From 21 June to 23 September 2024, Cernobbio celebrates the extraordinary career of the Cernobbio artist and designer Beppe Spadacini with the “Liberty Jungle” exhibition at Villa Bernasconi, organized by the Municipality of Cernobbio in collaboration with Gentili Mosconi, and curated by Claudia Taibez and Francesco Kind. The works on display are part of Francesco Gentili’s private collection, while the drawings are from the large archive of Gentili Mosconi which, in 2022, acquired over 2000 drawings by the Cernobbian artist: a further sign of the textile company’s constant commitment to preserving and enhance the artistic and cultural excellence of the Como area.
“The Liberty Jungle exhibition, in the splendid Villa Bernasconi, owned by the municipality, is a tribute to one of our esteemed fellow citizens who grew up and always wanted to live, beyond his numerous travels around the world, in Cernobbio. The bond between Spadacini and the City has always been intense, as many people connected to him can confirm. He has always loved the “Riva”, a place of leisure and creative stimulus. It is therefore a duty that the Municipal Administration welcomes him and celebrates him by showing everyone and especially the people of Cernobbio some of his splendid, colourful, naturalistic drawings” underlined Maria Angela Ferradini, Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Cernobbio.
“I met Beppe Spadacini more than 35 years ago, as soon as the company opened. Beppe, together with Giampiero Roncoroni and Giuseppe Menta, was part of that group of designers, artists and dreamers from Como. Each with their own style, a great example for a young 25 year old like me who was starting to take his first steps – declared Francesco Gentili, founder and CEO of Gentili Mosconi – I started collecting Spadacini’s paintings many years ago, after all, he was the only one who alternated the work of textile designs with art. One part nourished the other and so the painting became inspiration for the drawing and the drawing gave him the way to create his paintings, while travelling. This exhibition aims to be a small homage, in his Cernobbio, to his talent, to his way of interpreting nature. A homecoming available to those who will be able to enjoy the freshness and lightness of his paintings.”
Born in March 1943, Beppe Spadacini grew up in Cernobbio, in the province of Como. In 1964 he began his professional activity with a drawing studio in Cernobbio and in 1978 he founded Studio Tucano in the charming ancient village of Coloniola in Como. In his career of over fifty years, his vision and his works transport you to a tropical garden of Eden: his talent has in fact been sought after by famous stylists such as Gianni Versace, Tommy Bahama, Gianfranco Ferrè, Etro and Walter Albini, who they brought his art all over the world.
With the Villa Bernasconi exhibition it will be possible to establish a comparison between contemporary Tropical Style trends and that typically Art Nouveau interest in exoticism (the Liberty style, in Italy, takes its name from the founder of Liberty London, a bazaar opened in 1875 for the sale of ornaments, fabrics and art objects from Japan and the Orient).
In the three rooms in which the exhibition takes place, large canvases depicting the typical subjects of Spadacini’s production are presented: palm trees, tropical landscapes with dense vegetation in which wild beasts and jungle birds appear in a setting that enhances the naturalistic decorations of the villa and the vegetation of the garden.
On the veranda, the pair of animals portrayed in the work “Relaxing Time” seems to recall the paintings of Art Nouveau illustrators, in the vertical setting and in the composition of the frames in which, as in Alphonse Mucha’s posters, flowers, leaves are intertwined and vegetal scrolls of tropical origin; the hall is transformed into an exotic garden, with leaves and flowers painted both on the canvas of the work “Tucano Garden” and on the windows, walls and ceilings of the villa.
Finally, in the Pavone Tacchinato room, a collection of scarves, fabrics and graphic projects representative of Beppe Spadacini’s activity as a textile designer is housed.
For the exhibition, one of the notebooks from the Villa Bernasconi series was created with critical texts by the curators, the typical didactic-experiential apparatus and insights by Nello Marelli on the innovations and inventions of Beppe Spadacini in the textile design sector and of Elena Franco with Cristina Ariagno of Fondazione Arte Nova, among the main art nouveau collectors in Italy, on the historical-artistic influences of the East at the beginning of the twentieth century. Also scheduled are meetings with the artist, collateral events, guided tours and educational workshops. Themed objects are on sale in the bookshop.
EVENTS CALENDAR
- 29 June, 27 July, 31 August and 21 September 2024, from 4pm to 5.30pm – Palm Saturday, creative workshop for children (ages 6-11 years) curated by Kristina Zani. An immersion in the jungle of distant lands, left imprinted in the paintings of Beppe Spadacini, to create artist’s booklets with as many colors as possible!
- – 12 July and 10 August 2024, from 5pm to 6.30pm – Liber
- 28 June and 3 August 2024, at 6pm – The journeys of plants, workshop for adults curated by Giorgia Acquaviva. A journey through images and words, opening the suitcase of a botanical hunter, to discover the stories of plants.
INFORMATION AND CONTACTS
“Liberty Jungle”
Villa Bernasconi, 21 June – 23 September 2024
Included in the museum entrance ticket
Opening hours of the Villa Bernasconi Museum
– from Friday to Monday from 10am to 6pm
Full ticket: 8.00 euros. Reduced: 5.00 euros. Free under 14, over 75, Cernobbiesi, disabled people and companion, teachers, Museum Pass and other cases on www.villabernasconi.eu. 1 euro discount for anyone who presents the payment ticket for parking in Cernobbio.
Reservation recommended on www.villabernasconi.eu.
Contacts: Tel. 031.3347209 e-mail [email protected]
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Villa Bernasconi, L.go Alfredo Campanini 2, 22012 Cernobbio
