The Thirties. The Arts in Italy beyond Fascism
September 22, 2012 – January 27, 2013
Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi (Florence)
Curated by Antonello Negri with Silvia Bignami, Paolo Rusconi, Giorgio Zanchetti and Susanna Ragionieri for the section on Florence
In 1930s Italy, during the Fascist era, a very vigorous artistic battle was waged, involving every style and trend, from Classicism to Futurism, from Expressionism to Abstraction, and from monumental art to salon painting. The scene was enriched and complicated by the emergence of design and mass communication—posters, wireless, films—which espoused many ideas from the “fine” arts and conveyed them to a broad public. It was a complex and vital time of experimentation, open to the outside world, the prelude to our modern era.
The exhibition will present this decade through a selection of high-quality works, which at the same time offer a historically informed narrative of the time, fully conveying its aesthetic, cultural and ideological atmosphere. The exhibited materials will include art works (paintings, sculpture and graphics), photographs (both experimental and documentary), models.
