Reserve

The theme of the nude is more complex than that of still life. It includes moral, religious, social as well as stylistic and aesthetic dimensions and deals with the taboo of what can or cannot be shown at different times.

For the second time the Galleria d’Arte Moderna of Bologna, one of the few major museums of modern and contemporary art in Italy, will be staging from January 22^nd until May 9^th a comprehensive exhibition dedicated to one of the leading themes of western art: the nude. Just as the exhibition dedicated to still life (2001-2002) chose Manet as a starting point, the exhibition “The Nude between Ideal and Reality: a History from Neoclassicism until Now” starts with Canova and runs through to the most recent figurative trends. It will be structured into three different sections: painting and sculpture, photography and video- performance.

The theme of the nude is more complex than that of still life. It includes moral, religious, social as well as stylistic and aesthetic dimensions and deals with the taboo of what can or cannot be shown at different times. So works which have been created for private viewing now become public, for instance the drawings and water-colours of Schiele, Klimt and Rodin. The exhibition demonstrates the changes regarding the philosophy of life, from the artificial fictions of Neoclassicism to today’s view of the fragmented body. The organisers and curators have tried to illustrate the change of styles from Neoclassisim, Realism, Victorian Painting, Historicism, Symbolism, Impressionism, Expressionism, Surrealism, Pop Art, Conceptual Art, Neo-expressionism and so on. Groups of paintings are put into dialogue with sculpture. The exhibition contains numerous three-dimensional works and presents to the viewer major works by Canova, Giacometti, Gauguin, Degas, Maillol, Marini, Lachaise, Martini, Laurens, Rodin and Jones.

The Gallery has been transformed by the Architect Holger Wallat and presents the entire project in 2400 square.

The section on photography includes about 200 works from lenders such as the Biblioteque National, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum Folkwang of Essen and follows the concept of illustrating movements and changing styles in the depicting of the nude.

Images which have caused scandals are integrated with unknown images by well-known photographers.The performance section, curated by Alessia Masi gives on overview of action and performances from Duchamp until the present (Manzoni, Klein).

Thanks to the generous collaboration of European and American private and public collections (see list) the exhibition will present many important masterpieces by the artists of the period under investigation, such as Canova, Rodin, Martini, Bourgeois for the sculpture section and Ingres, Degas, Courbet, Renoir, Cézanne, Picasso, Schiele, Klimt, Modigliani, Dix, Delvaux, Dubuffet, Freud, Hockney, Warhol right up to Baselitz and the latest generations for the painting section. The photography section features works ranging from Nadar, Stieglitz, Man Ray, Weston to Mapplethorpe and Goldin and finally, the performance section includes Duchamp, Klein, Abramovic and Nitsch.

The exhibition, realized in collaboration with ArtificioSkira, is promoted by Bologna City Council, the Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna and the Fondazione Carisbo. It also has among its eminent patrons The Presidency of the Senate, The Presidency of the Chamber of Deputies, The Regional Council of Emilia Romagna, The Province of Bologna, the Università degli Studi di Bologna and Prof. Romano Prodi.

Two catalogues will be published by ArtificioSkira, including essays by Luca Beatrice, Penelope Curtis, Paolo Fabbri, Umberto Galimberti- Uliana Zanetti, Claudia Gian Ferrari, Peter Gorsen, Claudio Poppi, Alison Smith and Peter Weiermair for the volume on figurative arts, and Claudio Marra, Ulrich Pohlmann and Peter Weiermair for the volume on photography.