SHORT odernist and ARTICLESM Historicist Remnants ART NOUVEAU in Italian Art Nouveau through the Works of Matteo Fochessati the Wolfson Collection Italy Focusing on decorative and propaganda arts forming Arts reflects his personal aesthetic Wolfsoniana, Genoa Nervi, from 1880 to 1945, the Wolfsoniana carries leanings, which eschewed the concept of art Art Nouveau Hall out its artistic promotion and research acti- for art's sake and instead supported and pro- (furnishings by vities through its Museum, which was inau- moted all artistic events conceived for the sake Ödön Faragó, Leopold Bauer, gurated in 2005 at the Genoa-Nervi exhibition of ideas. This particular cultural paradigm pla- and Joseph Maria Olbrich), hub of 19th and 20th century art, and through its yed a key role in inspiring the Wolfsoniana's Wolfsoniana - Regional Study Centre, which since 2009 has been hou- multi-disciplinary aesthetic orientation and its Foundation for Culture and the Performing Arts, sed in the multi-purpose complex at Palazzo intrinsic and fundamental educational func- Genoa Ducale. tion. Indeed, the collection carries out its edu- cational and training activities on two inter- The collection that the American philanthro- acting levels: on the one hand, the “visual” pist Mitchell Wolfson Jr. donated to the Genoa approach of the museum, which through a wi- Regional Foundation for Culture and the Per- de array of materials and techniques provides 146 dimonium thpopularization. Uncommon Culture The collection that the American philan- thropist Mitchell Wolfson Jr. donated to the Genoa Regional Foundation for Culture and the Performing Arts reflects his personal aesthetic leanings, which eschewed the concept of art for art's sake http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plik:Wyspia%C5%84ski_Mulchs.jpg http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plik:Wyspia%C5%84ski_Mulchs.jpg http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plik:Wyspia%C5%84ski_Mulchs.jpg Adolfo Coppedè, the public at large with a direct, accessible where it was known as Liberty or floral style - Art Il teatro Alhambra th di Firenze, prism for examining the historical and social Nouveau engendered, as the 19 century gave 1921, complexities of the historical period in ques- way to the 20th , a heated debate between the Wolfsoniana - tion; on the other, the Study Centre provides persisting historicist tendencies and the emer- Regional Foundation for Culture and the students and scholars interested in delving into ging linguistic leanings of modern decorative Performing Arts, the issues touched upon by the collection with art. Genoa opportunities for research and popularization. In that sense, the Italian experience shared the Thanks to the wealth and variety of its art- same cultural tensions of the research para- work, bibliographic, and printed documenta- digm which, driven by the spirit of romantic tion, the Wolfsoniana provides a comprehen- nationalism, had extended at the turn of the sive, in-depth overview of the complexity of century to numerous European countries - the Art Nouveau phenomenon. In Italy - from Spain to Hungary, and from Finland to konwersatorium rzabiczka 147 Uncommon Culture SHORT ARTICLES ART NOUVEAU Norway - through a modernist re-interpre- tation of traditional motifs. Within the Wolfson collection, an emblematic example of this trend can be seen in the studio designed by Ödön Faragó and built by József Sándor that was exhibited in the Hungarian Section of the First International Exhibition of Decorative and Modern Art held in Turin in 1902. Comprising two bookcases and a mahogany- and-brass desk, this studio - which had already been awarded the Hungarian gold medal for applied arts in 1901 - features a peculiar combination of secessionist tendencies and traditional Hungarian motifs. An equally significant example of this widespread tendency to re-shape the formal characteris- tics of Art Nouveau through stylistic motifs drawn from national or regional tradition is an oak furniture set for a legal studio, dating back to about 1912 and attributed to Gaspar Homar or another exponent of the Catalan Re- naixança, an artistic trend which, through its recurring use of floral or plant decorative motifs, was characterized by its direct refe- rences to the local autonomist culture. The emergence of this new expressive current in Italy where Art Nouveau came to be known as Liberty thanks to the fact that Emporium magazine frequently mentioned the activities of Arthur Lasenby Liberty's renowned This particular research context is well Aldo Avati, London atelier - generally manifested itself original watercolour through frequent comparisons with the ec- represented by the artistic and professional for the book careers of the architect Gino Coppedè and of Fantasie di Architettura, lectic, historicist tastes that typified the arts Turin 1921, Wolfsoniana - th the Casa Artistica, a renowned Florentine scene in the second half of the 19 century. Regional Foundation cabinetmaker's workshop founded by his During this historical period, the young nation for Culture and the father Mariano, and where Gino's brother Performing Arts, of Italy, which had only become unified in Adolfo and Carlo also worked, the latter being Genoa 1861, had centred its search for a shared Gino's main partner with regards to painted cultural identity around constant references to decorations. the main stylistic veins of its illustrious artistic tradition. 