Gallerynote 4/2016

November 26, 2016 to January 28, 2017

Antonio Calderara  (1903-1978)
„Spazio, luce, colore luce, luce. L’uomo, il suo limite il suo essere finito nell’infinito.“
(Space, light, color light, light. Man, his limits, his finitude in the infinite.)

The small volume ‘Pagine’ – published bilingually in Munich in 1973 – contains the notations of the painter Antonio Calderara and intensely and exquisitely conveys his thinking and thoughts on art. Life and art reveal themselves as a unity, the activity of the painter, the experience with his own works, but also with the works of other contemporary artists provide him with insights and stabilize views, which became the foundation of a quiet yet demanding life’s work.

The show of paintings and watercolors in our gallery reflects how our encounters with his painting and our exhibitions with Antonio Calderara go back to the year 1969 and how his friendship, generosity and support were a great help and major encouragement for us at the time as young gallerists. His works are an important part of our aesthetic biography and they have accompanied and engaged us for decades. The precision of artistic intentions, the wonderful congruence of invention and execution, of pictorial means and pictorial object, form the great qualities of this utterly unique body of painting.

Our present exhibition, modest in the number of exhibits, refers to two important museum presentations in the Italian and German speaking regions of Switzerland. Taking two different approaches to honoring the artist’s rich and differentiated oeuvre, these presentations serve as meaningful complements to one another.

At MASI Lugano, an extensive retrospective opens on January 22, 2017, compiled and curated by Elio Schenini.

From February 11 to April 30, 2017, Kunstmuseum Winterthur will host another exhibition, which has been prepared with great passion and care by Simona Ciuccio.

We are pleased to see the well-deserved attention being given to the work of an artist whose greatness is superbly achieved within a small pictorial format. The two exhibitions are each accompanied by a separate catalog.

Exhibitions

Antonio Calderara,
A Light Without Shadow
 October 1 – January 22, 2017
MASI LAC, Lugano

Agnes Martin
Guggenheim Museum New York
October 7, 2016 – January 11 2017

Sol LeWitt
A Wall Drawing Retrospective
Yale University Art Gallery and Williams College Museum of Art
November 16, 2008 – 2033