Boncompagni Ludovisi Museum for the Decorative Arts, Costumes and Fashion of the 19th and 20th century | Via Boncompagni, 18 - Rome, Italy
Thursday, June 13th, 2019, 5:00 p.m.
Thursday, June 13, 2019 at 5.00 pm, the Polo Museale del Lazio directed by Edith Gabrielli, in collaboration with Sapienza University of Rome, will present the volume Irene Brin, Gaspero del Corso and the Galleria L’Obelisco at the Boncompagni Ludovisi Museum directed by Matilde Amaturo; the work will be presented by Vittoria Caterina Caratozzolo (Professor of Fashion Theory, Sapienza University of Rome), Ilaria Schiaffini (Professor of Contemporary Art History, Sapienza University of Rome), and Claudio Zambianchi (Professor of Contemporary Art History, Sapienza University of Rome). This volume has been edited by Drago.
Before the emergence of other galleries in Rome that explored the history of art from the late ‘50s and early ‘70s, L’Obelisco Gallery (1946-1981) was one of the few places in the Capital to promote contemporary artistic research that was rigorous, experimental, and open to both Italian and foreign art works. The book represents the first monograph on this unique Roman gallery. Born in the aftermath of the Liberation, L’Obelisco Gallery was directed by Gaspero del Corso and Irene Brin, the writer whose cultured and eclectic fashion journalism promulgated Italian fashion internationally from the post-war period and onwards. Thanks to this pair’s intuition, curiosity, and broad-mindedness, L’Obelisco Gallery not only supported contemporary art among connoisseurs, critics and artists, but it also created public dialogue through radical and innovate methods of exposition and promotion of art from various cultures.
The book is the first monograph on the Roman gallery: it illustrates the various aspects of the complex persona of Irene Brin and the activity of L’Obelisco with rich, and in some cases rare, photographs, documentary records, and testimonies that verify the fundamental contribution this gallery made to the history of art and culture in our country.
Matilde Amaturo, Director of the Boncompagni Ludovisi Museum will introduce and moderate the presentation of the volume. Speakers will include Maria Francesca Bonetti (head of photography collections at the Central Institute for Graphics, MiBAC), Laura Iamurri (Professor of History of Contemporary Art, Roma Tre University), and Edoardo Sassi (journalist for Corriere della Sera).
The presentation of the volume (on the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Irene Brin on May 31st, 1969) will conclude with the reading of some of her most evocative articles, by actress Daniela Piperno.
A selection of catalogs from L’Obelisco Gallery (on loan from the Irene Brin Archive and the Archive of L’Obelisco, as well as those from The Center of Art, Rome, courtesy Jaja Indrimi) will be exhibited in one of the Boncompagni Ludovisi Museum’s viewing salons. A series of photographs by Frank Horvat will be displayed in collaboration with Irene Brin’s service to “Italy,” as shown through her published work in Harper’s Bazaar’s International Fashion Folio, Spring 1962 (courtesy F. Horvat). A selection of clothing and accessories from the Boncompagni Ludovisi Museum collection (mostly donations by Palma Bucarelli, Barbara Lazzarini, Maria Vittoria Alfonsi, and Nicoletta Pietravalle) will be available for viewing.
The clothes on display highlight the lines and styles of fashion creators from the ‘50s to the ‘70s, such as Sorelle Botti, Germana Marucelli, Maria Antonelli, Emilio Pucci, Fernanda Gattinoni, and Antonio De Luca. These were just some of the Italian designers that Irene Brin patronized; not as a “fashion victim, “but as a perceptive interpreter of both the profound and subtle details that Italian fashion adopted, as a reflection of the changes occurring in Italian society.
The exhibition is presented by Vittoria Caterina Caratozzolo in collaboration with Ludovica De Salvatore (MA in entertainment, fashion and digital arts at the Sapienza University of Rome), Chiara Gumiero (MA in Fashion Studies, Sapienza University of Rome) and staff members of the Boncompagni Ludovisi Museum. The costume designers Paola Bonci and Anna Maria Curreli (founders of the “L’Abito Cultural Association, History, The Arts”) have carefully restored the clothes on display.
IRENE BRIN, GASPERO DEL CORSO E LA GALLERIA L’OBELISCO
Presentation of volume
13 June 5:00 p.m.
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