Fortunato Depero opens the new Centre for Italian Modern Art in New York

 

While the seminal exhibition dedicated to the Italian Futurism is going to inaugurate tomorrow at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum – with more of 300 works including architecture, design, ceramics, fashion, film, photography, music and theater – a second interesting window overlooking the same modernist landscape is going to open in SoHo, thanks to the brand new Centre for Italian Modern Art, established in 2013 by the art historian and collector Laura Mattioli.

 

CIMA’s first exhibition is dedicated to Fortunato Depero (1892-1960), probably the most contemporary and eclectic artist amongst the Futurists. More than 50 works by Depero will be installed in an “intimately scaled installation space” consisting of paintings, sculptures, tapestries, collages, drawings and magazines covers.

 

“Italy is highly praised for its excellence in fashion, design, and the culinary arts, but until very recently Italian modern and contemporary art has been largely overlooked. Our goal is to serve as an incubator for new discourse, scholarly debate, and increased public appreciation of 20th-century Italian art, in all its variety and complexity,” said CIMA Executive Director Heather Ewing.

 

According to the will of the Advisory Committee CIMA is planning to have a residency program for scholars, who will have the opportunity to live with the artworks for the period of their research. For its inaugural year, CIMA has two research fellows. One is conducting research on Depero’s activity when he lived and worked in the United States in the late 1920s and early 1930s; and the second is conducting research on Depero’s legacy and reputation in the decades after his death in 1960.

July 18, 2015