This exhibition represents the beginning of a new path for M9 – Museum of the 20th Century. For the first time since its inauguration, indeed, M9 chooses contemporary art as a tool to explore and interpret history.
The initiative aims to launch a cycle of biennial exhibitions, dedicated to some of the protagonists of the history of art, with relevant civil commitment, who have played the role of game changers for the world of art, thanks to their innovative contributions. Emilio Vedova is definitely one of them. His work is indeed interpreter and witness of our society.
“Vedova’s topicality lies in the universal contents of his painting or, more simply, in his message. Values rooted in his essential self in dialogue with history, understood as living in the present — being “on the inside of things” — and daily engaging with its conflicts and contradictions.
History regularly punctuated his life, exerting alternately stronger and milder pressures on it, the steady basso continuo of an adventure that seamlessly united man and artist.
History as the breath and lungs of his art, marching in unison with his battles for civil rights, with his pacifism,against the ideological duplicity and the violence of dictatorships,his pressing for change, his defence of Venice, for due care of its ancient monuments, and much besides.
Vedova is a contemporary who still inspires us: in his life as in his art, he combined ethics and aesthetics, placing man at the centre of his speculations. In tune with the
infinite constellations of the universe, he revolutionised painting with his highly original approach, was recognised from the 1950s onwards by the greatest international
critics, passionately took his teaching to young people, filling them with new ideas, responsibility and hope. An artist who still poses questions today, alongside the best of our age.”
Gabriella Belli, curator |
