Giorgio Morandi: Works from the Estorick Collection May 7, 2009

Thurs, May 7, 6:30-9pm, and May 8-June 30, Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm

The Bay Area will have a rare opportunity to see the works of leading Italian modern master Giorgio Morandi in an unprecedented exhibition of 20 of his etchings and drawings from a private collection. Giorgio Morandi: Works from the Estorick Collection was one of three exhibitions mounted in New York, including a watershed exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in the fall of 2008 as the first US retrospective of Morandi's internationally influential work. The exhibition on view at the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco May 7-June 30 originated at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York and was curated by Renato Miracco.

"It is exciting to pay tribute to one of Italy's most celebrated modern masters in a city like San Francisco that has such a history of technical and artistic innovation that also began to flourish during the time of Morandi," says Amelia Carpenito Antonucci, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco. "Morandi has had such a wide-ranging following and influence not only in the visual arts, but on filmmakers like Fellini, on designers, architects, philosophers and anyone who finds profound beauty in the eloquent arrangement of light, color, space and thought."

Influenced by artists such as Caravaggio and Giotto, Giorgio Morandi forged a style that deliberately limited subject matter using rigorous repetition and variation of color, proportion and shape. Giorgio Morandi: Works from the Estorick Collection comprises primarily the still lives and landscapes for which Morandi is best known. Though he worked primarily as a painter, his works on paper reveal a dramatic shift in focus towards the pursuit of new extremes of economy and monumentality. These pared-down, eloquent etchings and drawings, which often border on abstraction, are imbued with a sense of quiet intimacy and are among the artist's most radical compositions.

Free.

Official Website: http://www.iicsanfrancisco.esteri.it