Eugene Berman | Modern Classic

Based on an idea by Vittorio Sgarbi and Elisabetta Scungio curated by Sara De Angelis, Denis Isaia, Peter Benson Miller, Ilaria Schiaffini In collaboration with the Regional Directorate of National Museums of Lazio

The Mart presents the most extensive retrospective ever dedicated to the work of Eugene Berman (St. Petersburg 1899 – Rome 1972). Berman was a painter, set designer, illustrator, and travel photographer, and a leading neo-Romantic artist during the last century. His was an artistic language that combined modernity and classicism. 

The exhibition will be helpful in rediscovering this great cosmopolitan figure. Thanks to the crucial involvement of some of the most knowledgeable international collectors, it covers the three main stages of the artist’s career: his early days in Paris in the 1920s and early 1930s, where he became acquainted with the European avant-garde; the long period he spent in the United States (from 1935 to 1957) and his success there as an artist and set designer; and his final move to Rome (from 1958 to 1972), where he lived until his death.

The exhibition, which is organised both chronologically and thematically, presents over one hundred paintings accompanied by drawings, photographs, documents, and an extensive collection of archaeological artefacts and rare objects collected by Berman himself. This extraordinary collection will help visitors explore and reconstruct the incredible blend of reality and poetry, verisimilitude and imaginary vision, the past and the modernity that distinguish Eugene Berman’s work.

Next to the paintings and sets for major international theatres, the Mart is exhibiting archival materials that show Berman’s versatility: collaborations with magazines such as Vogue America and Life, travel notes, photographs, and catalogues. What emerges is a sort of visual diary poised somewhere between reality and vision, which helps connect the 20th-century experiences to traditional classical and Renaissance art.

Conceived by Vittorio Sgarbi and Elisabetta Scungio, the exhibition is curated by professor Ilaria Schiaffini and American art historian Peter Benson Miller, with Denis Isaia for the Mart and Sara De Angelis for Forte Sangallo. The exhibition design is by architect Emiliano Leoni.

The curators had the invaluable support of critics, scholars, and historians who, with the curators, formed a veritable study committee: Monica Cardarelli, Gloria Galante, Lindsay Harris, Romina Laurito, Lorenzo Mantovani, Gabriele Quaranta, Eros Renzetti, Martina Rossi, and Giulia Tulino.

The exhibition is accompanied by the most complete catalogue of Berman’s work ever to be compiled. Published by Silvana Editoriale, it includes a joint essay by Vittorio Sgarbi and Denis Isaia, essays by curators Sara De Angelis, Peter Benson Miller, and Ilaria Schiaffini, contributions by Ester Garasto, Lindsay Harris, Gabriele Quaranta, Eros Renzetti, Martina Rossi, Luca Scarlini, and Giulia Tulino, the catalogue of the works, and the appendices.

Source: https://www.mart.tn.it/