The exhibition "Real, concrete, abstract. From the Post-Cubism to the Late Naturalism. Art in Milan 1946-1959" will be inaugurated on February 27 at 18h.00, in Palazzo Sertoli in Sondrio (Piazza Quadrivio n° 8). The exhibition has been mounted and sponsored by Credito Valtellinese and Sondrio Culture Council Office. It is the first one of a five-exhibition cycle. Approximately every six months, an exhibition will be dedicated to the artistic movements that developed in Milan and in Lombardy in our '50s.

Next exhibitions

• July 1997: MAC (acronym of Movimento Arte Concreta, that is Concrete Art Movement)
• February 1998: Nuclear Movement
• July 1998: Space Movement
• February 1999: Existential Realism

MARINO MARINI "Composizione" - 1959 - Bronze - height 38x40x13

This first exhibition documents, through sixty of the most significant works of those years, the complexity of the cultural-political debate that followed the Liberation and slowly developed in the subsequent decade. Numerous groups (e.g. Oltre Guernica, the Fronte Nuovo delle Arti and the Gruppo degli Otto), the Realistic movement and variegated groups of artists contributed to the debate. They had abandoned the image and had turned to an abstractionism typical of the sign language of the European informal style (more seldom, of the American Action Painting) and of the late Naturalism theories. On this occasion, particular emphasis has been laid on sculpture and on sculptors, thanks to the rich variety of plastic techniques adopted in the '50s. In spite of its rich variety of forms, sculpture remains less important than painting. In fact, the historical reviews often regard sculpture as less important than painting.

AGENORE FABBRI "Personaggio" - 1950 - Iron - size 235x80

Since the exhibition only considers the events happened in Milan, it is possible to examine the peculiar connotations that characterise the cultural life of the city. There is, for instance, the "Current" tradition, Lucio Fontana's influence, the interest in European experiences, especially French and Swiss experiences, thanks to their geographic closeness. Milan represents therefore a privileged point of view about the Italian artistic events and culture and, in a certain way, also about the European art and culture. The artists present are: Giuseppe Ajmone, Aldo Bergolli, Mario Bionda, Renato Birolli, Luigi Broggini, Arturo Carmassi, Bruno Cassinari, Alik Cavaliere, Alfredo Chighine, Gino Cosentino, Agenore Fabbri, Gianfranco Fasce, Giovanni Fumagalli, Giacomo Manzų, Marino Marini, Gino Meloni, Fausto Melotti, Giuseppe Migneco, Umberto Milani, Luciano Minguzzi, Ennio Morlotti, Mario Negri, Giovanni Paganin, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Giō Pomodoro, Giancarlo Sangregorio, Aligi Sassu, Francesco Somaini, Guido Somarč, Vittorio Tavernari, Ernesto Treccani. The works of each exhibition are reproduced in a catalogue, edited by Martina Corgnati and meant to study the main aspects of the cultural debate in depth and to reconstruct the artists' career, documents and critical essays.

GIACOMO MANZU' "Cardinale seduto" - 1950 - Alabaster - Height 42x24x22

With this cycle, Sondrio hosts a series of exhibitions that are more than local. As numerous other plans, they are meant to exploit not only Sondrio tourist potentialities, but also its cultural potentialities. On this occasion, a new exhibition centre is inaugurated in the Municipal Palace, where some of the works will be shown to the public. Some big-sized sculptures will be placed in the historical centre most beautiful courtyards (Palazzo Lavizzari, Palazzo Sassi, Palazzo Giaccone , Palazzo Pretorio , Palazzo Sertoli), so that they will create a new artistic course through the city environment.