Palazzo
Pitti
In the Sala Bianca
Palazzo
Pitti - Sala Bianca - Edvard Munch (1863-1944)
Dal
Realismo all'espressionismo (From Realism to Expressionism)
Dipinti
e opere grafiche dalla galleria Nazionale di Oslo (Paintings and Works
on Paper from the National Gallery Oslo) 30 October 1999 - 13 February
2000
Over the past years
Marco Chiarini, Director the Galleria Palatina has pursued an active
exhibition program devoted to showing modern art. Monet paintings
from Chicago, Marc Chagall, modern paintings from the Thyssen-Bornemisza
Collection and also from the National Gallery of Prague have all been featured
in the amazing ambience of the Sala Bianca. All shows have been
a huge success with the Florentine public as Chiarini offers a window to
modernity in a city locked within the renaissance. A more intractable museum
than the Pitti does not exist, every decorated wall, ceiling and doorway
is an integral part of the museum. Nothing can be changed, modified, re-positioned.
Instead of lamenting the lack of free, stark, white exhibition space such
as we find in the Uffizi, the Director has elected to utilize the lavishly
decorated "White Room" with its massive hanging chandeliers as a unique
setting in which to show art from another era. This juxtaposition of two
completely different worlds makes for a revealing and novel viewing experience.
Some would argue that the room itself is too much of a distraction, but
strangely enough it is not.
The Pitti exhibition
of just seventeen paintings and a selection of graphic works offers "Munch
in a nutshell" as we trace his development from 1883 to 1919. Included
on the same ticket is access to the main Galleria Palatina and a whole
wing of the palace's state rooms. What better way to spend a rainy day
in Florence! |
our choice :
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Self-Portrait with Cigarette, Berlin 1895
oil on canvas 110.5 x 85.5 cm
Munch was thirty-two years old when he painted
this elegant image of himself in the blue violet haze of cigarette smoke.
He was already a well known and controversial artist. Munch was to paint
his own image many times throughout his entire life.
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Girls on a Bridge, c. 1901
oil on canvas, 136 x 125 cm
The year 1900 signals a change in Munch's painting
style. Often called blandly, his 'symbolist' period it is a style idiosyncratic
to Munch which he is still best remembered for and which culminated in
his famous 'The Scream'. It was most likely painted in the Norwegian vacation
town of Asgardstrand where Munch spent his summers.
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Moonlight, 1895
oil on canvas, 93 x 110 cm
Painted at Asgardstrand in Summer and is one
of a series of studies Munch painted of this sinuous beach strand. Instead
of introducing a figure to convey narrative, Munch allows the landscape
to speak with its own voice.
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Mourners,
1894
oil
on canvas, 120,5 x 141 cm
One
of the central panels in the 'Frieze of Life' - Munch also called it "After
the Original Sin". It reflects Munch's difficult relationship with women.
"Modern woman is either a saint or a whore, devoted to infidelity."
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Winter, 1899
Oil on carton, 60,5
x 90 cm
Painted precisely 100
years ago this eloquent woodscape seems painted without symbolic intent.
It is a nocturnal snow scene painted in the area of Nordstrand, near Oslo. |
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