Spring at Palazzo Fortuny
The Zurich Room – Tribute to Zoran Music
An Italian Collection – Artworks from the Merlini
Collection
The Zurich Room
A Tribute to Zoran Music
In 1949, Zoran Music (Bocavizza, 1909 – Venice,
2005) was commissioned by sisters Charlotte
and Nelly Dornacher to
decorate the basement of their villa in Zollikon
near Zurich. The result was to
be an example of a “total work of art”:
in addition to creating paintings on plaster and on jute and linen canvas, the
artist also designed the decorative patterns embroidered on the curtains and
tablecloth that adorned the room. Several pieces of furniture, though not
designed by him, were chosen on his agreement and completed the space created
for holding social gatherings. The
Zurich Room was recreated at Palazzo
Fortuny as the central element of an exhibition and tribute to its creator,
which is curated by Daniela Ferretti
and on view until July 23.
The Zurich Room
A Tribute to Zoran Music
The
many design motifs of an almost dizzying richness that Music created for this room, constitute a sort of iconographic
compendium of artistic production in those years. In addition, there are the
views of Venice: the domes and
facade of the Basilica, the Palazzo Ducale, balustrades, arches,
the piazza porticoes, the Basin of San
Marco, San Giorgio, the Dogana and the fishing boats.
Daniela Ferretti curator and director of Palazzo Fortuny
Zoran Music
Self Portrait – 1948 – Ida
– 1950
colored pencil on paper
photograph courtesy Palazzo Fortuny
Zoran Music and Ida Barbarigo
On the terrace of his studio in Palazzo Pisani
Zoran Music
Fragments of decorations from his studio in Palazzo Pisani
tempera on wall - oil on panel - 1948
Zoran Music – Studio per
Cavallini– 1949
charcoal on paper
Zoran Music - Cavallino Azzuro – 1951
oil on canvas
Zoran Music – Grand Canal -1948
oil on canvas
photograph and copyright Manfredi Bellati
Spring at Palazzo Fortuny
An Italian Collection - Artworks from the Merlini Collection
The
Merlini Collection, until
July 23, is curated by Daniela Ferretti
and Francesco Poli; sculptures,
drawings and above all paintings, exclusively Italian Art (except for some rare exceptions), traverses the entire
Twentieth Century from the earliest
decades with works that date back to the founding moment of Modernism. It includes drawings by Amedeo Modigliani, paintings by Filippo de Pisis and, then, works by Adolfo Wildt, Giorgio de Chirico, Alberto
Savinio, Mario Sironi, Gino Severini, Giorgio Morandi and Massimo Campigli, up until the period
of Italian Abstractionism and Arte Informale, with important works by
Mario Radice, Lucio Fontana, Alberto
Burri, Piero Dorazio, Giulio Turcato, Roberto Crippa, Alfredo Chighine and Piero Ruggeri.
Alberto Savinio – Apollo - 1931
tempera on
canvas
Mariella Gnani
conservator of the Merlini Collection and art restorer
photograph and copyright Manfredi Bellati
Lucio Fontana – paintings
Adolfo Widlt – La
Concezione – 1921
white Carrara marble (center)
An Italian Collection
Artworks from the Merlini Collection
The collection offers a very broad overview of
twentieth-century Italian Art, and
at the same time prompts a major question: what energies drive the continuing
desire to collect? What kind of intellectual curiosity and which casual
encounters orient choices that contribute to giving each collection its own
physiognomy and the impetus that makes it accessible to the public?
photograph and copyright Manfredi Bellati
“Every collection is suspended
between two opposing poles: order and disorder, and it is the figure of the
collector that gives it meaning, far more than the objects that compose it.”
Walter Benjamin
Turi Simeti – Senza Titolo –
Rosso – 2010
acrylic on shaped canvas
Cesare Peverelli – Senza Titolo – 1957 - oil on canvas
Roberto Crippa – Spirali - 1952 – oil on canvas
Roberto Crippa – Spirali - 1951 – oil on canvas
Enrico Baj – Bambini– 1955 – oil and collage on canvas
Vincenzo Gemito - busts - 1874-1878 – terracotta
Claudio Parmiggiani – Senza Titolo – 2008 –
fire, smoke and soot on panel
photograph and copyright Manfredi Bellati
The Press Preview
Giorgia Pea, cultural attache, Daniela Ferretti (standing), curator and director of Palazzo Fortuny and Zoran’s niece Vanda Music
Bertozzi and Casoni –
Composizione n.17 – 2014
polychrome ceramic