MASSIMO CAMPIGLI DIED 50 YEARS AGO. VENICE HOMAGES HIM, TOGETHER WITH THE ETRUSCANS

Massimo Mattioli, Artslife, May 31, 2021
APPROXIMATELY 35 WORKS BY CAMPIGLI ARE COMBINED WITH ABOUT FIFTY FINDS OF ETRUSCAN CIVILIZATION, MANY OF WHICH UNPUBLISHED AND EXHIBITED HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME
Massimo Campigli e gli Etruschi. Una pagana felicità, ACP - Palazzo Franchetti, Venezia
"In the taste of jewels, under the romantic and voluptuous appearance archaic and wild instincts emerge. It is precisely in the jewels that my feminine and masochistic tendencies find a synthesis". Him the words of Massimo Campigli, the great Italian artist (even though he was born in Germany, with the name of Max Ihlenfeldt) who died on May 31, 1971, exactly 50 years ago. Words cited to contextualize the great exhibition Massimo Campigli and the Etruscans. A pagan happiness, which celebrates it in Venice in the prestigious rooms of Palazzo Franchetti. And that we have already mentioned as one of the best events offered by the city in the saraband of the preview of the Architecture Biennale.
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 Massimo Campigli and the Etruscans The pagan happiness ACP - Palazzo Franchetti, Venezia

UNPUBLISHED AND EXHIBITED HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME

On paper, a utopia. Transporting precious, bulky and very delicate Etruscan finds to Venice. To build a magical encounter with the art of Campigli, notoriously struck by the knowledge of the Etruscan people after a visit to the Museum of Villa Giulia in 1928. "A pagan happiness entered into my paintings both in the spirit of the subjects and in the spirit of the work that he made it more free and lyrical ", the artist noted on that occasion. And the approximately 35 works by Campigli selected for the exhibition are flanked by about fifty finds from the Etruscan civilization, many of which unpublished and exhibited here for the first time. Between these two precious terracotta sarcophagi of the Civic Museum of Viterbo: a clay female sarcophagus from the second half of the third century. B.C. and a clay male sarcophagus from the end of the III, beginning of the II century. A.C.

Massimo Campigli and the Etruscans The pagan happiness ACP - Palazzo Franchetti, Venezia 

Two works by Campigli on display, "Bust with blue vase" and "Gypsies", are from that fateful year 1928. And they clearly mark the passage towards a new figuration, which becomes more and more evident in works such as "Women with the umbrella" from 1940 to the "Seated Woman" from 1961. The result?  It is one of those exhibitions of rare intensity, a symphonic triumph of elements that converge to create visual and perceptual harmony.

Massimo Campigli and the Etruscans The Pagan happiness ACP - Palazzo Franchetti, Venezia