Trapani. At the Pepoli Museum in Trapani two new canvases by Guttuso: presentation on May 3rd at 17 pm.
The heritage of the Pepoli Regional Museum of Trapani is enriched with new contemporary works.
Trapani. At the Pepoli Museum in Trapani two new canvases by Guttuso: presentation on May 3rd at 17 pm.
The heritage of the Pepoli Regional Museum of Trapani is enriched with new contemporary works. Two autographed canvases by Renato Guttuso, recently acquired, they will be presented to the public on Friday, May 3, at 17pm, in the Museum's conference room, in the presence of the regional councillor for Cultural Heritage and Sicilian identity and the general manager of the Cultural Heritage department. The two works were generously donated by Michelangela Scalabrino, retired professor of the Catholic University of Milano who wanted to pay homage to the museum of her family's hometown. As a child, the professor spent her summer holidays in Trapani with her father, a doctor who had received these paintings as a gift from the Bagheria painter. The event, entitled "Guttuso. The passion for color. Acquisitions at the Museum", was organized with the contribution of the Amici del Museo Pepoli association.
The first painting, "Farmer riding a donkey” made in 1954, is a study for a large oil painting entitled “The occupation of uncultivated lands”, an expression of that “social realism” that inspires a large portion of the production of the master from Bagheria. The theme is particularly dear to the painter who tackles it several times with different results and expressive languages: from the Marseillaise peasant of 1947, of post-cubist imprint, to the famous version of 1949-50, characterized by a solemn sacredness of the story and strong chromatic dissonances.
In the second canvas, "peasant” made in 1956, Guttuso portrays a woman with a large bundle on her head who proceeds with sacred solemnity within a barren and rocky landscape. In both works the epic of the humble is represented, intent with extreme dignity and composure on the toil of hard daily work. The chromatic brightness and the intense luminosity of the landscape, which forms the backdrop to the figures, fully embody the solarity of that Sicilian land so dear to the master.
The two canvases, included in the catalogue and become part of the museum's permanent collection, will be placed in the spaces of the art gallery, in the small room that hosts the famous "Portrait of Nunzio Nasi" by Giacomo Balla, now destined to host works from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The exhibition layout of the environment is remodeled with the return to use of the splendid bronze "Head of an Old Man" by Domenico Trentacoste from Palermo, which has been stored in storage for many years, an expression of that humanitarian socialism which in the late nineteenth century shaped the work of numerous intellectuals and artists. In the same space is placed the marble bas-relief with "Female Figure", which Domenico Li Muli from Trapani sculpted in the second half of the 30s.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright La Milano