Vangi at Rovereto's Mart dialogues with Pisano, Donatello, Michelangelo
His gesture seems to question man without sealing him in a time frame: Giuliano Vangi feeds on sublime classicism, anguished expressiveness and sometimes bare abstraction to express a sculpture that seeks no labels. It is precisely for this reason he is able to dialogue with the past and the future thanks to the suggestion of a material that places him in a continuous present that is always prodigal of palpable emotions.
THE EXHIBITION, MADE IN COLLABORATION WITH STUDIO COPERNICO,
COMES FROM AN IDEA OF VITTORIO SGARBI AND IS ENHANCED BY MARIO BOTTA'S STAGING
The current tribute of the Mart, thanks to the efforts of Studio Copernico, which through Nicola Loi has been following his work for years, intends to highlight in the title “Colloquio con l’antico. Pisano, Donatello, Michelangelo”, this connection with our glorious past that emerges from a certain compositional approach. This stimulating comparison, which can be visited until the 9th of October, is an idea of Vittorio Sgarbi with the contribution of Massimo Bertozzi and Daniela Ferrari and enhanced by Mario Botta’s staging. Vittorio Sgarbi, in the essay that opens the catalog published by “24 Ore Cultura”, stated: “Vangi starts abstract and returns figurative, with a deep conviction and a need to find human being as the inevitable center of his work, in continuity with the Italian tradition and his Tuscan origins.
"HE STARTS ABSTRACT AND RETURNS FIGURATIVE
BECAUSE OF THE NEED TO REDISCOVER HUMAN BEING"
The truth is that he does not place that past in the present as a quotation but he instead assimilates its spirit to renew its truth. Regarding his relationship with Michelangelo Sgarbi notes, “Michelangelo’s and Vangi’s steps are in tune. They proceed in unison, with the same inner rhythm. Vangi breathes and gasps with Michelangelo. The language is the same, and there is no distance or filter of time.” It is precisely for this reason that Michelangelo can be found, for example, in the composed torment of Maria Chiara nuda, a polychrome wood from ‘73 as in the monumental layout of Uomo e caprone, a bronze from 2003 while in Uomo e animale from 2004 the cosmic despair of a Bacon painting seems to prevail.
HE DOES NOT QUOTE THE PAST BUT ASSIMILATES IT TO RENEW THE TRUTH
And the same discourse of reflections and juxtapositions concern Giovanni Pisano, Giotto, Donatello always frequented with the gaze and sensitivity by Vangi since every gesture and every thought must reckon with the preciousness of memory. Finally, Veio, the impressive bronze composition from 2010, represents “a brutal creature that mixes the mechanical nature of the motorcycle and the animal nature of the motorcyclist, to give birth to a new breed of centaur,” as Massimo Bertozzi writes.
"FOR HIM, EVERY GESTURE AND EVERY THOUGHT
MUST RECKON WITH THE PRECIOUSNESS OF MEMORY"
In the circumstance, the past, the present and the future meet not only to measure the dramatic becoming exhibited by the scene but to emphasize how Vangi succeeds, especially in this case, to surprise us with a dazzling interpretation of the entire artistic history that belongs to us and, willingly or unwillingly, above all determines us.
"HIS STEP AND MICHELANGELO'S ARE ATTUNED.
VANGI BREATHES, GASPS WITH MICHELANGELO"
PISANO, DONATELLO, MICHELANGELO: THESE ARE THE WORKS ON DISPLAY
A separate chapter is devoted to some masterpieces made by the masters of the past that are used as a memory or imprint for Giuliano Vangi's work. We are first met by two fourteenth-century Crocifissi by Giovanni Pisano that are kept in the church of Sant'Andrea in Pistoia, we then move on to the contemplation of Vergine Annunciata and San Giovanni Evangelista by Tino da Camaino before approaching the Santo Monaco (San Leonardo), carved in wood by Jacopo della Quercia, and the Bust of Niccolò da Uzzano made by Donatello in polychrome terracotta. Finally, three pen drawings by Michelangelo Buonarroti create the ideal corollary to a similar concurrent route that shows how Vangi was able to instill such atmospheres in his works. He has made them on the one hand completely his own and on the other in debt with such incomparable greatness.
Giuliano Vangi
Colloquio con l'antico. Pisano, Donatello, Michelangelo
Rovereto, Mart
Curated by Massimo Bertozzi, Daniela Ferrari
From an idea by Vittorio Sgarbi
Design Mario Botta
Catalogue
24 Ore Cultura
Until the 9/10
In collaboration with Studio Copernico
Milano, representative of the work by Giuliano Vangi
