to theirs would seem restrictive, inadequate and even clumsy; the task would be even more arduous in the case of Campigli, who was a writer himself.
With this important project entitled “Reminiscences”, developed in close collaboration with the Campigli Archive and conceived to coincide with the publication of the General Catalogue Raisonné of the Master’s work, IMAGO Art Gallery has put together an accurate selection of works to offer the most complete overview of the thought and work of the Artist, whose career originated and flourished amidst the innovative currents of the twentieth century.
Massimo Campigli’s work is not easy to interpret, constantly charged with hidden aspects, references suspended in time that we could call “archaic”, reminiscences of primeval archaeologies where the reflection and constant summarising of Etruscan, Egyptian and Barbarian fragments as a way of evoking ancestral traces blends with a perpetual and subtle search for modules and subliminal equilibriums peculiar to the most accentuated contemporary sphere, creating combinations of cultures, stories in images that are forever suspended between the most erudite refinement and pure evocative instinct.
So according to our tradition, we let the works themselves and the words of the poet Sergio Solmi be our guide in the world and poetry of Massimo Campigli, whose life as an artist seems to reflect the profound changes and upheavals that occurred in the previous century.
To end this short introduction we would like to close with a thought of Massimo Campigli:
“…I would like people to be able to live with my paintings as with a slow, silent pendulum. If what matters is the psychological element of the painting, there is nothing more favourable because the subconscious manifests itself in working while absorbed in purely technical problems, almost to distract the mind." (M. Campigli)