From Friday 31 March to Sunday 25 June 2023, the Museo della Grafica of Palazzo Lanfranchi in Pisa is hosting the exhibition 'I colori dell'anima. Giuseppe Viviani (1898-1965)'.
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Inauguration: Friday 31 March, 6 p.m.
"They are the colours of the soul": this is how Giuseppe Viviani justified the magical chromatic accord of one of his paintings from 1941 (The Tureen) so much loved by his friend Giuseppe Mesirca.
With poetic simplicity, the artist explained everything. In the painter's palette as in the engraver's plate, his colours and signs fascinated many of the great intellectuals, connoisseurs and collectors of the first half of the 20th century, from Sebastiano Timpanaro to Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, from Enzo Carli to Giuseppe Mesirca, from Piero Chiara to Giovanni and Vanni Scheiwiller. And with today's eyes, the colours of the soul are still able to convey some of the most intense emotions to the contemporary world.
More than half a century after the great anthological exhibitions that Pisa paid tribute to the master in 1960 and 1966, and after the recent Segni con l'odore del mare (Signs with the Smell of the Sea) dedicated to engravings, the rooms of the Museo della Grafica in Palazzo Lanfranchi are once again presenting a wide selection of paintings, drawings and engravings by the Pisan artist.
A painter of remarkable originality and extraordinary poetic density, together with Giorgio Morandi and Luigi Bartolini one of the most appreciated engravers of the 20th century - and like the Marches engraver also a writer and poet - Giuseppe Viviani (1898-1965) populated his works with ice-cream parlours and bicycles, dogs and watermelons, miniature monuments and fig leaves, recounting a melancholic, poignant surreal and fairy-tale suburbia.
In an evocative chronological itinerary, with works from public and private collections, many of which have been rediscovered and re-proposed for the occasion, the artist's production is recomposed through the most significant exhibition moments that have accompanied his widespread international success.
The exhibition is divided into the following sections
Portraits
In Marina di Pisa
The 1930s: between painting and engraving
The 1940s: among the greats of the 20th century
The 1950s: success, awards, friends
The colours and flowers of the soul
Curated by Alessandro Tosi. With the collaboration of Paolo Bassano, Francesco Bosetti, Antonio Cariello, Franco Fiorenzani, Lorenzo Gremigni, Rocco Leone, Nicola Micieli, Sergio Simi, Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi. With Silvio Guarasci as consultant for the paintings by Giuseppe Viviani. Restorations by Silvia Gazzina. Mounting and set-up Acme04. Photographs Vincenzo Pennè
Exhibition organised by the Museo della Grafica (Municipality of Pisa, University of Pisa) with the collaboration and patronage of: Northwest Tuscany Chamber of Commerce, Municipality of San Giuliano Terme, Arpa Foundation, Central Institute for Graphics, Palazzo Blu, Region of Tuscany, University of Pisa University Museum System, Verdi Theatre.
https://museodellagrafica.sma.unipi.it/
