"There is nothing that is superfluous, but, as in every work that is strongly aesthetic, he is simple, tense, alive. For him color is a conflict of power and his material lives by his tension, it is sensitive and luminous."
Peggy Guggenheim
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Edmondo Bacci - Energy and Light
At the Peggy Guggenheim Collection the new exhibition - until September 18 - Edmondo Bacci: Energy and Light - organized and curated by Chiara Bertola, Manager of Contemporary Art Projects, Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice. The exhibition features approximately eighty works—many of which have never been exhibited before and is the first and most extensive retrospective dedicated to Venetian artist Edmondo Bacci (1913–1978).
Avvenimento #13R - Avvenimento plastico - 1953
The exhibition focuses primarily on the 1950s, the most lyrical and creative period of the artist's career, and when he achieved international success. Indeed, during this period, as an established exponent of Spazialismo, and among the most innovative artists of the Italian art scene, Bacci captured the attention of Peggy Guggenheim and leading art critics through the novelty of his painting, the generative force of his color, his rupture of spatial planes, and the circular rhythm of his brushstrokes. Bacci was one of the finest representatives of Venetian post-war art, together with, among others, Tancredi Parmeggiani and Emilio Vedova, who also achieved international success and acclaim.
Fabbrica - 1951
Archivio Edmondo Bacci - courtesy Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Edmondo Baci in his studio - Venice - early 1960s
Avvenimento #372 -1961
Avvenimento - 1954
Bacci was also one of the few artists in Italy to understand the possibilities of the latest type of abstraction, merging contemporary trends in Europe and the United States with his unique and personal style. The exhibition tells this story through works that are crucial to understanding the evolution of the pictorial language of color and light that so impressed Guggenheim, as well as Alfred H. Barr Jr, the director of the Museum of Modern Art of New York, who acquired Avvenimento #13R - above - in 1953. The work, now in the holdings of the New York museum, makes a special return to Italy, where it will be on public view for the first time.
Avvenimento #27 - 1954
Avvenimento - 1954
"..So much for the mysterious little man. But his paintings, that is another matter.
I know them. They are children of today. They are Dynamic.
They are the atomic bomb on canvas. They burst with light energy and color.
Each new one is more vital than the last.
I feel they are so explosive that they endanger the safety of my palace."
Peggy Guggenheim
Peggy Guggenheim at Palazzo Venier dei Leoni - Venice - 1956
on the wall - center - Avvenimento #247 -1956
Correspondence
Untitled - 1962c.
Untitled -1978 - Untitled -1975c. - Untitled -1975c. - Untitled 1974
Avvenimento #293 - 1958
Avvenimento #246 - 1956
The exhibition ends with Giambattista Tiepolo's impressive oil-on-canvas - The Final Judgement - 1730-1735c. - On loan from the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, it demonstrates how Bacci was influenced, from his early training at Venice's Accademia di Belle Arti, by the artists of the past, particularly the luminous chromatism of Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione, and especially the spatial qualities of Tiepolo's skies and large-scale frescos.
Gianbattista Tiepolo - The Final Judgement - 1730-1735c.
Edmondo Bacci - Avvenimento #31-A - Esplosione - 1967
Press Breakfast on the Terrace
Overlooking the Canal Grande on the terrace of Palazzo Venier dei Leoni we drank Caffe Lavazza in the edible Cookie Cup and after enjoying the espresso, we ate the delicious cookie cup designed by Enrique Sardis with pastry chef, Lello Parisi and Team Lavazza - such a great invention.
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