Franco Guerzoni

Franco Guerzoni, La parete dimenticata (The forgotten Wall).  Painting Exhibition

Stanze dell’Andito degli Angiolini (Modern Art Gallery), Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy

23 February 2013 - 7 April 2013

By Pier Giovanni Castagnoli and Fabrizio D’Amico

Franco Guerzoni was born in 1948 in Modena (Bologna), where he still works and lives. Since the early seventies he has been studying different methods of image representation, in particular he focused on photography. At the same time he has had a strong  interest in the archeological world in order to examine the aspects of cultural stratification and the idea of ancient related to the concept of loss, but not willing to reconstruct it.

In the early eighties Guerzoni experienced a deep artistic change that leads him to the realization of big wall painting works, plasterboards that examine the idea of imaginary geography; in the end of the eighties he works on the surface seen as a deepness: Decorazioni e rovine (Decorations and ruins), presented at the Biennale of Venice in 1990, and Restauri provvisori (Temporary Restorations), on display at the Council Modern Art Gallery of Bologna. The exhibition by Franco Guerzoni in Palazzo Pitti opens a dialogue between ancient and contemporary. The exhibition consists mostly of the artist’s work of the last decade, focused on the following themes: ravages of time, ruins, archaeologies, memory traces, but it presents also a selection of older works going back to the seventies, when Guerzoni still applied photography to his work. This journey into painting consists in cycles, Affreschi (Frescos, 1972), Carte di viaggio (Journey Maps, 1982), Decorazioni e rovine (Decorations and ruins, 1990), Sipari (Curtains, 2001), Antichi tracciati (Old Traces, 2006), up to the ones presented in this exhibition like: Iconoclasta (Iconoclast, 2007), Impossibili restauri (Impossible Restorations, 2010) and Strappi d’affresco (Fresco Rifts, 2012). The exhibition also includes three brand new works realized just for this occasion, inspired to the exposition area and which Guerzoni himself calls Three dedications to Palazzo Pitti.

Opening times : 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Free entrance