Video quotes:
Video Seurat "a Sunday afternoon on the island of La Grande Jatte":
• Domenica pomeriggio su...
Description
Let's start with some information on the work "The Fourth Estate" created by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo and dated 1898-1901
The painting is an oil on canvas measuring 293 × 545 cm and is now kept at the Museo del Novecento in Milan
The work after its realization was initially unsold and remained in the hands of Pellizza's heirs until it was exhibited in an exhibition in Milan at the Pesaro Gallery between 1919 and 1920. Here an art critic, Giulio Marangoni, struck by the painting promoted its purchase by the Municipality of Milan through public subscription. The work was then exhibited at the Castello Sforzesco, in the Sala della Balla. During the Fascist period, the work was set aside in a warehouse. Only in the 1950s was it rediscovered so to speak and for 30 years it remained in the city council hall in Milan.
From here it was moved to the Gallery of Modern Art in Milan where it was part of a beautiful collection of Divisionist works and finally placed at the end of 2010 at the beginning of the museum's exhibition itinerary.
The painting is now placed within a sort of large niche that contains it as soon as it is found before entering the actual rooms of the Museum of the 900 whose exhibition itinerary begins with the international avant-gardes (with paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Klee, Kandinslij, Mondrian) and with a large collection of Futurist works.
Symbolically, being dated 1901, the painting represents the dawn of the new century even if it is in effect a painting that is placed between two centuries and also because it was developed over 10 years of studies by Pellizza.
Even the pointillist technique used by the painter is typically nineteenth-century having been codified around the mid-80s of the century. In this regard, I refer you to the video dedicated to the painting "A Sunday afternoon on the island of La Grande Jatte", a manifesto of French pointillism, created by Seurat.
The social theme is not new to Italian pointillist painting and represents one of its peculiarities. As an example we can take a painting by Emilio Longoni, The speaker of the strike 1890-92
The fourth state can be considered to all intents and purposes the work of life for Pellizza who dedicated not only a whole decade of intense studies and rethinking to it, but also all of his own moral and ideal energies.
In the fourth state, the pointillist technique to which the painter adhered around 1894 is fully applied, but also Pellizza's attention to social issues. The total dedication to the realization of the work led Pellizza to a state of indigence.
The work was negatively received when it was first exhibited in 1902 at the Turin Quadriennale. The failure was repeated in subsequent exhibitions until the artist was thrown into total despair, who committed suicide even after the loss of his wife.
The painting then underwent a slow but growing revaluation becoming a symbol of the struggle of the working class.
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6 окт 2024