Capogrossi. Dietro le quinte

Died 50 years ago on 9 October 1972, Giuseppe Capogrossi was one of the fathers of informal painting and 20th-century Italian art, celebrated at the 1954 Venice Biennale with a memorable solo room. The exhibition at the Galleria Nazionale brings his work back to Rome after more than 20 years, kicking off initiatives in tribute to the artist that will continue with a widespread exhibition throughout Italy, involving some 25 museums and institutions.

Curated by Francesca Romana Morelli, the exhibition allows the public to retrace Capogrossi’s journey with free juxtapositions untethered from the chronology of execution, presenting a selection of more than 30 paintings and about 20 works on paper. The works come from the collections of the Galleria Nazionale, which has the artist’s most conspicuous nucleus of works, the Capogrossi Archive Foundation and private collections. Among the works on display are the iconic Superficie 274 (1954), Autoritratto con Emanuele Cavalli (c. 1927), Paesaggio invernale (1935), taken from the terrace of a building in the Prati district, where Capogrossi had his studio, the essential and enigmatic Superficie 538 (1961) or the large tapestry Astratto (1963), designed for the Turbonave Michelangelo. One room is devoted to the white Rilievi, made by the artist in the 1960s, which demonstrate his inexhaustible will to experiment.

The exhibition is completed by archival documents preserved in the Gallery Archives and at the Foundation, such as photographic portraits of Capogrossi with prominent figures of the time, exhibition catalogs, magazines, letters and newspaper articles, which reconstruct the relationships woven by the artist.