Francesco Arcangeli, art critic, student of Roberto Longhi in the years in which you met Attilio Bertolucci, Giorgio Bassani and then Pier Paolo Pasolini in the classrooms of the University of Bologna. When you have a master like that, the role of favorite assistant risks being suffocating. Instead Francesco Arcangeli emerges with all his strength over the years. The starting point, and it could not be otherwise, is the Po Valley line identified by Longhi and placed as an alternative to the two traditional ones: Venetian and Tuscan. A subtle realistic plot runs from Wiligelmo to Giorgio Morandi, passing through Vitale da Bologna, Amico Aspertini, Ludovico Carracci and Giuseppe Maria Crespi. In the conception of nature we can see the first divergence from Longhi: for the master it is an element to be placed in the painting; for the student it is an overwhelming force to measure against. He can overwhelm, which means, artistically, coming to appreciate Turner, the impressionists but also Morlotti.
There are eight centuries of artists who «draw their strength from a more broadly human root than the culture that surrounds them… spontaneously rejecting certainties of any kind, to adhere to the passion of man and things, to the changing of time and of the seasons, to our living here and now” (from the catalog of the exhibition Nature and expression in Bolognese and Emilian art, which took place at the Archiginnasio in the autumn of 1970).
The shy character, the elegance, the rectitude, the depth and a magnificent prose related, and not distantly, to poetry have been and are increasingly an obstacle to Arcangeli’s success, in a country, Italy, in full crisis from returning illiteracy. Yet, sometimes, a good idea is enough to illuminate the best but neglected moments of Italian culture. In Bologna, the National Art Gallery, the Morandi Museum and the MAMbo-Museo d’Arte Moderna pay homage to Francesco Arcangeli (Bologna, 1915-1974) on the fiftieth anniversary of his death. Each location presents a journey guided by the words of the great critic. Tramando, this is the name of the initiative, is an expression of Arcangeli himself and underlines a hidden thread of thought, a secret underlying affinity that binds artists born in the same place but lived in different eras. We could say that this plot is tradition, what we have our roots in and which we should try to enrich with our heritage. A theme deeply felt by Arcangeli, who led the Gallery of Modern Art of Bologna (today, in fact, MAMbo) by carrying out an acquisition campaign aimed at entering into competition with other Italian institutions of this nature. A further exploration of this aspect will take place in the autumn with an exhibition in the Project Room. The MAMbo will propose a selection of works not exhibited for some time (informal art, above all) while the Morandi Museum will present eight works donated by Morandi himself in 1961 to the Gallery of Modern Art. But the three routes (from today to 6 January 2025) are already an excellent reason for a first visit. The idea is simple and effective. Place the words of Arcangeli himself alongside the works studied or acquired by Arcangeli. They can be identified at a glance, in the rest of the collections, thanks to the different color of the captions. Does it sound confusing? For nothing. In fact the spectator has a double opportunity. Not only to finally meet Arcangeli but also to immediately measure the scope of his ideas. In fact, next to the wild fury of San Giorgio and the dragon by Vitale da Bologna, you can admire the composure of Giotto, which announces the Renaissance. The simplicity of Ludovico Carracci contrasts with the baroque of Annibale Carracci. And so on.
Then there is Giorgio Morandi. It’s a separate story. Morandi’s artistic biography is also Arcangeli’s critical biography. It’s a question of painting, all right. But it can only be a melee with oneself and with one’s friend. As is known, especially after the release of the critical edition, Morandi and Arcangeli both ruined their health because of the book. The particular reasons are infinite. Arcangeli fired broadsides at critics like Argan or colleagues like Giorgio De Chirico. Morandi could not tolerate these attacks in a book that he himself had commissioned, he could appear to be co-responsible or even the instigator. On the other hand, Arcangeli went so far as to place Morandi in an international framework that bordered on the informal. The painter did not appreciate it and intervened by trying to place unacceptable critical limits on his exegete.
Net of this controversy, now archived, what remains are Arcangeli’s ineffable words in front of Morandi’s still lifes. The more you observe the white streets, the cobalt skies, the bottles on the table, the less clear their meaning seems to you. Ultimately, in that absolute immobility, both, the painter and the critic, feel, perhaps, the same thing: the mystery of matter and the collapse of becoming, an inevitable race towards death. For this reason, Morandi, and also Arcangeli, are so sensitive to the poetry of Giacomo Leopardi. Sometimes, the caption competes equally with the work. Let’s see, for example, Paesaggio (1940), one of the pieces on loan from a private collection.
Arcangeli: «It seems to me to be a masterpiece: a silent, desolate, motionless wall, a world closed forever in this perfect tonal material» (from Nature and expression in Bolognese-Emilian art, anastatic edition, Minerva 2003).
