Cortina d'Ampezzo showcases the painting Hitler didn't want, from de Pisis to Vedova

From August 8 to 30, 2020, the Farsettiarte venue in Cortina d’Ampezzo will host the exhibition Dal caso Nolde al caso de Chirico. Hitler did not want this painting.

Curated by Demetrio Paparoni, the exhibition refers to a blurb that appeared on March 17, 1949, in Milano Sera in which it was reported that in April 1944 the director of the Borromini Gallery in Como was forced to remove paintings by Modigliani, Campigli and de Chirico from the walls the day before the opening of an exhibition. The prefecture official’s response to the gallery owner’s question about the reasons for this censorship was, “This painting has to go. Hitler said so.”

On display at Farsettiarte will be one of de Chirico’s paintings removed from that 1944 exhibition, Warrior Mannequins (Archaeologists) made in 1926, along with works by leading figures of those years.

The Cortina d’Ampezzo exhibition aims to dwell on the contradictions that characterizedart in the Fascist era. From 1938, with the introduction of the racial laws, the possibility of exhibiting their works was barred to artists who had been counted as Jews. The dramatic story of Emil Nolde testifies to the profound difference in the way political power related to artists in Germany and Italy. It was in vain that he had joined the National Socialist Party from its origins and remained loyal to it at all times. The elimination of de Chirico’s paintings from the Como exhibition testifies to the fact that the Republic of Salò had adapted to Germany’s directives. Previously, as much as the fascist regime sought its own cultural legitimacy, what it had demanded of artists had been above all that they not manifest their hostility. On a formal level much of the artistic production supported by fascism was closer than one might have thought to what was called “degenerate” in Germany.

The vicissitudes of openly anti-fascist artists, the imprisonment that some of them experienced precisely because of their political positions, are well known.

Works by Massimo Campigli, Felice Casorati, Giorgio De Chirico, Filippo de Pisis, Renato Guttuso, Amedeo Modigliani, Giorgio Morandi, Emilio Vedova, Mario Sironi, Emil Nolde and many others will be on display.

For info: www.farsettiarte.it

Hours: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 to 7:30 p.m.

Image: Emilio Vedova, The Music (1942)

Cortina d'Ampezzo showcases the painting Hitler didn't want, from de Pisis to Vedova

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.