Rudolf Stingel and the lost old masters at Palazzo Grassi

 

Inspired to the couch on which patients of Sigmud Freud faced their dreams, the installation by Rudolf Stingel now on show at Palazzo Grassi in Venice is a must: rarely past and present have been so well integrated. The only criticism that can be done concerns the information. Every work by Stingel – or from the François Pinault collection – has its caption, but no information is available regarding the old masters. A visitor shouldn’t need to go back to his art history books to know that in the room where the portrait of Franz West is (2011, oil on canvas) there is also a painting attributed to Fabio Canal which represents the apotheosis of the Grassi family, or that the frescos at the staircase are by the bright Michelangelo Morlaiter (executed circa 1750).

January 26, 2016