The Morandis from the Magnani-Rocca collection at Estorick

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The Estorick Collection celebrates its 25th anniversary with a tribute to Giorgio Morandi, the great poet of Italian painting.
The London museum-jewel dedicated to modern Italian art, which has the largest collection of Morandi’s works in Great Britain, is now hosting a major exhibition dedicated to the artist to celebrate the quarter century. For the first time, the entire Morandi collection of the Magnani-Rocca Foundation crosses the Channel – 50 works including paintings, watercolours, drawings and lithographs which represent all of Morandi’s long artistic career.

The starting point is the “Metaphysical still life” of 1918, inspired by the works of Giorgio de Chirico, and the arrival point are various still lifes, drawings made in 1962 with essential lines that eliminate the volume of objects, almost bordering on abstraction .

Consistency and uniqueness of the artist

In over forty years of works one can observe Morandi’s evolution but above all admire his coherence and uniqueness as an artist who has always consciously followed his path, part of his time but also out of time. The exhibition also reveals the evolution of the personal relationship between Morandi and the collector Luigi Magnani, who went from patron to collaborator and friend. The art critic Cesare Brandi had presented them in 1940 and the understanding between the two had been immediate and lasting. Over the next twenty years Magnani continued to buy works directly from Morandi, who was notoriously very selective about buyers and only granted paintings to those he knew he would not resell. The Magnani-Rocca collection includes a rare self-portrait by Morandi, painted in 1925, a long series of still lifes, oil paintings and watercolors as well as drawings and lithographs.

Virtuosity

The latter demonstrate the virtuosity of Morandi, who became a master of this now obsolete technique, which he then also taught, drawing inspiration from the artistic workshops of the Renaissance and bringing it back to sublime levels. In a display case some letters and postcards between Magnani and Morandi are on display, which reveal the friendly exchanges and the great understanding between the two. Only for him did the artist agree to paint the one and only commissioned picture of his life: Magnani asked him to portray some of his ancient musical instruments and Morandi accepted. When he delivered the painting in 1941, however, he explained that he had not been able to paint those instruments, too precious and too unfamiliar. For him, painting was first of all choosing objects and then handling them, studying them, moving them, observing them, arranging them and finally portraying them. So he went to a flea market and picked out a toy guitar, a trumpet and a little mandolin and painted those so as not to disappoint his friend. Magnani understood “the unease that the divergence from his usual conception of painting had caused him” and the friendship between the two, far from cracking, was strengthened.

“Morandi’s personality is inseparable from his work – Alice Ensabella, curator of the Magnani-Rocca Foundation explained to Sole-24Ore -. His was an artistic evolution with his times and according to his codes, with great perseverance and meticulousness, creating a profound relationship with things and finding poetry in everyday objects”. It is a unique opportunity to see two exhibitions in one: after having seen the works of the Magnani-Rocca Foundation, climbing the stairs to the upper floor you can admire the permanent collection of works by Morandi of Estorick. One great artist, two collections compared.