Cultural
Willem de Kooning e l'Italia
Exhibition
On occasion of the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, UNA / UNLESS designed the exhibition “Willem de Kooning e l’Italia” at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice. Curated by Garry Garrels and Mario Codognato, the exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Willem de Kooning Foundation.
The exhibition traces the impact of Willem de Kooning’s two extended visits to Italy, one in 1959 and one in 1969, on the works that followed each and on the trajectory of his œuvre. The lasting effect of these two creative periods is revealed in an exemplary selection of works, ranging from the late 1950s through to the 1980s.
The design of the exhibition places painting and sculpture in dialogue. Whilst the first gallery presents a single sculpture, Hostess, which appears to hover over a white marmorino podium, the layering of sculptures and paintings increases in rhythm in the subsequent two larger galleries. In the latter, a field of podiums - whose dimensions derive from the proportions of the surrounding stone pillars - creates a landscape in which de Kooning’s bronze sculptures are cast against a white field of varying degrees of opacity.
Between the three larger galleries, smaller compressed studiolos present respectively sculptures and drawings in an intimate setting that draws the attention to the small scale, yet sublime, drawings. At the end of the exhibition circuit, revisited if compared to previous shows curated in the renowned Accademia, the articulated space of the gallery is reduced to a single continuous surface that curves gently on itself, allowing the abstract works produced by de Kooning between 1980 and 1987 to present themselves to the vsitors almost suspended in space and time.
Gallerie dell’ Accademia,
Calle della Carità, 1050, Venice
April 17 - September 15, 2024
Download Press Release here.
Photo Credits
Agnese Bedini, DSL Studio
The Willem de Kooning Foundation © Matteo De Fina
The exhibition traces the impact of Willem de Kooning’s two extended visits to Italy, one in 1959 and one in 1969, on the works that followed each and on the trajectory of his œuvre. The lasting effect of these two creative periods is revealed in an exemplary selection of works, ranging from the late 1950s through to the 1980s.
The design of the exhibition places painting and sculpture in dialogue. Whilst the first gallery presents a single sculpture, Hostess, which appears to hover over a white marmorino podium, the layering of sculptures and paintings increases in rhythm in the subsequent two larger galleries. In the latter, a field of podiums - whose dimensions derive from the proportions of the surrounding stone pillars - creates a landscape in which de Kooning’s bronze sculptures are cast against a white field of varying degrees of opacity.
Between the three larger galleries, smaller compressed studiolos present respectively sculptures and drawings in an intimate setting that draws the attention to the small scale, yet sublime, drawings. At the end of the exhibition circuit, revisited if compared to previous shows curated in the renowned Accademia, the articulated space of the gallery is reduced to a single continuous surface that curves gently on itself, allowing the abstract works produced by de Kooning between 1980 and 1987 to present themselves to the vsitors almost suspended in space and time.
Gallerie dell’ Accademia,
Calle della Carità, 1050, Venice
April 17 - September 15, 2024
Download Press Release here.
| Project Title: | Willem de Kooning e l'Iitalia |
| Year: | 2024 |
| Client: | The Willem de Kooning Foundation |
| Designer: | UNA / UNLESS |
| UNA / UNLESS Team: | Giulia Foscari, Federica Zambeletti, Francesca Benetti Genolini, Alessandro Gatti |
| Production: | Altofragile |
Agnese Bedini, DSL Studio
The Willem de Kooning Foundation © Matteo De Fina
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