Cindy Sherman, Damien Hirst, Lara Favaretto, William Kentridge, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Sarah Lucas: a major exhibition in Florence at Palazzo Strozzi celebrates the thirtieth anniversary of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection with over 70 works by the most important Italian and international contemporary artists. From March 4 to June 18, “Reaching for the Stars. From Maurizio Cattelan to Lynette Yiadom-Boakye” offers a celebration of today’s art stars.
Promoted and organized by the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation and the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, the exhibition explores the main artistic research of recent decades through a constellation of works exhibited in all the spaces of Palazzo Strozzi, from the Piano Nobile to the Strozzina, with a special new installation for the Renaissance courtyard.
Curated by Arturo Galansino, director general of the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation, the exhibition is a celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection, one of the most famous and prestigious collections of contemporary art at an international level, openly restoring its variety , evolution and its being constantly in progress.
The project at Palazzo Strozzi, Galansino explains, was born in fact from the desire to create a platform for experimentation and participation which combines the display of works from the collection, new productions created for the exhibition, as well as a broad program of activities and projects with the artists protagonists of talks and workshops, and numerous activities to involve the public.
Between painting, sculpture, installation, photography, video and performance, the exhibition enhances the dialogue between Palazzo Strozzi and contemporary art by offering visitors a journey to discover the great stars of global art of recent decades.
In fact, the exhibition offers a journey through the works of artists who have marked the evolution of artistic practices between the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, in a journey that addresses different themes such as the experimentation of artistic languages, figuration and abstraction, identity and the body from a social and political point of view, the role and image of women in today’s society, reflection on contemporary history between community and individuality, through references to historical events such as 9/11 2001 or the struggles for civil rights.
In the exhibition there are, for example, fundamental works such as “1000 Names” (1983) by Anish Kapoor or “Love Is Great” (1994) by Damien Hirst, together with a large selection of works by Maurizio Cattelan, central artist for a exploration of Italian art between the 1990s and 2000s, together, among others, with Paola Pivi or Lara Favaretto.
In parallel there are thematic sections such as the one dominated by the famous series “Untitled Film Still” (1978-1980) by Cindy Sherman which proposes a social and political reflection on the theme of identity in relation to works by Shirin Neshat, the screen printing “Untitled ( Not ugly enough)” (1997) by Barbara Kruger or the sculpture in organic materials “Self-Portrait” (1993) by Pawel Althamer.
The investigation into sculpture expands in the great works of Andra Ursuţa, Adrián Villar Rojas, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Mark Manders, whose practices investigate the body and the figure between deconstruction and recomposition. This is echoed by the exploration of pictorial research through paintings by artists such as Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Sanya Kantarovsky, Michael Armitage, Cecily Brown, Avery Singer, testifying to the enduring vitality of this medium, between figuration and abstraction, especially in the younger generations.
The itinerary is completed by a large section dedicated to Video art with manifesto works by artists such as William Kentridge, present with “History of Main Complaint” (1996), Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno, with the famous video installation “Zidane. A 21st Century Portrait” (2005) and Ragnar Kjartansson with “The End – Rocky Mountains” (2009).
The “Reaching for the Stars” exhibition is “a journey through forty years of discoveries and research in contemporary art – says Arturo Galansino – Hosting a collection like this in Florence means celebrating the values of patronage and patronage in the city where the great collecting was born. The collaboration between Palazzo Strozzi and the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation goes beyond the mere exhibition of works, but is a synergy of values, a shared platform in which to stimulate accessibility, participation and experimentation”.
“It is an honor and a great emotion for me to be able to see the ‘stars’ of the collection exhibited in the splendid rooms of the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation. Celebrating thirty years of my collecting practice inside this palace, a masterpiece of Renaissance architecture – he declares Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, president of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation – This exhibition, which starts from the splendid courtyard open to the city, reflects the value of sharing that has always marked my collection and finds full harmony with the line of the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation, led with great professionalism by Arturo Galansino, in favor of participation and accessibility of culture”.