For its third exhibition season devoted to Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964), the Center for Italian Modern Art (CIMA) unites nearly 40 rare paintings, drawings, and etchings from the 1930s — the pinnacle of artistic maturity for the legendary Italian still-life artist. It’s also the first time in decades these major works are on view in the United States.Gathered from private and public collections around Europe, the show’s highlights include an extraordinary self-portrait that has not been presented in the U.S. in nearly half a century, a series of more than 20 of the still-life bottle paintings Morandi was best known for, and a bottle-shaped sculpture Morandi fabricated specifically to depict in his paintings.The exhibition also draws parallels with works by contemporary artists whose pieces relate to Morandi’s thematic and conceptual practice by juxtaposing them with Morandi’s modernist paintings. The main space features a wax sculpture by Wolfgang Laib, while the other gallery areas display photographs and videos by Tacita Dean, Joel Meyerowitz, and Matthias Schaller capturing various objects inside Morandi’s Bologna studio.CIMA espouses a scholarly approach to the study of 20th-century Italian art, and viewers are encouraged to enjoy prolonged interactions with the works in the exhibition’s intimate, living room–like spaces. CIMA’s founder and president Laura Mattioli hopes that people can “stay quietly in front of the work to have a personal, direct relation with the works, as in at home.”“Giorgio Morandi” is on view now through June 25 in New York at the Center for Italian Modern Art, 421 Broome Street, 4th floor.
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