Giacomo Balla (1871-1958), La Mano del Violinista (The Hand of the Violinist), 1912, Oil on canvas, 56 x 78.3 cm (framed), Estorick Collection. |
Estorick Collection Marks Decade of Italian Modernmism Exhibitions |
Gino Severini (1883-1966), Le Boulevard (The Boulevard), 1910-11, Oil on canvas, 63.5 x 91.5 cm, Estorick Collection.
Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916), Idolo Moderno (Modern Idol), 1911, Oil on panel, 60 x 58.4 cm, Estorick Collection.
Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), Le Docteur François Brabander, 1918, Oil on canvas, 46 x 38 cm. |
Estorick Collection The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art — described by Sir Nicholas Serota, Director of Tate, as “one of the finest collections of early 20th century Italian art anywhere in the world” — celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2008 with a diverse programme of exhibitions, the first of which will be A Decade of Discovery: Ten Years of the Estorick Collection. The Estorick Collection comprises some 120 paintings, drawings, watercolours, prints and sculptures by many of the most prominent Italian artists of the modernist era. It opened to the public January 28, 1998 in a Georgian Grade II listed building at 39a Canonbury Square, London N1, refurbished with a substantial grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The gallery was named Best Museum of Fine or Applied Art in the 1999 National Heritage/NPI Museum of the Year Awards and was a Highly Commended Small Attraction in the 2003 London Tourism Awards. It has a library of over 2,000 books, primarily on 20th century Italian art, making it an unrivalled resource for students of important modernist movements such as Futurism and Pittura Metafisica. The anniversary is an ideal opportunity to take a fresh look at the richness of the Estorick’s permanent collection in its entirety. For A Decade of Discovery: Ten Years of the Estorick Collection, all six galleries will be re-hung, enabling a group of ten works by Massimo Campigli to be shown for the first time. These include a delicate coloured lithograph entitled Shop Windows (1945), The Painter (1932) — a humorous self portrait of the artist seated beneath a parasol next to his easel — and a series of bold black and white prints inspired by themes from antiquity. Additionally, the display will be enhanced by important works loaned from Italian and British collections, including works by Giacomo Balla, Carlo Carrà, Renato Guttuso, Amedeo Modigliani, Giorgio Morandi, Ottone Rosai, Gino Severini and Mario Sironi. Since the Estorick Collection opened, a number of acquisitions have been made, most notably an early portrait of the artist Carlo Fontana by Giacomo Balla (1907), which pre-dates his involvement with the Futurists and reveals a masterly handling of the Divisionist technique. Other works include a Self-portrait of 1915 by Corrado Govoni — which uses words to describe the features of the artist verbally as well as visually — and a small but important ink study for the painting Rising Forces by Gerardo Dottori, one of the key figures of the second wave of Futurist activity after World War One. All of these works will be on display in the exhibition. Eric Estorick (1913-93) was an American sociologist and writer who began to collect works of art when he came to live in England after the Second World War. Born in Brooklyn, Estorick studied at New York University during the early 1930s, when he discovered The Gallery of Living Art, containing masterpieces by Picasso, Léger, Miró and Matisse, which inspired him to become a collector. On a visit to Europe in 1946 he began to buy drawings by such artists as Picasso, Gris, Léger and Braque. In October 1947 he married Salome Dessau, and during their honeymoon in Switzerland Estorick discovered Umberto Boccioni’s book Futurist Painting and Sculpture (1914) which marked the beginning of his passion for Italian art. They travelled to Italy on many occasions during the late 1940s and 1950s, meeting and befriending major artists of the day, including Massimo Campigli, Mario Sironi and Zoran Music. The Eric and Salome Estorick Foundation was set up in 1993 to manage the permanent collection and to stage temporary loan exhibitions and educational events. |
Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964), Natura morta con cinque oggetti, (Still life with five objects), 1956, Etching, 13 x 19 cm. |
