The explosive varieties of Cai Guo-Qiang’s flowers at the Uffizi Galleries.

An explosion of colors on canvas that represents the many varieties of flowers: this is the main theme of “Flora Commedia”, the solo exhibition of the contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang, on display at the Uffizi Galleries from November 20 last, until February 17 next.

Cai Guo-Qiang “Purple Poppy No.1”, gunpowder on canvas, Uffizi Galleries, 2018. Photo by Yvonne Zhao, courtesy Cai Studio.

The exhibition is co-curated by the director of the Uffizi Galleries, Eike Schmidt, together with Laura Donati, curator of the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints. Sixty works of various sizes, exhibited in ten interlinked galleries, for a sensory journey into the world of Florentine Renaissance art, revisited by the emotions and experiences of the contemporary Chinese artist. There are also a series of sketches illustrating his creative and individual process. Growing up in a flourishing artistic environment, Guo-Qiang, of Chinese nationality and class 1957, uses in his works mainly the techniques of gunpowder and daytime fireworks, expressing through these, his link with the past, with the tradition and with culture of the East. Cai Guo-Qiang saw his project born and spring from his visit to the Uffizi Galleries in 2017, finding inspiration in ancient floral compositions of Botticelli’s Primavera and in the flora of Renaissance gardens, being fascinated and enchanted by them. His emotionality is reflected on his canvases, and is expressed through the representation of floral varieties, such as green roses, yellow roses, black tulips, bouquets of flowers, daisies, irises, and many other.

Cai Guo-Qiang “Pomegranate Flowers”, gunpowder on canvas, Uffizi Galleries, 2018. Photo by Yvonne Zhao, courtesy Cai Studio.

In the first gallery there are four self-portraits, strongly inspired by Caravaggio’s art, while in the second gallery there are more than forty works arranged according to the original installation of the Medici family’s collection. The exhibition of Guo-Qiang’s works in the rooms following the rooms where the masterpieces of masters of the late Renaissance such as Caravaggio and Rembrandt are exhibited, is obviously a source of pride for the artist, who is thus also logistically put in touch and into dialogue with his mentors. In each gallery, a theme is represented: from the “Caravaggio Garden” to the “Renaissance Garden” in the second gallery, from the “Color Garden” in the third to the “Nature Garden” in the fourth, up to the “Cosmos Garden” in the fifth gallery. And then, the “White Garden”, the “Black Garden”, the “Erotic Garden”, up to the “Celestial Garden” in the last gallery.

Guo-Qiang focuses himself on the energy and vitality that comes from his painting, on the spirituality that suggests, and on his continuous inner research, on the freedom to represent reality. Flowers as the essence of purity , but also as a symbol of desire and pleasure of the body, as expression of the contact with nature and of the soul of the Renaissance. It’s the celebration of this historical moment, the awakening of art, culture, literature, but revisited in the contemporary era.

The exhibition has been realized thanks to the support of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, and the Municipality of Florence. It is part of a more complex project that involves not only Italy, but also the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and the Museo Nacional Del Prado in Madrid, where in 2017 two exhibitions of the artist were installed, according to his “An Individual’s Journey through Western Art History”. A journey of reflection over three years, which will continue in 2019 with an exhibition at the Archaeological Museum of Naples and it will end in the East. The artist thus wants to represent a link between his land and the West, in a mixture of cultures, customs and pictorial techniques, breaking down all geographical and cultural boundaries.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, published by Giunti Editore, with editions in Italian, English and Mandarin Chinese, which includes essays by the director of the Uffizi Galleries Eike Schmidt, the curator Laura Donati, the curator Germano Celant, the art historian Simon Schama, as well as the artist himself.

Cai Guo-Qiang. Flora Commedia

Period: 20 November 2018 - 17 February 2019

Opening hours: every day from 08.15 am to 06.50 pm

closed on Mondays

Where: Galleria degli Uffizi

Piazzale degli Uffizi, 6 - Florence

Entry: regular 12€ reduced 6€

- Giulia Zamponi

Cai Guo-Qiang “Gunpowder test”, gunpowder on canvas, Uffizi Galleries, 2018. Photo by Yvonne Zhao, courtesy Cai Studio.

