Rovati Foundation presents the exhibition dedicated to the artist.
For the first time in Italy an exhibition completely dedicated to the Swiss artist Diego Giacometti, in the splendid spaces of the Luigi Rovati Foundation in Milan.
Until 18 June 2023, the exhibition welcomes loans from the heirs of Diego Giacometti, from the Fondation Giacometti in Paris, from the Alberto Giacometti Stiftung – conserved at the Kunsthaus in Zurich – from the Musée Picasso-Paris in Paris and from private collections.
Over sixty works on display including sculptures, furnishings, small animals and maquettes that represent Diego Giacometti’s sculptural and design work divided into four themes, detailed in the catalogue:
Between sculpture and design, Diego as a model, Furniture and objects and Bestiary.
“The decision to host Diego Giacometti in the museum of the Luigi Rovati Foundation for the first time in Italy is motivated by the strong inspiration that the artist draws from Etruscan art. From the underground floor to the noble floor, Diego’s works are part of the permanent itinerary, in the continuous dialogue between ancient and contemporary, the identity dimension of our Art Museum.”
Thus in the words of the President of the Giovanna Forlanelli Foundation, the genesis of this interesting artistic project.
Diego’s work blends aesthetics and functionality: his furniture is designed to be used as seats or tables, but at the same time they are works of art.
This is a production with an immediately recognizable style, which takes inspiration from archeology and mythology, combined with naturalistic and even surreal elements. His bronze sculptures are masterpieces of creative and technical elaboration, in which every detail is taken care of with extreme precision; unique and refined, essential in shape, elegant in workmanship, in perfect stylistic balance.
Through a very complex technique, which goes from the sketch on paper to the bronze casting, Diego personally takes care of every phase of the artistic production up to the technique of which he is a master: patination.
The Spazio Bianco brings together a series of works by Giovanni and Alberto Giacometti in which Diego is always, almost obsessively, the model: from the tender Diego, nourrisson, painted by his father Giovanni to the Tête de Diego of 1914-15, in plaster, the first sculpture made by Alberto juxtaposed with the bronze Tête de Diego from 1937.
Among the most significant works on display, the magnificently exhibited Lionne from 1931, Diego’s first sculpture; Lion’s head from 1934, stone work, which for years was proudly displayed at the entrance to the family home in Maloja, and the splendid Lanterne à quatre lumières from 1983, which is part of the permanent collection of the Rovati Foundation.
Finally, for the first time, the three Oiseaux created in 1942 for the living room of Francis Gruber’s apartment, the Mirror of 1942, born from a Baroque fantasy, the Hand of 1942-1944, and the Applique aux panthères, once located in the artist’s home on rue du Moulin-Vert in Paris.
“An exhibition that becomes an opportunity to explore Diego’s work and his personal and artistic relationship with his brother Alberto through the study of correspondence with the family”, as the curator of the exhibition Casimiro de Crescenzo recounts,” confirming the his sheer talent.”
