BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//https://mnar.ro///NONSGML kigkonsult.se iCalcreator 2.10.15// METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT UID:20260417T185317EEST-2556hFiu2K@https://mnar.ro/ DTSTAMP:20260417T155317Z DESCRIPTION:The exhibition is made in collaboration with Antonio Homem of t he Sonnabend Collection Foundation\nThe exhibition ILEANA SONNABEND AND AR TE POVERA\, organized by the National Museum of Art of Romania (MNAR)\, in collaboration with the Italian Embassy in Romania\, the Italian Institute of Culture in Bucharest and Antonio Homem of the Sonnabend Collection Fou ndation\, is a tribute to the life and work of the Romanian gallerist Ilea na Sonnabend.\nIleana Sonnabend was born on 25 October 1914 in Bucharest i nto one of the wealthiest families of the city's Jewish bourgeoisie\, the Schapira family\, and died on 21 October 2007.\nHaving a penchant for art and culture from an early age\, she met Leo Castelli in Bucharest\, one of the most important promoters of American pop art\, whom she married in 19 33. As World War II was about to break out\, the two left for New York\, w here they set up an art gallery that would become one of the most importan t in the dissemination of American art in the mid-20th century. Ileana ret urns to Europe with her second husband\, Michael Sonnabend\, first to Rome and then to Paris. These experiences mark the itinerary that would make I leana Sonnabend a leading representative of 20th-century art\, who promote d a dialogue between American and European art through the work of the art gallery she opened in Paris in 1962 with her second husband\, Michael Son nabend\, and later in New York.\nIn the 1960s\, in parallel with her suppo rt for American artists such as Jim Dine\, Jasper Johns\, Roy Lichtenstein \, Claes Oldenburg\, Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol\, Ileana Sonnaben d had deep and constant links with Italy\, paying particular attention to the Arte Povera movement\, theorised in 1967 by the critic Germano Celant\ , which is still the best-known Italian art movement in the world today.\n To underline her visions and her openness to Italian art\, the exhibition at MNAR focuses on the relationship between the gallery owner and the arti sts of the Arte Povera movement she supported: Michelangelo Pistoletto\, G ilberto Zorio\, Mario Merz\, Giovanni Anselmo\, Pier Paolo Calzolari\, Giu lio Paolini\, Jannis Kounellis. As a premise of the focus on the Arte Pove ra movement\, the exhibition also includes a tribute to Mario Schifano\, t he first Italian artist whose works have been exhibited by Ileana Sonnaben d\, thus anticipating the deep connection between the Sonnabend gallery an d Italian art developed since the second half of the 1960s.\nThe exhibitio n is not only the first one dedicated to Ileana Sonnabend in Romania\, but also the first one in the world that is not based on works currently incl uded in her collection\, the Sonnabend Collection. In order to distinguish itself from previous exhibition projects and to underline the still stron g link between Ilena Sonnabend's life story and Italy through the Arte Pov era movement\, the exhibition at MNAR presents works that still belong to artists and their inheritors\, as well as to museums\, foundations\, priva te collectors\, Italian gallery owners\, exhibited by Ileana Sonnabend on the occasion of exhibitions organized in her gallery\, or that she organiz ed in other spaces.\nThe works exhibited\, mainly made in the early 1960s and early 1970s\, have already become emblematic of art history. These inc lude Pistoletto's mirror paintings Two Men in Shirts (1963) and Walking Gi rl (1966)\, Anselmo's Torsion (1968) and Paolini's Apotheosis of Homer (19 70-71).\nThe exhibition of the works is preceded by a chronological\, text ual and photographic section on Ileana Sonnabend and by another textual an d photographic section on her relationship with the artists of the Arte Po vera movement.\nThe exhibition concludes with a video documentary on the g allerist and on Italian art\, produced for the occasion by 3D Produzioni\, which will be broadcast by Italian television.\nThis exhibition is of par ticular relevance both for Italy\, allowing a better knowledge of Italian art abroad\, and especially for Romania\, because it is the first time tha t the legendary work of Ileana Sonnabend is presented in her home country. \nThe curator of the exhibition is Ilaria Bernardi\, a contemporary art hi storian specialising in post-war Italian art\, with a particular focus on the artists of the Arte Povera movement\, to whom she has dedicated a majo r exhibition at the Wits Art Museum in Johannesburg in October 2023. She h as collaborated\, among others\, with Germano Celant\, who theorised the A rte Povera movement\, and with Carolyn Christov Bakargiev. She has curated exhibitions for public institutions organized in important exhibition spa ces in Italy and abroad\, including: in Rome\, National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art\, Palazzo delle Esposizioni\, MAXXI\; in Lombardy\, M ilan Triennale\; Villa e Collezione Panza\, Varese\; in the USA: Magazzino Italian Art\, Cold Spring (NY)\, ArtOmi (Gent\, NY)\; South Africa\, Keye s Art Mile and Wits Art Museum\, Johannesburg\; 6 Spin Street\, Cape Town. \n'Ileana Sonnabend's eye has been able to perceive the creative essence o f European and American artistic research in the second half of the 20th c entury\, discovering artists and works that have had a particular influenc e on the history of international art. Among them were certainly the Itali an artists whom she supported\; in particular\, those of the Arte Povera m ovement\, whose artistic quality and the power of their works she immediat ely\nunderstood\, allowing for their successful diffusion in Europe and th e United States. The exhibition in Bucharest is intended to be a tribute t o that prompt gaze\, but also to the importance of the Arte Povera movemen t in the international artistic context' (Ilaria Bernardi\, curator of the exhibition).