Le varietà esplosive dei fiori di Cai Guo-Qiang in mostra agli Uffizi

Un’esplosione di colori su tela che rappresentano le molteplici varietà dei fiori: è questo il tema della mostra “Flora Commedia”, personale dell’artista contemporaneo Cai Guo-Qiang, in esposizione alle Gallerie degli Uffizi dal 20 novembre scorso, fino al prossimo 17 febbraio.

Cai Guo-Qiang “Purple Poppy No.1”, gunpowder on canvas, Uffizi Galleries, 2018. Photo by Yvonne Zhao, courtesy Cai Studio.

La mostra è co-curata dal direttore delle Gallerie degli Uffizi, Eike Schmidt, insieme a Laura Donati, curatrice del Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe. Sessanta opere di varie dimensioni, esposte in dieci gallerie, per un viaggio sensoriale nel mondo dell’arte rinascimentale fiorentina, rivisitata dalle emozioni e dalle esperienze dell’artista contemporaneo cinese. Sono presenti inoltre, una serie di bozzetti che illustrano il suo processo creativo ed individuale. Cresciuto in un fiorente ambiente artistico, Guo-Qiang, di nazionalità cinese, classe 1957, utilizza nelle sue opere soprattutto la tecnica della polvere da sparo e dei fuochi d’artificio diurni, esprimendo tramite questi, il suo legame con il passato, con la tradizione e la cultura dell’Oriente. Cai Guo-Qiang ha visto nascere e scaturire il suo progetto dalla sua visita agli Uffizi nel 2017, trovando ispirazione nelle antiche composizioni floreali della Primavera del Botticelli e nella flora dei giardini rinascimentali, rimanendone affascinato ed incantato. La sua emotività viene riflessa sulle sue tele ed è espressa attraverso la rappresentazione delle varietà floreali, come rose verdi, rose gialle, tulipani neri, bouquet di fiori, margherite, iris e tante altre.

Cai Guo-Qiang “Pomegranate Flowers”, gunpowder on canvas, Uffizi Galleries, 2018. Photo by Yvonne Zhao, courtesy Cai Studio.

Nella prima galleria sono presenti quattro autoritratti, fortemente ispirati all’arte di Caravaggio, mentre nella seconda galleria sono presenti più di quaranta opere disposte secondo l’installazione originale della collezione della famiglia dei Medici. L’esposizione delle opere di Guo-Qiang nelle sale adiacenti a quelle dove sono esposti i capolavori di maestri come Caravaggio e Rembrandt, è ovviamente motivo di orgoglio per l’artista, che viene messo così in relazione ed in dialogo anche logisticamente con i suoi mentori. In ogni galleria, è rappresentato un tema: dal “Dialogo con Caravaggio” nella prima galleria al “Giardino del Rinascimento” nella seconda, dal “Giardino del Colore” nella terza al “Giardino della Natura” nella quarta, fino al“Giardino del Cosmo” nella quinta galleria. E poi, il “Giardino bianco”, il “Giardino Nero”, il “Giardino dell’Erotico”, fino al “Giardino Celestiale” nell’ultima galleria.

Guo-Qiang si focalizza sull’energia e sulla vitalità che deriva dalla sua pittura, sulla spiritualità che suggerisce e sulla sua continua ricerca interiore, sulla libertà di rappresentare la realtà. I fiori come essenza della purezza, ma anche simbolo del desiderio e del piacere del corpo, come espressione del contatto con la natura e dell’anima del Rinascimento. È la celebrazione di questo momento storico, risveglio di arte, cultura, letteratura, ma rivisitato nell’epoca contemporanea.

L’esposizione è stata realizzata grazie al supporto del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali e del Comune di Firenze. Fa parte di un progetto più complesso che vede protagonista non solo l’Italia, ma anche il Museo Pushkin di Mosca e il Museo Prado di Madrid, dove nel 2017 sono state istallate due mostre dell’artista, secondo il suo “Viaggio di un individuo attraverso la Storia dell’Arte Occidentale”. Un viaggio di riflessione lungo tre anni, che proseguirà nel 2019 con un’esibizione al Museo Archeologico di Napoli e si concluderà in Oriente. L’artista vuole così rappresentare un legame tra la sua terra e l’Occidente, in un mescolarsi di culture, usanze e tecniche pittoriche, abbattendo tutti i confini geografico-culturali.

