Titina Maselli
Curated by Alberto Fiz
Eduardo Secci
Florence, from May 8 to July 31, 2021
Opening: Saturday, May 8, at 4:00 pm
Exhibition view, Titina Maselli, Eduardo Secci Firenze, Florence, 2021, Photo Stefano Maniero, Courtesy Collection Brai Maselli and Eduardo Secci
Eduardo Secci is pleased to announce a retrospective of Titina Maselli (1924-2005), one of the most representative figures of the Twentieth Century Italian art, in Florence from May 8 to July 31, 2021. The exhibition, curated by Alberto Fiz, launches a gallery program dedicated for the first time to an historical and critical review of the 1900s. It coincides with the project titled “Étoile. Titina Maselli, Salvatore Ferragamo and the myth of Greta Garbo” at the Museo Novecento in Florence.
The show analyzes the career of the famous artist from the first creations of the 1940s to the most recent works of the early 2000s. It is examined through a selection of thirteen works that summarize the extensive research of Titina Maselli, a unique personality of the Italian scene, who was able to independently explore the archetypes of modernity. As Alberto Fiz highlights, "although starting from the lesson of the historical avant-garde, in particular from futurism, the modernity of the Roman artist lies in her ability to investigate the dynamic flux that crosses things, creating an energy field in perpetual transformation".
Works of the 1940s introduce to the exhibition revealing the evident relationship with the Roman School, the specific attention to everyday objects, Macchina da Scrivere (1947, Typewriter), and the domestic environment, Pianoforte con ragazzo (Citto) (1936, Piano with boy (Citto)). The first room of the gallery is completed by Albero della notte (Tree of the Night), a particularly emblematic work of 1955 that seems to presage the disappearance of nature as an independent topic.
Welcoming the visitor to the second room is Calciatore verde (Green Footballer, 1950s), whose composition prefigures the successive study on the relation between body and space that Titina Maselli begins during the stay in New York. It is not by chance that in those years, the painter explains "a living picture with the stadium around the footballer or, rather, the skyscraper around the boxer". Here we find - brought together - other three paintings of great expressive power: Calciatore rosso (Red Footballer, 1970s), Calciatori in Corsa (2002, Running Footballers), and Boxeurs (2002, Boxers).
The third room is dominated by a single spectacular work, Elevated Grattacieli / Calciatore ferito (1984, Elevated Skyscrapers / injured Footballer), a four meters long diptych that constitutes a further linguistic turning point determined by the attention to atmospheric themes, where the soccer figure develops a synergy with the urban landscape in a continuous becoming that seems to change in relation to our gaze.
Dynamism, action, bodies and interferences around the urban landscape, are some of the aspects that characterize the path of Titina Maselli forcing the viewer to wonder about a process that was capable of capturing modernity in its mutability and precariousness.
Titina Maselli © Photo by Elisabetta Catalano, Courtesy Archivio Elisabetta Catalano
Titina Maselli, born in Rome in 1924, was a painter, actress, and scenographer, firstborn of the art critic Ercole Maselli and Elena Labroca. She painted since childhood, encouraged by the cultured family entourage. Her brother, Francesco ‘Citto’ Maselli is a film director. In 1945, she married the artist Toti Scialoja from whom she separated in 1950 after an important sodality. After the first solo show, presented in 1948 by Corrado Alvaro at the L’Obelisco Gallery in Rome, she is involved in several editions of Venice Art Biennale (between 1950 and 1995) and The Rome Quadrenniale (between 1951 and 2000). From 1952 to 1955 she moved to New York and, prompted by the great fascination for the American metropolis, delved into topics already examined previously like the urban landscape, the representations of boxers and football players coming to a renewed expressive synthesis. Various stays in European capitals followed one another: she lived three years in Austria, went back to Rome and left again in 1970 toward Paris. Later, she divided between the last two cities. During her intense career as set designer, she collaborated mainly with French and German theaters working, among others, for Six characters in search of an author at the Freie Volksbühne in Berlin in 1981 and Maria Stuarda at the Festival of Avignon in 1983. She died in Rome in 2005, in her home in Trastevere.
Her major exhibitions include the Durlacher Gallery in New York (1953, 1955), Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence (1972), Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1975), Kunstamt Kreuzberg in Berlin (1979), Pinacoteca e Musei Comunali in Macerata (1985), Casa del Mantegna in Mantua (1991), Galleria Giulia in Rome (1998) and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Strasbourg (1998). In 2000, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi conferred her the President of the Republic Prize.
