A SENTIMENTAL LANDSCAPE. The Invention of a Landscape after Goethe
MAG 2020
Italian translation of the German catalogue by Scriptum
Goethe’s Italian voyage, which took place between September 1786 and June 1788, but was only literarily worked up between 1813 and 1817, opens a special view of the landscape in art from the late 18th century to the present day. The exhibition illuminates one aspect of the journey that has so far received little attention: the discovery of the landscape as a place of self-knowledge. The exhibition title is based on the novel “A Sentimental Journey” or “Sensitive Journey” by the writer and Goethe’s contemporary Laurence Sterne.
“Sentimental” encompasses the resistance against the intellectual supremacy of reason, the exploration of the role of sensuality and introspection, but also an ironic criticism of the many travel book authors, who claimed a neutral description of the discovered landscapes for their works. Based on works from the 18th and 19th centuries, the exhibition ventures a comprehensive discourse on the artistic construction of the landscape, the break with stereotypes in the 20th century and the deliberate individual engagement of contemporary artists.
From 14.8. to 8.11.2020 // MAG, Riva del Garda