From Canaletto to the Futurists, the best of Flashback 2023

Eleventh year for Flashback, Turin ’s ancient and contemporary art fair founded in 2013, which for the second year in a row is set up in the spaces of Turin’s former brefotrofio, at Corso Giovanni Lanza 75, a building recently redeveloped and become “Flashback Habitat,” home to a fair that always attracts an audience of enthusiasts and experts attracted by the mix that the two directors Stefania Poddighe and Ginevra Pucci have been able to create: a small fair (just over thirty exhibitors), centered on quality, where the ancient is mixed with the contemporary based on the idea that all art is contemporary. This year the fair runs from November 2 to 5, and the theme chosen is Metamemory.

After a rather interlocal 2022 edition, the eleventh round of the fair seems to find more momentum this year, bolstered in part by some truly remarkable pieces on display at the various booths that certainly raise the overall level. What is there at Flashback this year then? A lot of twentieth century, a lot of futurism, some antique museum works, well-curated monographic stands, contemporary art on the other hand very revisable. But let’s take a look at some of the “must-sees” of this edition of the fair, going in order of how the stands are presented.

The itinerary can begin with Galleria Giamblanco , which brings to Flashback one of the pieces that most caught the attentions of visitors to the press and “VIP” preview : a Head of a Philosopher by Giambattista Tiepolo, expertise signed by an expert such as Mauro Lucco, similar to a similar head found at the San Diego Museum of Art. And also from Giamblanco three notable works by Giacomo Grosso, two roundels with portraits and a sophisticated Allegory of the Arts. Another Turin gallery, In Arco, on the other hand, devotes its entire booth to Mario Schifano, with much of what one expects to find when Schifano is around: retouched photographs, “futurism revisited,” works created from advertising logos, and so on. In front, Cesare Lampronti brings a Canaletto(The Arrival of French Ambassador Jacques-Vincent Languet, Count of Gergy, at the Doge’s Palace on November 5, 1726) that is six feet high by more than two and a half feet wide. The work was presented in 2019 at Modenantiquaria with attribution to Luca Carlevarijs, but it had previously been given to Canaletto: at Flashback 2023 it is again presented as a painting by the great Antonio Canal. Another notable piece can be found at the Benappi Fine Art booth: it is a rare marble relief by Giovanni di Balduccio, a 14th-century Nativity, bound as early as 1931, and an ideal candidate to enter a museum, perhaps in Bologna, since the relief is referable precisely to the Pisan master’s Bologna activity. Next to Benappi, here is the contemporary art of Photo & Co . which, in line with the theme of Flashback, dedicates a small focus to artists who have made memory the focus of their path: at the center of the booth stands out, in particular, a Vanitas by Nicola Bolla, the gallery’s leading artist, accompanied by a singular Natura stramorta, a plant more than two meters high made of hand-wrought copper.

Two interesting works by Alberto Martini and as many by Leonard Sarluis enliven the stand of the Paduan Galleria Arte Cesaro, while Luigi Ontani is the great protagonist of the stand of Galleria L’Incontro di Chiari (Brescia), the only one in the entire fair to display prices, a practice that should be encouraged: amusing are his oriental babouches, iconic the erotic plates, delicious the painted porcelain. Another monographic booth is that of Luma Contemporary Art, the only one, along with Photo & Co., to stand out on contemporary: on display is a monographic booth dedicated to Ugo Nespolo with works spanning his entire career. Among the special features, it is impossible not to notice the macabre wall of the Umbrian Tower Gallery , which brings to Turin two anatomical panels made of iron wire, silk and wax, under which are displayed two eighteenth-century Memento mori , two large skeletons with scythes, lying down and holding epigraphs reminding the viewer of the transience of life: work of the Roman school, coming from monastic circles, economic request not particularly high. Also particular in the same booth is Guido Reni’sEcce Homo ... reproduced with shells from a late 18th-century Sicilian workshop.

The Niccoli Art Gallery devotes its entire booth (with continuation in one of the aisles, composing a small exhibition) to Piero Fogliati’s amusing mechanical and engineering works that offer visitors a good summary of his art. Not far away, Aleandri, in addition to bringing some beautiful fabric drawings by Giacomo Balla (who is by far the most represented artist in this edition of Flashback: several booths have his works, including papers and canvases, so fans will have something to be interested in), also presents a sensual Odalisque by Francesco Hayez. To finish the list of the most interesting pieces, from Canesso a not-to-be-missed Madonna and Child with St. John by Giulio Cesare Procaccini and a Garland of Flowers by Mario Nuzzi (better known as “Mario dei Fiori” for his penchant for this particular subject) executed in collaboration with Girolamo Troppa, and from Bottegantica a focus on Futurism: some drawings by Boccioni, an overwhelming Aerocaccia I by Tullio Crali, an intriguing Umbrian landscape on fabric by Gerardo Dottori, assorted aeropictures and even a still life in pietra serena by Ivo Pannaggi, exhibited at the 1926 Venice Biennale.

“This edition,” Poddighe and Pucci said on the eve, “is dedicated to Metamemory, the awareness of our memory, the fair as an activator of images and knowledge is the tool that allows us to revive, reactivate, recontextualize. Information is fixed using colors, images, emotions and associations. The works contribute to the creation of these mnemonic maps; this is how the galleries of this eleventh edition contribute greatly to the creation of a composite and fascinating universe of images that trace the history of life and man. Thanks to these traces of past experience, the individual is able to deal with life situations, present and future.” The universe of images is there, it is quite composite (although not as in some past editions: mind you, Flashback fails to repeat the levels touched with the Pala Alpitour editions), and it will be up to us to see if it will be able to attract buyers as well, the ultimate goal of any art fair. We will find out in a few days.

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