Art, Genius and Madness Exhibit in Siena, Italy
'Day and Night of the Artist' at the Santa Maria della Scala Complex
Apr 11, 2009
Until May 25th, at the Palazzo Squarcialupi in the Santa Maria della Scala complex in Siena (Italy) an unusual exhibit investigates the subtle relationship interlinking art, genius and madness through more than three hundred art works by modern and contemporary artists, showcased alongside medical instruments used in the past for the treatment and scientific observation of the mentally ill.
Art, Genius and Madness. Day and Night of the Artist
Poignant and occasionally even distressing, the presentation runs through ten different sections curated by leading figures in the fields of art and psychiatry under the supervision of Vittorio Sgarbi, one of Italy's most influential and controversial art critics:
- The Scene of Madness
- Born Under Saturn. Messerschmidt
- Genius and Medness in the Time of Nietzsche
- Collective Lunacy: War As Seen by the Artists
- The Art of Madmen: a Tribute to Hans Prinzhorn
- Art Brut
- The Alchemy of Art: Antonio Ligabue
- Some Italian Cases Between Normality and Madness
- Travels Through Tuscany
- Lucid Madness in 20th-Century Art
Some noteworthy masterpieces on view are:
- Le concert dans l’oeuf, attributed to Hieronymus Bosch, 16th Century
- The Temptations of Saint Anthony, by an unknown Flemish master, 16th Century
- Hôpital Saint-Paul à Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, by Vincent van Gogh, 1889
- Marine avec récif by August Strindberg, 1894
- Starry Night, by Edvard Munch, 1922-24
- Portrait of Erna (aka Kopf Erna), by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1917
- Und neues Leben blueht aus dn Ruinen, by Otto Dix, 1946
- Guernica (tapestry) by Pablo Picasso, 1976
- Self-portrait with a red scarf, by Antonio Ligabue, 1956
- L’ermaphrodite, by Max Ernst, 1934
- Il Trionfo della morte, by Renato Guttuso, 1943
- Il grido, by Marino Marini, 1962
Lending Institutions
The masterworks on display were lent by some of the leading museums in Europe including the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée National d’Art Moderne – Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Prado in Madrid, the Kirchner Museum in Davos, the Munch-museet in Oslo, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lille, the Sammlung Prinzhorn in Heidelberg, and the Collection d l’Art Brut in Lausanne. Italian lenders are the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome, the Pinacoteca di Brera and the Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense in Milan, the Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna - Ca’ Pesaro in Venice, and the Museo Marino Marini in Florence.
Practical Info
Art, Genius and Madness. Day and Night of the Artist is open daily (including public holidays) from 10.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m.
Visitors may also complement the exhibition with a tour of the former San Niccolò psychiatric hospital (advance telephone reservation required).
Source
Arte Genio Follia: Il giorno e la notte dell'artista (exhibition catalogue, in Italian) | published in Milan by Ed. Fondazione Gabriele Mazzotta, 2009 | ISBN 978-88-202-1918-5
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