148 Uncommon Culture approach, rooted in historicism, and which was already known as the Coppedè style, reflected a direct comparison with certain expressions of modern decorative art. This style, which bore the name of its creator, was characterised by his unbridled willingness to bring together elements from a broad and varied repertoire of decorative motifs, as evidenced by the Mackenzie Castle's architec- tural compound, from its tall tower, recalling Siena's Torre del Mangia, to the sophisticated, Renaissance-style wooden dining room furni- ture designed by Mariano Coppedè, and the monumental outfitting of the entrance salon. Here, the costume scenes painted by Carlo Coppedè played off the Genoese Medieval cultural references of the marble columns and the classicist longings embodied in the marble statue depicting the Venus of Capua, a copy of the original held at the National Archaeologi- ³ñ cal Museum in Naples. In spite of his nonchalant recourse to formal models from the past, his expressive approach remained open to influences from contempo- rary artistic culture. These influences are evident in the Castle's exterior - in the floral ceramic decorations from Florence's Manifat- tura Cantagalli and in the secessionist-inspired mosaic decorations of the Società Musiva of Plinio Nomellini, Venice - and in its interior, in the stone bas- Il Lavoro, His architectural masterpiece, which became a relief Il viandante e la fonte (1901) by the Genoese 1903, Wolfsoniana - formal and composition model for all his sculptor Edoardo De Albertis. Regional Foundation subsequent work, was Genoa's Mackenzie for Culture and the Castle. The work was commissioned at the end The variety of the artistic and architectural Performing Arts, th Genoa of the 19 century by a wealthy insurance sources of inspiration for Gino Coppedè's broker of Scottish descent, Evan Mackenzie, project for the Mackenzie Castle is reflected in who was in love with Italian - and especially some of his brother Adolfo's most famous Tuscan - artistic culture. In this evocative re- works. Examples include the decorations for creation of a Medieval and Renaissance dream the interior rooms of Genoa's Palazzo della shared by both the architect and his client Borsa - designed by the architect Dario Carbo- Coppedè's unique aesthetic and professional ne (1909) - and the projects for Casa Antonini approach inships. 149 Uncommon Culture SHORT ARTICLES ART NOUVEAU Alberto Issel, Piano. Esposizione Internazionale di Arti Decorative, Turin 1902, Wolfsoniana - Regional Foundation for Culture and the Performing Arts, Genoa in Florence (circa 1907) and the Alhambra watercolours included in a book published in Theatre (1921), which showed the exoticist Turin in 1921), with its looming shapes and tastes that the Coppedè brothers would sub- bizarre decorations, or in the massive struc- sequently experiment with in their showy out- tures in Ulisse Stacchini's project for Milan's fitting of ships. Central Train Station. This project was initially conceived around 1912, and subsequently fine- With its monumental, cyclopic, and fantastic tuned until the definitive solution adopted by characters, this taste for visionary architecture the train station, which was inaugurated in was one of the trademarks of Italian design 1931. from the end of the 19th century to the first few decades of the 20th . In the Wolfson collection, Genoa, the home of the Wolfsoniana, thus this can be seen in the eye-popping effects of played a central role in the emergence of Art Aldo Avati's Fantasia di Architettura (a series of Nouveau in Italy. During this era, the city's 150 wiobrazmy sobie karotka Uncommon Culture Carlo Bugatti, dynamic industrial activities were the ideal Stipo, 1899, backdrop for the celebration of modernity Wolfsoniana - that typified the spirit and expressive cha- Regional Foundation racters of the new style. In fact, it was thanks to for Culture and the Performing Arts, its metropolitan celebration of modernity and Genoa technological progress that Genoa became a cultural, social, and political testing ground for the era's zeitgeist. Indeed, in 1901 it hosted an exhibition - the 6th Regional Exhibition which, thanks to the architect Venceslao Bor- ziani's pavilions, became a significant prece- dent for the Turin exhibition in 1902, whose design, by Raimondo D'Aronco, marked the definitive celebration of Art Nouveau in Italy. Several brilliant artists who were working in Genoa at the time contributed to the ex- hibition's decorations. These included Plinio Nomellini and Edoardo De Albertis, whose activities, as documented in the Wolfson col- lection, contributed to the emergence of the new style's formal and iconography solutions. Another leading interpreter of these trends on the Ligurian art scene was Alberto Issel.