Nicola Pucci and his New Magical Realism are on display at Palazzo Merulana

The next step was to identify some contemporary figurative artists who, due to the characteristics of their own poetics and production, could dialogue with the works of the Collection on the basis of a specific thematic line, in a pluralist and dynamic present where contemporary painting dialogues with the past: artistic ideas, styles and languages ​​return in new forms, creating, in the history of art, a circular movement. This is how the project “Italian School. Contemporary painting and its circular spirit in historical time” was born, which Gianluca Marziani proposes to the public at Palazzo Merulana, with the strategic support of Scrinium. The first appointment, which will end on July 5, will be with the exhibition of the Palermo artist Nicola Pucci according to the thematic line of Magical Realism.

The first “stop” with the Palermo artist Nicola Pucci and his New Magical Realism. Nicola Pucci is an internationally renowned Italian painter, known for his visionary and surreal realism. In his works the figurative technique is combined with dreamlike contexts, decontextualizations and animal presences, with a strong emotional and narrative impact. The painter’s Palermo origin is underlined by the curator for a reason similar to the philosophy of the project, that is to identify the unique energy of areas with a high cultural connotation, such as the Sicilian capital, where many painters of the generation represented here grew up, along visions that have transfigured reality with irony, expressiveness, apparent lightness and a soft sense of the tragic.

Marziani explains: “Nicola Pucci has this pictorial genetics and brings it into the daily circuit, inspired by heterogeneous places that do not declare the origin, letting the city of origin mix with the scattered sites that strike his imagination. From this starting point, the transformation of generative reality begins, distilling the metaphysical suspensions into a New Magical Realism, where the equation between reality and magic becomes the key to understanding and the door to a thousand destinies.” TO dialogue with the works of the Cerasi Collection, in an encounter on which visitors are asked to reflect, are nineteen paintings by the artist Pucci. Among these are some from the airplane series (e.g. ‘Plane with Gorilla’, ‘Plane Circle III’ and ‘Plane Circle IV’), from the animal series (‘Jumping white horse on train’, ‘Jumping white horse on train II’, ‘Roosters couple 1’, ‘Roosters couple 2’, ‘Roosters couple 3’) or even the works that explore the encounter between the human and animal worlds (‘Girl with bull and rose’, ‘Woman with yellow bull’, ‘Lion with child III’, ‘Child with dog I’) up to ‘Magic cabin’ of 2026, which immediately brings to mind ‘The metaphysical baths’ by De Chirico.

But why Italian painting? “Starting again from Contemporary Italian Painting means affirming the specific weight of Thinking in Italy. This is not just the commodified carousel of Made in Italy, but something that roots first the thought and then the linguistic actions. Thinking Italian and Painting Italian: an indication that in some cases has forged movements and avant-gardes of great importance. Think of Futurism, Metaphysics and Magical Realism, up to the postmodernisms of Transavantgarde, Painting Culture and Medialism”.

A careful selection will see the involvement of artists who represent the generation from which the authors of the nineties emerged. Each will occupy a thematic line to create dialogues of affinity, belonging and iconographic debt (perhaps credit). The objective, says the creator, will be to seek and create relationships of “affinity, belonging and iconographic debt (perhaps credit), in a visual stereophony that will release lifeblood on the altruistic nature of memory”. A careful selection will see the involvement of artists who represent the generation from which the authors of the nineties emerged. Each will occupy a thematic line to create dialogues of affinity, belonging and iconographic debt (perhaps credit). The objective, says the creator, will be to seek and create relationships of “affinity, belonging and iconographic debt (perhaps credit), in a visual stereophony that will release lifeblood on the altruistic nature of memory”.