\n'We propose to the Romanian public this exhibition dedicate d to Ileana Sonnabend\, the first one organized in a museum space after th e one at MOMA New York\, which is extremely relevant\, through the documen tary material and the exceptional works of art included\, for the role she played in the establishment of avant-garde art in the second part of the 20th century. This exhibition is part of the MNAR's ongoing efforts this y ear to include in its program projects carried out in collaboration with p artners from abroad' (Călin Stegerean\, MNAR Director General).\nThe exhib ition is made possible with the indispensable help of Antonio Homem\, the heir of Ileana and Michael Sonnabend\, in the development of the project a nd in the research necessary for its realisation. We would also like to th ank all the artists\, their archives and those who have made their works a vailable.\nILEANA SONNABEND'S BIOGRAPHY\nIleana Sonnabend's (née Schapira) life in the art world began in 1935\, when she moved to Paris with her Tr iestine husband Leo Castelli (Trieste\, 4 September 1907 - New York\, 21 A ugust 1999)\, who opened a gallery in the French capital with the financia l support of his wife's father\, a Romanian industrialist. When war broke out\, the couple moved to New York where\, in 1957\, Leo Castelli opened a gallery and his wife began to take an interest in and collect the works o f artists supported by her husband\, particularly exponents of the America n neo-avant-garde.\nAfter her divorce from Castelli and marriage to Michae l Sonnabend\, whose name she took\, she moved to Rome in the early 1960s w ith her new husband\, who was passionate about Dante and Michelangelo and an enthusiastic mentor of young American artists. Together they begin to s how Italian art dealers and critics the documentation of the American Pop Art artists in their collection\, but face many difficulties.\nIn 1962 the y decided to open their first gallery in Paris\, named Ileana Sonnabend\, with the intention of bringing American and European art into dialogue and demonstrating their affinities.\nHowever\, the most successful relations turn out to be with Italy\, as Italy itself becomes the cradle of two impo rtant responses to both Pop Art and Minimal Art in the United States\, tha nks to the birth of the Italian Pop Art movement\, first\, and then the Ar te Povera movement.\nFor this reason\, in 1963\, the Sonnabend Gallery ded icated a solo exhibition to Mario Schifano and included Michelangelo Pisto letto in its group exhibition Dessins\, to whom it would later dedicate a solo exhibition in 1967\, the year in which it also opened a solo exhibiti on of another Italian artist\, Piero Gilardi. In the second half of the 19 60s\, they began a close collaboration with the Italian gallery owner Gian Enzo Sperone and the critic Germano Celant\, who saw Sperone's Turin gall ery itself as an ally in promoting the artists of the Arte Povera movement \, theorized by Celant himself in 1967. In 1969\, the close relationship b etween Ileana Sonnabend\, Sperone and Celant led to the solo exhibitions o f Gilberto Zorio\, Mario Merz and Giovanni Anselmo.\nAlthough the Paris of fice remained active until 1980\, Ileana Sonnabend and her husband opened a second office in New York in 1970. In 1970\, the solo exhibitions of Gio rgio Griffa\, Mario Merz\, Pier Paolo Calzolari were held there\; in 1971\ , those of Pier Paolo Calzolari and Mario Merz\; in 1972\, those of Piero Manzoni\, Giulio Paolini and Jannis Kounellis.\nIn addition to other solo exhibitions of Italian artists already mentioned\, Vincenzo Agnetti\, in 1 975\, and Luigi Ontani\, in 1976\, entered the Sonnabend Gallery. But Koun ellis was the artist with whom Ileana Sonnabend had the closest collaborat ion\, which resulted in seven other solo exhibitions until 1987.\nAt the e nd of the 1990s\, the Sonnabend Gallery moved to Chelsea and remained acti ve for several years even after the death of its founder in 2007.\nSponsor s: Mastercard\, UniCredit Bank\, Pirelli Romania\, Generali Asigurări\, Of ficial Ferrari Dealer: Forza Rossa\, Aqua Carpatica\, Domeniile Sâmburești \nPartner: 'Friends of the National Museum of Art of Romania' Association \nMedia partners: TVR\, Radio România Actualități\, Radio România Cultural \, Radio România București FM\, Trinitas TV\, Radio Trinitas\, Radio Franc e International\, Sensoarte.ro\, Modernism\, Observator Cultural\, Zeppeli n\, Revista Arhitectura\, Igloo https://mail.mnar.ro/en/events/event/784-i leana-sonnabend-arte-povera-curator-ilaria-bernardi-26-june-22-september-2 024 DTSTART:20240626T070000Z DTEND:20240922T070000Z LOCATION:Muzeul Naţional de Artă al României\, parterul Galeriei Naţionale (Calea Victoriei 49\, București\, România) SUMMARY:ILEANA SONNABEND & ARTE POVERA curator: Ilaria Bernardi 26 June - 2 2 September 2024 URL:https://mail.mnar.ro/en/events/event/784-ileana-sonnabend-arte-povera-c urator-ilaria-bernardi-26-june-22-september-2024 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR