Arcimboldo Face to Face
You who go, wandering through the world,
Curious to see high and amazing wonders,
Come here, where you will find...
These words, intended for the visitors of the garden of fantastic sculptures in Bomarzo, could just as well welcome the audience of the exhibition Arcimboldo Face to Face, presented at Centre Pompidou-Metz from May 29 to November 22, 2021.
Conceived in a dialogue between Maurizio Cattelan and Chiara Parisi, director of Centre Pompidou-Metz and curator of the exhibition with Anne Horvath, Arcimboldo Face to Face offers an unprecedented journey, away from any chronology, into the meandering thought and timeless vocabulary of this mysterious sixteenth century painter.
Although Arcimboldo’s composite portraits are now universally known, the richness and diversity of his work remains to be discovered. Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526-1593) was an inventor and a thinker whose thoughts and works go far beyond the question of portrait painting. The exhibition shows how his work has been influencing art history for five centuries and could shed a light on a number of current philosophical and political debates.
In addition to the exceptional presentation of the famous Seasons from the Louvre and the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, the show focuses on his most surprising works: the stained-glass windows he created at the very beginning of his career in the Milan Cathedral, the pen and blue wash drawings from the Uffizi Gallery for the feasts and tournaments of the Habsburg court, as well as The Librarian, which is striking for its profoundly conceptual language.
Inaugurating Chiara Parisi’s program as head of the institution, since december 2019, Arcimboldo Face to Face is a follow-up to The Arcimboldo Effect: Transformations of the Face from the 16th to the 20th Century, which was the first exhibition devoted to the artist in Italy. Held at Palazzo Grassi in Venice in 1987, it was conceived by Pontus Hultén, the first director of the Centre Pompidou, with Yasha David.
Arcimboldo Face to Face reflects the current state of art through the eyes of 130 artists, whose selection was guided by the influence - assumed, unconscious or fantasized - that the Lombard master exerts on their thinking and art. Each of the 250 works in the exhibition bears the imprint of Arcimboldo’s unique creative freedom and follows a golden thread through the centuries until the present day.
Using cellular concrete, the unconventional scenography designed by the architects Berger&Berger suggests the cartography of a citadel in which generations, geographies and media collide.
You who go, wandering through the world,
Curious to see high and amazing wonders,
Come here, where you will find...
These words, intended for the visitors of the garden of fantastic sculptures in Bomarzo, could just as well welcome the audience of the exhibition Arcimboldo Face to Face, presented at Centre Pompidou-Metz from May 29 to November 22, 2021.
Conceived in a dialogue between Maurizio Cattelan and Chiara Parisi, director of Centre Pompidou-Metz and curator of the exhibition with Anne Horvath, Arcimboldo Face to Face offers an unprecedented journey, away from any chronology, into the meandering thought and timeless vocabulary of this mysterious sixteenth century painter.
Although Arcimboldo’s composite portraits are now universally known, the richness and diversity of his work remains to be discovered. Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526-1593) was an inventor and a thinker whose thoughts and works go far beyond the question of portrait painting. The exhibition shows how his work has been influencing art history for five centuries and could shed a light on a number of current philosophical and political debates.
In addition to the exceptional presentation of the famous Seasons from the Louvre and the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, the show focuses on his most surprising works: the stained-glass windows he created at the very beginning of his career in the Milan Cathedral, the pen and blue wash drawings from the Uffizi Gallery for the feasts and tournaments of the Habsburg court, as well as The Librarian, which is striking for its profoundly conceptual language.
Inaugurating Chiara Parisi’s program as head of the institution, since december 2019, Arcimboldo Face to Face is a follow-up to The Arcimboldo Effect: Transformations of the Face from the 16th to the 20th Century, which was the first exhibition devoted to the artist in Italy. Held at Palazzo Grassi in Venice in 1987, it was conceived by Pontus Hultén, the first director of the Centre Pompidou, with Yasha David.
Arcimboldo Face to Face reflects the current state of art through the eyes of 130 artists, whose selection was guided by the influence - assumed, unconscious or fantasized - that the Lombard master exerts on their thinking and art. Each of the 250 works in the exhibition bears the imprint of Arcimboldo’s unique creative freedom and follows a golden thread through the centuries until the present day.
Using cellular concrete, the unconventional scenography designed by the architects Berger&Berger suggests the cartography of a citadel in which generations, geographies and media collide.
Artists on show
- Alberto Martini
- Alberto Savinio
- Albrecht Dürer
- Alex Israel
- Alighiero Boëtti
- Alina Szapocznikow
- André Breton
- André Masson
- André Raffray
- Annette Messager
- Antonio Rasio
- Arnold Schönberg
- Auguste Rodin
- Bernard Palissy
- Cadavres Exquis
- Cally Spooner
- Carl August Ehrensvärd
- Cezary Bodzianowski
- Chéri Samba
- Christoph Jamnitzer
- Cindy Sherman
- Claude Lalanne
- Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts
- Daft Punk
- Daniel Fröschl
- Daniel Spoerri
- David Czupryn
- Denis Boutemie
- Ed Ruscha
- Enrico Baj
- Enrico Donati
- Ewa Juszkiewicz
- Felix González-Torres
- Fernando & Humberto Campana
- Francesco Guardi
- Francesco Zucchi II
- Francis Bacon
- Francis Picabia
- Gherasim Luca
- Giambattista Braccelli
- Giambologna
- Gilbert & George
- Giorgio de Chirico
- Giovanni Antonio Bazzi
- Giuseppe Arcimboldo
- Glenn Brown
- Gustave Courbet
- Hannah Höch
- Hans Bellmer
- Hans-Peter Feldmann
- Heide Hatry
- Henry Taylor
- Humberto Campana
- Ian Cheng
- Iris Schieferstein
- Jacopo Strada
- Jake & Dinos Chapman
- James Ensor
- Jan Å vankmajer
- Jean Tinguely
- Jindrich Styrsky
- Kerstin Brätsch
- Koo Jeong A
- Lavinia Fontana
- Liam Gillick
- Liu Wa
- Liu Xiaodong
- Llyn Foulkes
- Luchita Hurtado
- Luigi Ontani
- Lynda Benglis
- M/M (Paris)
- Man Ray
- Marcel Duchamp
- Mario Merz
- Marisa Merz
- Markus Raetz
- Marlene Dumas
- Mathias Augustyniak
- Matthäus Merian the Elder
- Maurizio Cattelan
- Max Ernst
- Max Morise
- Medardo Rosso
- Meret Oppenheim
- Miriam Cahn
- Nicolás de Larmessin II
- Niki de Saint Phalle
- Otto Dix
- Pablo Picasso
- Patrick Neu
- Patrick Staff
- Penny Slinger
- Peter Saville
- Philippe Parreno
- Pierre Huyghe
- Rashid Johnson
- Rem Koolhaas
- René Boyvin
- René Magritte
- Rirkrit Tiravanija
- Robert Heinecken
- Roberto Cuoghi
- Rosemarie Trockel
- Roy Lichtenstein
- Salvador Dalí
- Tetsumi Kudo
- Tobias Rehberger
- Tomio Miki
- Toyen
- Ulisse Aldrovandi
- Victor Brauner
- Virgil Abloh
- Wolfgang Tillmans
- Yu Hong
- Yves Tanguy
- Zoe Leonard
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ARTUNER is pleased to announce David Czupryn’s Not Born in the Same Nursery (2015) will be exhibited as part of the group exhibition Arcimboldo Face to Face at the Centre Pompidou-Metz, opening on May 29th to November 22nd, 2021.
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