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Radical Light at National GalleryGrubicy, Previati, Segantini, Morbelli, Balla and Fornara on Display
The National Gallery's show, "Radical light: Italy's Divisionist Painters 1891-1910", looks at a little-known movement known as Divisionism and the artists linked to it.
Radical Light, has been jointly organised by the National Gallery, London and the Kunsthaus, Zurich. Sponsored by Credit Suisse,and curated by Simonetta Fraquelli, it is one of the first major exhibitions outside Italy to explore this almost unknown group of artists. The Divisionists were a group of avant-garde artists based mainly in northern Italy. The National Gallery's exhibition features more than fifty paintings by the main protagonists of Divisionism including Gaetano Previati, Giovanni Segantini, Carlo Fornara, Angelo Morbelli, Guiseppe Pellizza, Plinio Nomellini and Emilio Longoni. Radical Light explores how the work of the Divisionists laid the foundation for the Futurist movement that followed and the National Gallery has also included paintings by Futurists, Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini. The Divisionists in ContextAt the start of the 20th century Italy faced political crisis, widespread social unrest and major economic problems. Following unification the Italian people were looking forward to both economical and social progress but this did not happen. This was also a time of intense creativity and technical experimentation in art. The Founding Father of the DivisionistsOne of the main experimenters was Vittore Grubicy de Dragon. Fascinated by the study of optical science and the portrayal of light he also believed that painting should not be totally dependent on reality and turned to Symbolism to express his art. Grubicy is reputed to be the founding father of the Divisionists who began to respond to, and react against, the disillusionment they felt with the current state of affairs. Many of the Divisionists were politically active and reacted not only through the subjects they chose to portray but also in their style of painting. Many strove for "an art not for art's sake but for humanity's sake" - Guiseppe Pellizza, 1892. A Scientific Approach to PaintingThe portrayal of light on canvas became a basic tenet of the Divisionist movement. By adopting a scientific approach to painting the Divisionists hoped their art would be an instrument for social change. Radical Light: Italy's Divisionist Painters examines how these artists split light into individual brushstrokes of colour with the result that their paintings simply glow. For example, Carlo Fornara's Washerwomen (1898) appears as if illuminated by thousands of minute lights within the painting! The Divisionists portrayed the social, economic and political unrest they saw around them. Giovanni Segantini's Return from the Woods painted in 1890 shows the poverty of the countryside and like Fornara's Washerwomen it positively glows with light. This inbuilt luminosity and intensity was achieved by using individual strokes of unmixed blocks of colour. PublicationTo accompany the exhibition the National Gallery has published a full colour catalogue entitled Radical Light: Italy's Divisionist Painters by Simonetta Fraquelli, Giovanna Ginex, Vivien Greene, Aurora Scott Tosini with contributions from Lara Pucci and LInda Schädler. Radical Light will be on at the National Gallery until 7 September 2008 after which it will move to the Kunsthaus, Zurich where the exhibition will be on show from 26 September 2008 to 11 January 2009.
The copyright of the article Radical Light at National Gallery in Special Art Gallery Exhibits is owned by Frances Spiegel. Permission to republish Radical Light at National Gallery in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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