Titina Maselli, Elevated Grattacieli / Calciatore ferito, 1984, acrylic on canvas, 250 × 400 x 4 cm (98.4 x 157.4 x 1.5 in), Photo Stefano Maniero, Courtesy Collection Brai Maselli and Eduardo Secci Firenze
Titina Maselli, Boxeurs, Paris 2003, acrylic on canvas, 97 x 195 x 4 cm (38.1 x 76.7 x 1.5 in), Photo Stefano Maniero, Courtesy Collection Brai Maselli and Eduardo Secci Firenze
Titina Maselli, Calciatori in Corsa, Paris 2002, acrylic on canvas, 99 x 200 cm (38.9 x 78.7 in), Photo Stefano Maniero, Courtesy Collection Brai Maselli and Eduardo Secci Firenze
Titina Maselli, Boxeurs, 2002, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 195 x 4 cm (39.3 x 76.7 x 1.5 in), Photo Stefano Maniero, Courtesy Collection Brai Maselli and Eduardo Secci Firenze
Eduardo Secci is an Italian gallery founded in 2013 in Florence with a second location in Milan from June 2021. Both spaces present a double program featuring the exhibitions of the main gallery and experimental works by young artists at the project space NOVO.
Eduardo Secci Firenze
Titina Maselli
Curated by Alberto Fiz
From May 8 to July 31, 2021
NOVO Firenze
Sparks - Chris Hood
From May 8 to July 31, 2021 (extended)
Openings: Saturday, May 8, at 4:00 pm
Piazza Goldoni 2, Florence, Italy
Hours: Monday - Saturday, 10:00 am - 1:30 pm / 2:30 - 7:00 pm ; Saturday in July by appointment
+39 055 661356 / firenze@eduardosecci.com
Eduardo Secci Milano
Kevin Francis Gray
Curated by Sergio Risaliti
From June 3 to September 25, 2021
NOVO Milan
Radicalization Pipeline - Theo Triantafyllidis
From June 3 to September 25, 2021
New location Opening: Thursday, June 3, 11:00 am - 9:00 pm
Via Zenale 3, Milan, Italy
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00 am - 1:30 pm / 2:30 - 7:00 pm ; Saturday in July by appointment
+39 02 38248728 / milano@eduardosecci.com
www.eduardosecci.com / gallery@eduardosecci.com
Instagram / Facebook: @eduardoseccicontemporary
www.novo.ooo / hello@novo.ooo
Instagram: @novo_projects / Facebook: @NOVOprojects
Press Office
THE KNACK STUDIO / Tamara Lorenzi
tamara@theknackstudio.com / +39 347 0712934
info@theknackstudio.com / www.theknackstudio.com
Titina Maselli
Curated by Alberto Fiz
Eduardo Secci
Florence, from May 8 to July 31, 2021
Opening: Saturday, May 8, at 4:00 pm
Exhibition view, Titina Maselli, Eduardo Secci Firenze, Florence, 2021, Photo Stefano Maniero, Courtesy Collection Brai Maselli and Eduardo Secci
Eduardo Secci is pleased to announce a retrospective of Titina Maselli (1924-2005), one of the most representative figures of the Twentieth Century Italian art, in Florence from May 8 to July 31, 2021. The exhibition, curated by Alberto Fiz, launches a gallery program dedicated for the first time to an historical and critical review of the 1900s. It coincides with the project titled “Étoile. Titina Maselli, Salvatore Ferragamo and the myth of Greta Garbo” at the Museo Novecento in Florence.
The show analyzes the career of the famous artist from the first creations of the 1940s to the most recent works of the early 2000s. It is examined through a selection of thirteen works that summarize the extensive research of Titina Maselli, a unique personality of the Italian scene, who was able to independently explore the archetypes of modernity. As Alberto Fiz highlights, "although starting from the lesson of the historical avant-garde, in particular from futurism, the modernity of the Roman artist lies in her ability to investigate the dynamic flux that crosses things, creating an energy field in perpetual transformation".
Works of the 1940s introduce to the exhibition revealing the evident relationship with the Roman School, the specific attention to everyday objects, Macchina da Scrivere (1947, Typewriter), and the domestic environment, Pianoforte con ragazzo (Citto) (1936, Piano with boy (Citto)). The first room of the gallery is completed by Albero della notte (Tree of the Night), a particularly emblematic work of 1955 that seems to presage the disappearance of nature as an independent topic.
Welcoming the visitor to the second room is Calciatore verde (Green Footballer, 1950s), whose composition prefigures the successive study on the relation between body and space that Titina Maselli begins during the stay in New York. It is not by chance that in those years, the painter explains "a living picture with the stadium around the footballer or, rather, the skyscraper around the boxer". Here we find - brought together - other three paintings of great expressive power: Calciatore rosso (Red Footballer, 1970s), Calciatori in Corsa (2002, Running Footballers), and Boxeurs (2002, Boxers).
The third room is dominated by a single spectacular work, Elevated Grattacieli / Calciatore ferito (1984, Elevated Skyscrapers / injured Footballer), a four meters long diptych that constitutes a further linguistic turning point determined by the attention to atmospheric themes, where the soccer figure develops a synergy with the urban landscape in a continuous becoming that seems to change in relation to our gaze.
