Masters of Italian Design. Prestigious exhibition at Studio Bolzani in Milan, a historical space for modern and contemporary art – Carlo Franza’s blog

The exhibition entitled “MASTERS OF ITALIAN DRAWING” is promoted by STUDIO BOLZANI of MILAN, a significant point of reference in the artistic plan of a strongly European city like Milan. The exhibition curated by me is entitled “MASTERS OF ITALIAN DESIGN” and brings together works by forty artists who have found in drawing the most suitable framework for their work.

“The collection of drawings of the Studio Bolzani in Milan, certainly a part of its totality, is a collection of works on paper by Italian authors from the eighteenth century to the present. The historical lesson of the exhibition is to demonstrate, through drawing, understood as works on paper in the broad sense (pencil, gouache, tempera, marker, ballpoint pen, collage), the historical importance and originality of Italian artistic movements over the centuries. The exhibition is a sort of atlas to orient oneself in the world of Italian drawing, not only chronologically but alsoand for themes that cut across the decades and the various artistic movements of the twentieth century. It is entitled “Masters of Italian Design” and focuses on the artistic research behind each drawing, almost like “Drawing a century”. As has often happened during its millenary history, drawing has often been relegated to a subsidiary role, but this is not the case. And surely for this exile it continues to thrive at the roots of the tree of graphis. Selected works, to underline the essential role of drawing in Italian art over the centuries with the idea of ​​forming a culture around this expressive medium, first of all Italian, which is still missing. Drawing, so fundamental for all artists especially in the 19th and 20th centuries, is absolutely the first externalized form of the artist’s idea, and therefore the degree of expressive freedom and immediacy is unparalleled. Sometimes, drawing coincided with the sketch for some other subsequent creation, but it should not be identified with the preparatory sketch because in most cases drawing does not refer to anything other than itself, it is an autonomous work. Drawing always arises as a very personal practice, as a dialogue with oneselfie their own ideas, and not all artists have presented their drawings at exhibitions, even though they are fundamental to them. We know from the artists that, precisely because of the great value attributed to this practice, they themselves have preferred to keep it for themselves because of its great immediacy. Drawing as a means of extreme authenticity is a precious asset for the artist, to be preserved with parsimony. A drawing cannot be corrected, and is initially conceived for a single spectator, namely the artist himself. It represents the artist laid bare and precisely in this lies its specificity, many drawings were born as autonomous works of art, not in function of a painting or a sculpture, and are true masterpieces often of greater expressive force than canvases or other. This exhibition is a partial study of two centuries of Italian art, and to discover how much painters and sculptors cared about drawing and considered it of equal value to their chosen expressive means. Italian drawing is little known, as if it were not a special wealth of our artistic heritage. What is a drawing? Drawing has been a laboratory of visual ideas, the study on paper of a prototype, the sum of the artist’s thoughts, a support on which to scribble sketches and drafts which then matured into definitive works. This is why Petrarca, in his collection of philosophical dialogues De remediis utriusque fortuneeplaced graphis at the base of the family tree of the visual arts because “to tell the truth, painting and sculpture are one and the same art,” observed the father of humanism. “Although distinct, they originate from a single source: the art of drawing” (Of remedies1.41). The selection of artists for the exhibition did not automatically follow the well-known names of Italian art, but those who have given a fundamental contribution to drawing, partly known, partly almost unknown, partly forgotten; the evolution of the practice of drawing through the forty selected artists. Within the collection, a prominent place is given to the splendid drawings of greats such as Giovanni Fattori, G. Carnovali Piccio, Cristoforo De Amicis, Giorgio Soavi, Angelo Crescimbeni, Marcello Dudovich just to name a few. Among the contemporaries are Maurizio Bottoni, Mario Donizetti, Marisa Settembrini, Agostino Zaliani, Teodoro Cotugno, Paolo Canciani, Alberto Fremura, Alessandro di Vicino Gaudio, Bruno Chersicla and others. In the drawings you will notice every phase within the evolution of an artist’s style and not only the most well-known or most requested; we have always tried to tell, where possible, a career, from the beginning to the late works. The great fragility of paper is inherent in the drawing and precisely in this lies its strength and its beauty. Appreciating it can be immediate. The drawing is the first sign of creation, of participation in life by the artist, which transforms into emotion for those who grasp it, and represents a privileged access to the idea that generated it. A concentration of great names to read the masters who have faced the ferments of modernity. We started from very beautiful and significant drawings, true masterpieces, and a synthetic and worthy panorama emerged. Italy is the country where the idea of ​​drawing was invented, so that drawing has its own continuity, in a continuous and constant relationship with Europe. It is an evocative journey that embraces masters of different eras, schools and styles but all always supported by that innate drawing quality that derives from an uninterrupted centuries-old tradition. The very rich Italian context involves everyone, major and minor artists, constituting a koinè that, if well read, seems like a small – or large – Renaissance”.

On display are the works of the following artists: NANDO ANDREOLI, ALBERTO BENEVENTO, DANTE BERTINI, PAUL WHITES, ANTONIO BOTTER, MAURIZIO BUTTONS, PAUL CANCIANI, JOSEPH CARSANA, BROWN CHERSICLA, CAMILLO TOP, THEODORE QUINTON, ANGEL CRESCIMBENI, ANTONIO SHORT, CHRISTOPHER OF 1970.

Carlo Franza