Vittoria Chierici – I vestiti dei filosofi @ Neochrome Gallery – 8 Febbraio 8 Marzo 21018
Let’s start by saying that the Neochrome venues is awesome! A ground floor in the second courtyard of one of the few examples of a sixteenth-century building maintaining its original appearance of the Risorgimento without being rehashed during the Baroque epoch: the Palazzo Scaglia di Verrua in the center of Turin. This interesting contemporary art gallery has been showcasing since February 8th – ‘The Philosophers’ Clothes’ – representing a selection of works belonging to a cycle devoted to a restatement of the Raphael’s ‘The School of Athens’. In this famous fresco the most important philosophers’ of the history are proudly represented in their natural action of expressing thoughts. What’s interesting to note is that these philosophers come from different ages and different places, expressing an interesting concept of a setup and ideal arrangement of the humanistic culture.
This fresco, dating back to 1500-1511, and located in the Stanza della Segnatura inside the Vatican Apostolic Palaces, has been studied thoroughly by the artist Vittoria Chierici. Fascinated by its history and by its characters – covering many centuries and a wide geographic area – which through dialogues with each other eliminate the differences of their origins, the artist explores the theme linked to a sort of arrangement and order of humanistic culture. These fascinating characters are revisited with a cover of colorful tunics which make them abstract yet expressive, alive, speaking. Abstract forms that allow ways of extreme freedom in the use of the pictorial techniques. Vittoria Chierici is an Italian painter and director of international fame, who contributed to important collective of artists, who founded and wrote for prestigious contemporary art magazines, who collaborated with different academies and universities, who published several essays and received relevant prizes.
Further information: Neochrome Gallery Turin, Esso Gallery New York.
“I vestiti dei filosofi” rappresenta una selezione di opere che appartengono a un ciclo che Vittoria Chierici ha dedicato a una rivisitazione de “la Scuola di Atene” di Raffaello. I personaggi raffigurati in questo celebre affresco rappresentano i filosofi più importanti della storia in un arco temporale e geografico significativamente ampio, e vengono ritratti nell’atto di esternare una conversazione, un dialogo, una disputa, dei pensieri.
L’artista ha studiato a fondo questo affresco, databile al 1509-1511 e che si trova nella Stanza della Segnatura all’interno dei Palazzi Apostolici nei Musei Vaticani di Roma ed è rimasta affascinata non solo dalla sua storia, dai personaggi che dialogando tra di loro eliminano le differenze di origine e dall’ambiente che li circonda, ma anche dalla sua espressione di una sistemazione e ordinamento ideale della cultura umanistica. Questi personaggi vengono rivisitati e ricoperti da tuniche di colori sgargianti – che danno tra l’altro il titolo al progetto –, che li rendono astratti ed espressivi, vivi, parlanti. Forme astratte che permettono modi di estrema libertà nell’uso del gesto e delle tecniche pittoriche. Vittoria Chierici è una pittrice e regista italiana di fama internazionale, che ha partecipato ad importanti collettive di artisti – come gli Enfatisti e i Neo Concettuali, ha fondato e scritto per note riviste d’arte contemporanea, ha collaborato con diverse accademie e università, ha pubblicato diversi saggi e ha ricevuto premi alla carriera del DAMS. Le sue opere vengono esposte in personali da Madrid a Buenos Aires e in collettive, ha collaborato con artisti del calibro della coreografa Liz Gerring e della compositrice Eve Beglarian. La parte in rosso e' facoltativa
Le Strade di Torino, Camilla, Febbraio 2108.
OCTOBER 27 - DECEMBER 29, 2018
OPENING RECEPTION: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 5:30 - 8:00PM
ARTIST TALK: SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 4PM
THE PHILOSOPHER’S CLOTHES
VITTORIA CHIERICI
CURATED BY JENNIFER BACON
This exhibition presents large paintings that are part of a series that Vittoria Chierici dedicated to Raphael’s School of Athens. The philosophers and mathematicians represented in the original fresco - ordered by Pope Julius II for Raphael to execute and located in the Stanza della Segnaturainside the Vatican Apostolic Palaces - cover many centuries ranging from 600 BC until approximately 1100 and a geographic area that includes Athens, Alexandria of Egypt, Cordoba and ancient Persia. Raphael made the most illustrious protagonists of ancient culture, the same ones that make up the lifeblood of the Renaissance, dialogue with each other, eliminating the differences of origin. The theme is linked to a sort of ideal arrangement and order of humanistic culture, in a scenographic perspective reminiscent of the internal space of the ancient basilicas,.
The series of paintings entitled The Philosophers Clothes by Vittoria Chierici is an interpretation describing the characters of the original fresco in their theatricality. The artist has carefully studied the history of the fresco, the characters and the environment that contains them, imagining conversations, disputes and individual thoughts. On the surface, the colored tunics that dress the characters and adhere to their postures, constitute a composition of colors and shapes that, isolated, become abstract. Regarded mindfully you will notice that these abstract shapes keep the expressiveness of the characters interacting in the scenes that Vittoria Chierici has set in place. It is as if the clothes themselves were animated, as if the tunics were alive and speaking, with no obligation of resemblance, without debt of allusiveness.
The abstract forms that derive from the cutouts of the tunics and give the title to the project, The Philosophers Clothes, allow paths of extreme freedom in the use of gesture and painting techniques. The narrative ability of Chierici, already expressed in preceding pictorial series - from the stars to the coca colas, from the black madonnas to the soldiers, the battles, the flowers, the seas - derives in substantial part from cinematographic practice and professional experience; loved, studied and practiced by the artist behind the camera. The theatricality is derived from photograms in series, the idea of a still image in motion, and in this extraordinary new series has successfully managed to refine her style even more.