Dynamism, action, bodies and interferences around the urban landscape, are some of the aspects that characterize the path of Titina Maselli forcing the viewer to wonder about a process that was capable of capturing modernity in its mutability and precariousness.
Exhibition view, Titina Maselli, Eduardo Secci Firenze, Florence, 2021, Photo Stefano Maniero, Courtesy Collection Brai Maselli and Eduardo Secci
Titina Maselli © Photo by Elisabetta Catalano, Courtesy Archivio Elisabetta Catalano
Titina Maselli, born in Rome in 1924, was a painter, actress, and scenographer, firstborn of the art critic Ercole Maselli and Elena Labroca. She painted since childhood, encouraged by the cultured family entourage. Her brother, Francesco ‘Citto’ Maselli is a film director. In 1945, she married the artist Toti Scialoja from whom she separated in 1950 after an important sodality. After the first solo show, presented in 1948 by Corrado Alvaro at the L’Obelisco Gallery in Rome, she is involved in several editions of Venice Art Biennale (between 1950 and 1995) and The Rome Quadrenniale (between 1951 and 2000). From 1952 to 1955 she moved to New York and, prompted by the great fascination for the American metropolis, delved into topics already examined previously like the urban landscape, the representations of boxers and football players coming to a renewed expressive synthesis. Various stays in European capitals followed one another: she lived three years in Austria, went back to Rome and left again in 1970 toward Paris. Later, she divided between the last two cities. During her intense career as set designer, she collaborated mainly with French and German theaters working, among others, for Six characters in search of an author at the Freie Volksbühne in Berlin in 1981 and Maria Stuarda at the Festival of Avignon in 1983. She died in Rome in 2005, in her home in Trastevere.
Her major exhibitions include the Durlacher Gallery in New York (1953, 1955), Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence (1972), Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1975), Kunstamt Kreuzberg in Berlin (1979), Pinacoteca e Musei Comunali in Macerata (1985), Casa del Mantegna in Mantua (1991), Galleria Giulia in Rome (1998) and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Strasbourg (1998). In 2000, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi conferred her the President of the Republic Prize.
Eduardo Secci is an Italian gallery founded in 2013 in Florence with a second location in Milan from June 2021. Both spaces present a double program featuring the exhibitions of the main gallery and experimental works by young artists at the project space NOVO.
Titina Maselli, Elevated Grattacieli / Calciatore ferito, 1984, acrylic on canvas, 250 × 400 x 4 cm (98.4 x 157.4 x 1.5 in), Photo Stefano Maniero, Courtesy Collection Brai Maselli and Eduardo Secci Firenze
Titina Maselli, Boxeurs, Paris 2003, acrylic on canvas, 97 x 195 x 4 cm (38.1 x 76.7 x 1.5 in), Photo Stefano Maniero, Courtesy Collection Brai Maselli and Eduardo Secci Firenze
Titina Maselli, Calciatori in Corsa, Paris 2002, acrylic on canvas, 99 x 200 cm (38.9 x 78.7 in), Photo Stefano Maniero, Courtesy Collection Brai Maselli and Eduardo Secci Firenze
Titina Maselli, Boxeurs, 2002, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 195 x 4 cm (39.3 x 76.7 x 1.5 in), Photo Stefano Maniero, Courtesy Collection Brai Maselli and Eduardo Secci Firenze
Eduardo Secci Firenze
Titina Maselli
Curated by Alberto Fiz
From May 8 to July 31, 2021
NOVO Firenze
Sparks - Chris Hood
From May 8 to July 31, 2021 (extended)
Openings: Saturday, May 8, at 4:00 pm
Piazza Goldoni 2, Florence, Italy
Hours: Monday - Saturday, 10:00 am - 1:30 pm / 2:30 - 7:00 pm ; Saturday in July by appointment
+39 055 661356 / firenze@eduardosecci.com
Eduardo Secci Milano
Kevin Francis Gray
Curated by Sergio Risaliti
From June 3 to September 25, 2021
NOVO Milan
Radicalization Pipeline - Theo Triantafyllidis
From June 3 to September 25, 2021
New location Opening: Thursday, June 3, 11:00 am - 9:00 pm
Via Zenale 3, Milan, Italy
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00 am - 1:30 pm / 2:30 - 7:00 pm ; Saturday in July by appointment
+39 02 38248728 / milano@eduardosecci.com
www.eduardosecci.com / gallery@eduardosecci.com
Instagram / Facebook: @eduardoseccicontemporary
www.novo.ooo / hello@novo.ooo
Instagram: @novo_projects / Facebook: @NOVOprojects
Press Office
THE KNACK STUDIO / Tamara Lorenzi
tamara@theknackstudio.com / +39 347 0712934
info@theknackstudio.com / www.theknackstudio.com
