On the occasion of the centenary of Mario Giacomelli ’s birth (1925-2000), the National Gallery of Umbria in Perugia pays tribute to one of the greatest masters of 20th-century photography with the exhibition Mario Giacomelli. Red Poppies, curated by Alessandro Sarteanesi and open from Oct. 15 to April 6, 2026. Set up in the CAMERA OSCURA space, dedicated to photography and integrated into the museum itinerary, the exhibition presents a nucleus of previously unseen works dedicated to the Umbrian landscape, created with an almost pictorial approach to the use of color-a rare aspect in the production of the artist, known for his celebrated contrasts of black and white, solids and voids.
The exhibition is also an opportunity to delve into the artistic and human dialogue between Giacomelli and Alberto Burri, evidenced by a number of photographs dedicated to the master from Todi. Both artists, though through different languages, shared a profound research on landscape and matter, within the context of postwar Italian Informal art.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is five previously unpublished photographs taken in the 1960s on the highlands of Colfiorito and Castelluccio di Norcia, which are flanked by a selection of ten coeval abstract works, also color landscapes. These works reveal Giacomelli’s awareness in conceiving photography as an autonomous visual language, capable of blending gesture, light and pictorialism.
As curator Alessandro Sarteanesi points out, “it is within a path that spans the centuries, documented by the works in the museum’s collection, that Giacomelli’s research finds a ground for current and radical reflection, in antithesis with the obsessively repetitive banality of the ’infiorata,’ immortalized by social networks. The Colfiorito plateau, once a lived and cultivated place, as its fame grows, is depopulated, and the landscape, consumed as a window-image and not as an experience, exhausts its vital feeling.”
The tour concludes with two photographs of the famous Pretini. One of the images, exhibited for the first time in Perugia, is offered in a color version, which offers an unprecedented reading of one of the most recognizable symbols of Giacomelli’s poetics.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog published by Mainz, with texts by Alessandro Sarteanesi, Costantino D’Orazio and Bartolomeo Pietromarchi.
The project is realized with the support of L’Orologio cooperative society - Business Unit Sistema Museo.
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| National Gallery of Umbria pays tribute to Mario Giacomelli on the centenary of his birth |
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