Omaggio a Carlo Levi. L’amicizia con Piero Martina e i sentieri del collezionismo (Homage to Carlo Levi. The friendship with Piero Martina and the collecting paths)

The exhibition opening at the Rome Modern Art Gallery, curated by Daniela Fonti together with Antonella Lavorgna (Fondazione Carlo Levi) and Antonella Martina (Archivio Piero Martina), addresses the new theme of the friendship between Carlo Levi (Turin 1902-Rome 1975) and Piero Martina (Turin 1912-1982) fifty years after the death of the anti-fascist painter and writer.

It is more than 60 works by Carlo Levi and Piero Martina, compared and coming mostly from the Fondazione Carlo Levi in ​​Rome and the Archivio Piero Martina in Turin, together with loans from important Italian cultural institutions and public and private collections. The exhibition therefore offers a broad overview of the pictorial production of the two artists from Turin, linked for over three decades by a long and solid friendship. The exhibition compares the paintings of the two artists made from the 1920s and 1930s up to the 1960s, focusing in particular on the post-war decade, a rich and intense season from the point of view social commitment and the expressive research point of view, which the two friends shared in the Roman years.

A section within the exhibition entitled “Dear friend…” is then entirely dedicated to nineteen paintings by Carlo Levi exhibited to the public for the first time, which represent the corpus of the Angelina De Lipsis Spallone Collection. This collection was born from the friendship between Angelina De Lipsis, a doctor and art collector who passed away in 2020, a great supporter of Carlo Levi’s painting and Linuccia Saba, Umberto’s daughter and Carlo Levi’s companion during his Roman period.

The initiative is promoted by Roma Capitale, Department of Culture, Capitoline Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and organized by Zètema Progetto Cultura. The section dedicated to the Angelina De Lipsis Spallone Collection is curated by Giovanna Caterina De Feo.

Photo credits: Piero Martina, Southern Landscape (1949), Galleria d'Arte Moderna Torino