Do you remember the old saying “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”?
Is it a universal truth or just a good excuse to defend your own or somebody else’s bad taste? I hope curators will not be offended by our conciseness, but this is actually the theme of the exhibition Proportio, which “explores the omnipresence of universal proportions in art, science, music and architecture”.
Where if not in the home/studio/atelier of Mariano Fortuny, which has always been a place dedicated to beauty, could one wonder whether the concept of beauty is variable or absolute and founded on geometric formulas? In the course of its history, mankind has always studied proportions, developing complex notions based on the principles of the sacred geometry. Who does not remember the “golden section”, a principle that for centuries has impregnated the artistic production of distant civilizations in place and time?
Proportio restarts the interrupted dialogue between contemporary art and the lost knowledge of proportions and of the sacred geometry by asking contemporary artists such as Marina Abramovic, Massimo Bartolini, Michael Borremans, Maurizio Donzelli, Riccardo De Marchi, Arthur Duff, Anish Kapoor and Izhar Patkin, and justaxposing them to the works of Carl André, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Luciano Fabro, Alberto Giacometti, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol Lewitt, Agnes Martin, Fausto Melotti, Mario Merz, Ad Ryman and Bill Viola.
To underline the universality of the theme – proportions – the exhibition also presents Egyptian artifacts, architectural paintings by the old Dutch masters, a precious portrait by Botticelli and a monumental sculpture by Canova. Proportio is one of the most successful exhibitions, taking place during the 56th Venice Art Biennale, where the visitor is able to transcend time and be taken on a journey through the “formula of the beauty”.
To see and see again.
PROPORTIO
Fortuny Palace
Curartors: Daniela Ferretti and Axel Vervoordt
9 May > 22 November 2015
C.S.