La mostra è accompagnata da un catalogo, pubblicato da Giunti Editore, con edizioni in italiano, inglese e cinese mandarino, che include saggi del Direttore delle Gallerie degli Uffizi, Eike Schmidt, della curatrice Laura Donati, del curatore Germano Celant, dello storico dell’arte Simon Schama, oltre che dell’artista stesso.

Cai Guo-Qiang. Flora Commedia

Periodo: 20 novembre 2018 - 17 febbraio 2019

Orario di apertura: tutti i giorni dalle 08.15 alle 18.50

chiuso il lunedì

Dove: Galleria degli Uffizi

Piazzale degli Uffizi, 6 - Firenze

Ingresso: intero 12€ ridotto 6€

- Giulia Zamponi

Cai Guo-Qiang “Gunpowder test”, gunpowder on canvas, Uffizi Galleries, 2018. Photo by Yvonne Zhao, courtesy Cai Studio.

Giulio Paolini. Del Bello ideale. Fondazione Carriero. The fall

“Long live the chasm without salvation beyond which you are absent and happy to forget that you are there”. These are the words with which the artist Giulio Paolini ends the text written for Del Bello ideale, a solo exhibition dedicated to him, hosted by the spaces of the Carriero Foundation.

Giulio Paolini - Finis Terrae, 2018 - Installation view - Fondazione Carriero, 2018

Curated by Francesco Stocchi, the exhibition examines the 57 years of production of one of the conceptual artists par excellence of Italian art, detaching yet itself from the desire to be a retrospective and, rather, posing as a deep analysis of Pauline poetics. The portrait and the self-portrait (the author is absent), On the surface (line, perspective, horizon, tautology...) and One of two (the myth and the classic) are the three thematic groupings, emblematic of Paolini’s work, who has always been interested in the analysis of the constituent elements of making art, each developed respectively on one of the three floors of foundation.

To this analytical subdivision is added the great theme, dear to the artist and already anticipated by the title itself: the beauty. This, understood in a supreme, ideal sense, becomes the ultimate goal of the works on display and of the entire exhibition; the result is a beauty that, although constantly sought after, remains unfinished and indefinable. So the question: what is beauty? One could say that is something that exists but is not seen , an ideal goal that for Paolini is reified in a point of escape beyond the perspective line, in an overcoming of what belongs to our sensory dimension to open up to a mentalistic dimension. The unseen is therefore a deprivation that arises as the opening of a new mental perspective and the umpteenth creative and imaginative possibilities that follow.

Giulio Paolini - Mimesi, 1975 - Installation view - Fondazione Carriero, 2018

The potential state of Paolini’s work is manifested in this continuous yearning for ideal beauty: it’s in fact a sort of suspended aspect that characterises each of his works, making each part of a unique process proper to the artist’s entire work. The viewer himself seems to be invited to this suspension with In the sky (2018), one of the three works (with Deposition and Finis Terrae), created ad hoc for the exhibition and placed at the beginning of the expositive path. A parallelepiped in plexiglass, a material in the use of which Paolini was a forerunner, rises towards the ceiling, with an image of the sky on the inside; at the top, a pair of shoes that, with their front part, exceed the surface of the plexiglass on which they rest.

The work certainly invokes a suspension of action for its structure, but its being placed at the beginning of the expositive path means that it suggests, if you want, a fall, a possibility of letting go to that mental dimension in which the artist’s work develops. In the sky is maybe “the chasm without salvation”, mentioned at the beginning, that places the viewer in the right condition to understand the exhibition. To confirm this interpretation, we can consider the presence in the final room of Aria (1983-84), a work consisting in a double photographic collage of a winged figure mounted between two plexiglass shapes suspended from the ceiling to create the image of a “free fall” from the sky. It therefore seems to be ideally connected at the beginning of the path, to the necessary solicitation of the viewer to open up to a mental attitude, the only one capable of meeting the “beauty”.

Giulio Paolini. Del Bello ideale.

Period: 26 October 2018 – 10 February 2019

Opening hours: every day from 11am to 6pm

Closed on Mondays

Where: Fondazione Carriero

Via Cino del Duca, 4 – 20122 Milano

Free entry

- Giulia Zompa