Studio Museo Francesco Messina opens exhibition of works by Maria Cristina Carlini
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Tuesday, October 15, 2024


Studio Museo Francesco Messina opens exhibition of works by Maria Cristina Carlini
Maria Cristina Carlini, Crateri. Stoneware © Sara Rizzo.



MILAN.- An ideal dialogue between masters of sculpture. The monumental works of Maria Cristina Carlini inhabit the spaces that once belonged to Francesco Messina (1900–1995) and which still preserve his waxes, bronzes and works in clay in the silence of the former church of San Sisto. Here, among the great twentieth-century sculptor’s portraits of women and athletes, Carlini’s woods grow, and her imprints, craters and burnt pages multiply. Signs, traces and memories of a landscape evoke geographies and geologies inspired by the earth’s moods, by the wild places of an archaic and sublime nature.

From 10 July to 8 September 2020, the exhibition Maria Cristina Carlini: Geologies, Memories of the Earth, curated by Chiara Gatti and based on a project by Raffaella Resch, is being housed in Studio Museo Francesco Messina, the former San Sisto church.

Promoted and organised by the Municipality of Milan | Culture and by Studio Museo Francesco Messina, the exhibition is included in the programme ‘Women’s Talents’, which is dedicating 2020 to the world of women and to the contribution they provide in all areas of collective life. It is also part of ‘Aria di Cultura’, the calendar of cultural events that will accompany summer in Milan.

‘Conserved in the evocative spaces of the former church of San Sisto are the works of a great Italian sculptor and the memory of his creative gesture,’ – states councillor for culture Filippo Del Corno – ‘a perfect place to collocate the work of a sculptress who is able to “play” with space and materials; one whose artistic talent enriches the wide variety of initiatives dedicated to “Women’s Talents”.’

The large sculptures are located In the nave of the church with its double-height ceilings. Legni is a horizontal forest looming in the perspective fire of the apse: a visionary place of events where Messina’s heads emerge between tree trunks, creating a lyrical and dreamlike theatrical effect. Like ‘portals’, through which simple matter is transfigured into something symbolic by the sculptor’s hand and the active, perceptive presence of the viewer, works such as Origine and Libro dei morti represent the creation phase, the passage from inert to vital.

II. The theme of the germination of an infinite module nurtures climbing columns of knowledge in the side chapels. Sheet metal and lead distil energy and semantic power into pages that unfold in the air like a stele or a rock cavern. Fantasmi del lago, a totem in sheet metal, is shaped into vertical prismatic sections made opaque by a surface treatment, as if they were evanescent and insubstantial.

The crypt contains a sequence of Impronte bearing alphabets engraved into the material, a vestige of a past presence spread out on the ground. Visible from the nave, like archaeological remains buried in the earth, environmental installations in the rooms that were Messina’s former studio distil two of Carlini’s major cycles: Crateri and Libri bruciati. Here, the sense of material and colour, the vibrant skin of the sculpture and the enamel paint and oxides form elements extracted from nature, from human history, from the orography of the area and ancestral culture.




As Maria Fratelli comments: ‘The works of Maria Cristina Carlini transport to the nave of San Sisto the international experience of twentieth-century masters, a group which includes her own sculpture, juxtaposed with the work of Francesco Messina. This comparison releases the force of sculpture as a living language. By a woman’s hand, the hand of a great Milanese sculptress who deserves this tribute, the Messina Museum becomes landscape, memory and earth.’

Outside, in dialogue with the baroque façade, stand the imposing Samurai, the symbol of the exhibition: armour made from wood and Corten steel in one linear and condensed volume in which the harmony and rhythm of the three-dimensional elements evoke a weave, a mesh, chainmail traversed by air and wind. Calligraphic perfection pays tribute to the absolute synthesis of Eastern culture.

When the exhibition closes, the Samurai installation will remain on display during Art Week and the MiArt art fair.

The exhibition also features a film produced by Storyville and directed by Stefano Conca Barizzoni, dedicated to the artist’s studio and the works on display.

A book in Italian and English will be published at the end of the exhibition. Edited by Chiara Gatti and with critical texts by Chiara Gatti and Paolo Campiglio, it contains images of the exhibited works and a core of other major works from recent years.

Maria Cristina Carlini began her career as an artist in Palo Alto, California, where she created and exhibited ceramic artworks. She subsequently continued her practice in Brussels then later returned to Milan. At this juncture, in addition to stoneware and terracotta, she began to use materials such as iron, sheet metal, Corten steel, resin, recycled wood and occasionally paper.

Carlini’s work ranges from large to small scale, and her career is studded with important awards. She has taught abroad, held solo exhibitions, and taken part in group shows in a variety of public and private, national and international venues. Her monumental sculptures are on permanent display in three continents: Europe, America and Asia.

She was the first female sculptor to exhibit in the Forbidden City. The Municipality of Milan appointed her ambassador for relations with China during Expo 2010 in Shanghai, where she presented monumental sculptures.

Maria Cristina Carlini currently lives and works in Milan, where her studio is the centre of her creative practice. She continues to exhibit worldwide.










Today's News

August 9, 2020

Gianguan Auctions to offer devotional art, bronze, jade and ceramic statues

Exhibition explores the multifaceted and eccentric universe that is Takashi Murakami's Superflat

What is a museum? A dispute erupts over a new definition

Complicated watches for complicated times

Centre Pompidou exhibits works by the winner of the 21st Prix Fondation d'entreprise Pernord Ricard

Shipwrecked gold coin sells for $312,000

Serbian musicians battle the coronavirus blues

Exhibition of new works by Anne Katrine Senstad on view at Yi Gallery

Gallery Wendi Norris now represents modern artist Alice Rahon

Special exhibition celebrates the 2020 women's vote centennial

Brent Carver, versatile Tony-winning actor, dies at 68

The Arts Council Collection appoints Deborah Smith as its new Director

John Michael Kohler Arts Center reopens

"Who was the first woman in your family to vote?" A National Art and Storytelling exhibition is now live

The Florida Aquarium successfully spawns threatened pillar coral for the second year in a row

Make time to make! 300 New short courses from October to April launched at West Dean College

Bernard Bailyn, eminent historian of early America, dies at 97

Guggenheim presents Summer of Know with artist group For Freedoms

New exhibition to feature works from photographer David Harp

Studio Museo Francesco Messina opens exhibition of works by Maria Cristina Carlini

Guallart Architects win housing post-covid competition in China

Athens Muslims fear mosque delay after Hagia Sophia conversion

FreedmanArt presents an extended version of "Shadowboxing" exhibition

Forum Gallery opens an exhibition of fresh paintings and drawings completed in recent months

Must have dresses for women all year round

Best HD Streaming Quality Alternatives to Kisscartoon




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful