Giorgio Morandi: Masterpieces from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation

This collection of works by Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964) is among the largest and most significant of the Italian master’s output. Assembled over two decades in close collaboration with Morandi, the collection comprises fifty works, each one hand-selected and acquired by Luigi Magnani (1906–1984). Magnani’s deep admiration for Morandi’s work and character is evidenced by the range of subject matter, techniques, and periods he collected, together forming a cohesive and exemplary whole. The enduring friendship between the two men, despite Morandi’s famously reclusive nature, underscores the exceptional nature of this collection and the circumstances under which it was formed.

Among the earlier works in the exhibition is Natura morta metafisica (Metaphysical Still Life). Painted in 1918, the work is one very rare example of Morandi’s Metaphysical period, during which time he contributed to the magazine Valori Plastici published by Mario Broglio, alongside the Metaphysical artists Carlo Carrá and Giorgio de Chirico. This movement is characterized by mysterious imagery that combines classical elements with a sense of disorientation, evoking a feeling of displacement.

Morandi very rarely engaged with the human form in his work, producing only seven self portraits throughout the entirety of his career. One of these, Autoritratto (Self-Portrait), was purchased by Magnani from the Milanese collector Gianni Mattioli after Morandi’s death. Describing the rarity of the work in Il Mio Morandi, Magnani’s memoir-like account of his friendship with the artist, he writes: “When Morandi positions himself before the mirror to portray himself ... he feels constrained by the physiognomic data that hinders his tendency to escape from reality and transform it into a new identity.”

A selection of works on view highlight Morandi’s skill in printmaking. Il ponte sul Savena a Bologna (The Bridge over the Savena in Bologna) from 1912 is one of the first known etchings by the artist, created in his youth. In the composition's structure, as well as in its subject matter and the structural synthesis of its lines, it is clear that the artist is paying homage to his greatest inspiration, Paul Cézanne, as well as to Giotto and Vitale da Bologna.

Created nearly a decade later, in 1921, Natura morta con il cestino del pane (Lastra grande) (Still Life with Bread Basket [Large Plate]) is from the artist’s archives, making it particularly precious. Compared to the earlier etching, one can see how the complexity of his etching technique had advanced by the 1920s, evincing a mastery of volume and light and signaling the artist’s definitive departure from his Metaphysical period.

Describing Magnani’s motives and habits in collecting, Stefano Roffi, the artistic director of the Magnani-Rocca Foundation, writes: “Whilst constituting his most concrete legacy, Magnani's collection of artworks represents just one manifestation of a profound pursuit of and yearning for knowledge that never favored one mode of artistic expression over another, but which always—and with great ethical rigor—sought to discern in each work (musical, painterly or poetic) the will and the intellect of its creator, a spiritual tension and a desire for transcendence.... For Magnani, the works of figurative art with which he surrounded himself were part of a world that formed synchronic and diachronic relationships with music, poetry and the broader reality in which they were born and in which, over time, they came to offer a coherent vision.”

Natura morta con frutta (Still Life with Fruit) is an unusual work within Morandi’s oeuvre, both for its painting technique, which is extremely thick and textured, and for its subject matter. While the artist depicted fruits half a dozen times in the early 1920s, the subject of the fruit basket would disappear permanently from the artist’s iconographic repertoire after this example from 1927 and a few etchings from that same year. The work is undoubtedly another tribute to Cézanne, though one can also see the growing influence of Jean Siméon Chardin in the materiality of the paint.

Unprecedented in Morandi’s oeuvre is Natura morta (Strumenti musicali) (Still Life [Musical Instruments]), possibly the only commissioned work that Morandi ever agreed to make. Magnani had proposed the commission only a few weeks after the two first met in October 1940, unaware that Morandi did not work in this way, but the older painter must have recognized something in the younger collector that compelled him to accept the offer regardless.

The two still life compositions above date from the middle of World War II and feature two elements typical of Morandi’s work from this period. One encounters a darker and more contrasted palette compared to the lighter colors and diffused light evident in works completed prior to and following the war. Additionally, we see Morandi placing the objects he depicts toward the edge of the support, creating a sense of instability reflective of the time in which they were painted.

Over the course of his six-decade career, Morandi was most prolific during the postwar years, from 1948 until his death in 1964, when he executed more than half his entire output of paintings. Throughout this intensely creative period, Morandi worked almost exclusively in series. Remaining dedicated to the repertoire of subjects that had occupied him since the early 1910s, including tabletop still lifes, his variations on a given compositional motif became more persistent, nuanced, and abstract in the later half of his life.

In addition to his still lifes, Morandi also made occasional landscapes and depictions of flowers during the later half of his life. Cortile di Via Fondazza (Courtyard of Via Fondazza) reflects the view through the window of Morandi’s now-renowned studio in Bologna, a sacred place for his artistic production. Having set aside the subject of landscapes for nearly ten years, Morandi’s growing inclination toward abstraction is evidenced by this 1954 work by its distinct dividing line: the imposing presence of a light wall, which occupies nearly half of the left side of the painting.

The presence of this wall serves only to animate the right side of the work. Despite the muted, soft color palette, the visible part of the landscape stands out in its chromatic richness and dynamism. While the large expanse of light beige on the left injects vitality into the other half of the painting, the compositional structure is a clear extension of Morandi’s treatment of his still lifes.

Both Fiori in un vasetto bianco (Flowers in a white vase) and Zinnie in un vaso (Zinnias in a Vase) were the first works personally gifted by Morandi to Magnani after the two were introduced by art historian and critic Cesare Brandi in 1940. Morandi had a habit of offering works depicting flowers to friends as a sign of homage, much like a guest offering a bouquet. As Brandi wrote, “The truth is that in yielding one of his pictures, Morandi felt that he had accomplished a symbolic ‘breaking of bread.’ He knew that it was as if he were cutting off a part of himself but, for this very reason, he did not collect his own works. He continued to distribute these parts of himself.”

The years from 1927 to 1933 were the most prolific in terms of Morandi’s printmaking, during which time he began teaching as a professor of engraving at Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna. Having mastered the technique, he now used intricate networks of intersecting lines to convey subtle tonal variations and light effects. His prints, described by Gilberto Petrucci as possessing “chromatic equivalences,” transcend representation, capturing depth and richness despite their limited palette.

The exhibition also features several late-period works, including the two still lifes shown above and below, both from 1963. These works, some of the artist’s last, reflect his drive toward abstraction, which becomes even more radical in his watercolors. Here one sees a change of perspective and diminished definition, as well as the use of blue, purple, and salmon tones that is typical of the artist’s later years.

While some audiences believed works from this period to be unfinished, they are in fact complete compositions, reflective of Morandi’s growing interest in capturing a sense of fleeting perception, relying less on defined contour lines than on light, essential strokes, as well as on the suggestion of volumes that evoke the great color-field paintings of Mark Rothko.

Towards the end of his life, Magnani—who passed away in 1984—entrusted the Foundation with the Villa dei Capolavori in Mamiano di Traversetolo, near Parma, which opened as a museum in 1990 to house his remarkable art collection. It includes masterpieces by Filippo Lippi, Carpaccio, Dürer, Titian, Rubens, Van Dyck, Tiepolo, Goya, Canova, Cézanne, Monet, Renoir, de Chirico, and Burri, and maintains its mission to support and advance cultural activities, focusing particularly on art, music, and literature.

As both a survey of Morandi’s vast and unrivaled oeuvre, and as a testament to one of his most important friendships, Giorgio Morandi: Masterpieces from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation offers New York audiences a truly unique understanding of one of the twentieth century’s most important and influential artists.