Overview
In March 1944, Arturo Martini began writing his famous text “Scultura Lingua Morta” (Sculpture Dead Language) which was published in Venice in fifty copies in 1945. The work is a heartfelt declaration about the inability of sculpture to be alive and universal. During the terrible years of World War II, Martini, as Italy’s foremost sculptor of his time, criticizes sculpture and questions its potential to be redemptive.
A dialogue emerges – almost a face-off – between Giorgio Andreotta Calò, a Venetian artist recognized as one of the most authoritative voices in contemporary Italian art, and the city of Venice, renowned for its rich plasticity and physicality. This conversation comes from Martini’s reflections, as a founding member of the group of artists who gathered around the first director of Ca’ Pesaro, Nino Barbantini, in the early 20th century. The current, small but valuable, exhibition represents a journey into the lingua morta (dead language) through masterpieces created by Calò over more than twenty years. From the renowned Clessidre, Pinne Nobilis, Carotaggi to an extraordinary series of Meduse, including the one that entered the civic collection of Ca’ Pesaro thanks to the PAC2021 – Plan for Contemporary Art, promoted by the General Directorate of Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture. An unpublished Medusa, very dear to the Venetian artist, is presented in an intimate dialogue with Martini’s Testa di Medusa, a piece from the deposits of Ca’ Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art.
Santa Croce, 2076, 30135 Venezia VE, Italy
