Klimt. L’uomo, l’artista, il suo mondo
Skira 2022
Italian version of the exhibition catalogue by Scriptum
On April 12, 2022 a great exhibition dedicated to Gustav Klimt opens in Piacenza. Following the finding of “Portrait of a Lady” in December 2019, the Ricci Oddi Gallery of Modern Art, orphaned of the work for more than 20 years, has carried out a three-year project that began in 2020 with the exhibition of the painting in a new display case, followed in 2021 by the exhibition “Klimt e i maestri segreti della Ricci Oddi” to arrive at the most complex exhibition of 2022. The Portrait made headlines in the 1990s due to the discovery of an earlier portrait under the painted surface.The hidden face belonged to the painting “Backfisch” made in the 1910s by Klimt, the current portrait belongs to the end of the artist’s career.
The new exhibition follows and is complementary to the event in progress at the Museum of Rome “Klimt la Secessione e l’Italia”.
Piacenza’s collaboration has not only opened towards the capital, loans and collaborations have been activated with large European institutions: the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, the Neue Galerie in Graz, and the Klimt Foundation. The exhibition includes 160 works of art coming from 20 different collections. It analyses different moments of Klimt’s life and style.
The itinerary is also enriched by an important section dedicated to the Italian artists who were inspired by Klimt, with extraordinary works such as the Dream of the Pomegranate (1912-1913) by Felice Casorati. The exhibition closes with the reconstruction of the monumental Beethoven Frieze (a 2019 copy of the 1901 original), thus reserving for visitors a highly suggestive experience.