Contemporary art returns to Poldi Pezzoli with triptychs by Nicolas Party

Opening April 16, 2022 at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan is the exhibition Nicolas Party: Triptych, open to the public until June 27, 2022 and in collaboration with the kaufmann repetto Gallery. Contemporary art is thus returning to the Milanese museum venue.

This is the first exhibition of Nicolas Party (Lausanne, 1980) in an Italian museum, and for the occasion the artist has created a body of new works that stands in close dialogue with the masterpieces of the Poldi Pezzoli collection.

The common thread of his new project is the triptych, inspired by Mariotto Albertinelli ’s work of the same name preserved in the museum collection. Attracted by the theatrical quality of the panels that make up the work, whose doors reveal or conceal the images painted in the interior panels, the artist creates an unusual juxtaposition by comparing the widespread classical format of medieval and Renaissance altar pieces to Marcel Duchamp ’s Boîte-en-Valise (a legendary avant-garde object created by the French artist in the 1940s to contain miniaturized reproductions of his own works).

Five freestanding triptychs, richly decorated with faux marbre motifs, are installed on plinths in the center of the Golden Hall. Each triptych, painted on both sides, has a central copper panel depicting a portrait flanked by two flaps with still lifes and landscapes; the latter also return as the dominant theme on the outer panels, where they are executed in the gray tones of grisaille.

In the Collector’s Room, the triptych returns in the form of an imposing theater set decorated in black and white with austere faux marbre motifs. Mimicking the tripartition of the original object, but enlarging it to a length of four meters, Party conceived this device for the display of new oval portraits and still lifes, made with the soft pastel technique. Echoing the composition of his smaller triptychs, the two central panels of this structure each feature a portrait with which the artist pays clear tribute to two of the other Renaissance paintings in the museum’s collection, namely Bartolomeo Montagna’s Saint Paul and Saint Jerome.

The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated brochure with contributions by Nicolas Party and Arturo Galansino.

Photo by Andrea Rossetti.

Contemporary art returns to Poldi Pezzoli with triptychs by Nicolas Party

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