Ottone Rosai’s Figurative, Post-Futurist Art Show

Until October 4: OTTONE ROSAI, A POET ABOVE ALL. Museo Novecento of 20th and 21st Century Art, piazza Santa Maria Novella 10. Open 11 am – 8 pm, closed  Thursday. Admission: €13 for museum entry, €9 for ages 18 – 25 and students, exhibition included. Further concessions are available on the museum’s official website. 

The retrospective combines the collection of Ottone Rosai’s works scattered throughout the Museo Novecento of 20th and 21st Century Art donated by family members upon the death of the artist (Lascito Rosai or Rosai Archives) and pieces that came from Alberto della Ragione Collection of Mid-20th Century Art. The latter institution ceased to exist as an independent entity and became incorporated into Novecento Museum of 20th and 21st Century Art (located in piazza Santa Maria Novella) in 2013.

Rosai (1895 – 1957) specialized in landscapes and cityscapes in addition to depicting the leading cultural  figures of his period. The exhibition includes paintings from the Rosai Bequest and the artist’s works  from the Alberto della Ragione Collection, with a total of 70 works on display brought together for the  first time in a single exhibition divided into two distinct spaces. The exhibition paints an intricate image of  Ottone Rosai’s lifetime, exploring his relationship with Florence in addition to the people of his time—whether they be intellectuals or his loved ones, depicted in soft colors and tinged with melancholy.

As the exhibition curator explained “Capable of absolute devotion and radical ruptures, the artist opens his  gaze to the drama of existence, always guided by an ethical conception of art. His figures evoke a restless community, sharing a humanity marked by the struggle of existence and the need to continue to believe in poetry.” (H.R.D.)