Exhibitions: ‘Rethinking Romanticism in contemporary art’, until 13 September in La Spezia

In the wake of Caspar David Friedrich, the artists Giovanni Anselmo, Linda Fregni Nagler, Ian Kiaer and Massimo Bartolini invite us to reflect on the individual’s sense of bewilderment and wonder in the face of the cosmos. Between magnetic sculptures, photographic archives, symbolic ‘dews’ and structures as fragile as modern ruins, the works invite the viewer to measure themselves with the vastness and the unknown. Inspired by John Constable, by his simple and frank painting of landscape and nature, Michele Tocca proposes a pure and direct painting. Through the practice of painting en plein air and the mnemonic study of the pictorial gesture, the two artists seek ‘firstimeness’, the ability to look at the world with virgin eyes. The study of the clouds and the pure rendering of the landscape here become a spiritual exercise to rediscover the truth of simple things. David Schutter also starts from Constable but to question the colonial culture that he sees expressed in the spatial construction of a painting of fundamental historical value such as The Groove, 1822, preserved at the Tate in London.

Finally, JMWTurner’s energy finds space in the works of Pesce Khete. Here the landscape stops being a physical place and becomes a mental space: a journey into the human soul where color and sign become rhythm, emotion and reflection. “I believe that from the poetic season of Romanticism comes an indispensable invitation to recover a full awareness of our way of being in the world, to take the time necessary to go below the surface of things, to return to speaking in art about expressive intensity and the cognitive tension that comes from emotions. The seven artists selected for the exhibition have the courage to do so”, says Elena Volpato, curator of the exhibition. “This exhibition represents a new and significant step for the CAMeC, which confirms its central role for the production and diffusion of contemporary art – echoes the mayor of La Spezia, Pierluigi Peracchini – The project “Rethinking Romanticism in contemporary art” testifies to the desire to build an increasingly open dialogue between different eras, languages and sensibilities, offering the public high-profile cultural experiences. In this path, the exhibition also offers a current reflection on the link between man and nature, reinterpreted through the visions of contemporary artists, who through the rereading of the romantic tradition offer a new look in light of the challenges of the present. The renewed impetus of the museum, made possible thanks to the partnership with the Carispezia Foundation, is allowing CAMeC to continuously propose high-quality exhibitions, capable of attracting artists and visitors from national and international contexts”.

“For the Carispezia Foundation, supporting the CAMeC means contributing to the growth of a space open to the community, dedicated to the research and diffusion of culture, recognizing it as a fundamental element of civil development and social cohesion. Carried out in synergy with the Municipality of La Spezia, this commitment strengthens the role of the Museum as an attractive center not only at a national but also international level, through high quality proposals. This new exhibition addresses a theme that runs through the history of art and dialogues with the present, inviting us to reflect on the relationship between man and nature, on the dimension of the infinite and on the ability of the gaze to go beyond the visible – elements that find a particularly significant natural and cultural context in our territory, is the comment of the president of the Carispezia Foundation, Andrea Corradino

“After the exhibition on Morandi and Fontana and the one on the Sozzani Collection, this part of the CAMeC journey is guided by Elena Volpato and the seven artists she has chosen to push us to think about a new romanticism, also with works created specifically for the exhibition. It is therefore not a simple story about the passages of time or the ability of thought to go beyond history, but of an exhibition which is itself a tool for rethinking, all together, one of the few “isms” that should not cause fear but which indeed generates hope: romanticism. Elena Volpato, in addition to being the curator of this extraordinary exhibition, is now even closer to CAMeC as a member of the scientific committee of the museum which will guide its artistic and scientific choices, together with the president Gerhard Wolf and the other members who so generously took up the challenge: Arturo Galansino, Francesco Guzzetti, Giuseppe Iannacone, Giulia Lecchini, Mirjam Varadinis”, finally observes the president of the CAMeC Management Committee, the lawyer Giacomo Nice.