Expressionism
museomarinomarini.it

Marino Marini was born in Pistoia in 1901. In 1917 he enrolled in the Florence Accademia di Belle Arti where he followed courses in painting taught by Galileo Chini and sculpture by Domenico Trentacoste. These early years of artistic activity in Via degli Artisti were mainly devoted to painting and drawing. Marini's first important sculpture, Popolo (in terracotta), was produced in 1929, the same year in which he was invited by Arturo Martini to move to Milan and teach at Villa Reale in Monza. This was also the year in which he exhibited in Nice with the Novecento group and undertook his first trip to Paris. His first solo exhibition was in Milan in 1932 and in 1935 he won first prize at theRome Quadriennale.

In 1938 he married Mercedes Pedrazzini (affectionately nicknamed Marina) who was to be a constant and explicit presence in his artistic personality.

Marini leftVilla Reale in 1940 for the chair of sculpture at the Brera Academy which he held until 1943 when the war (which had led to the destruction of his studio) caused him to retreat to the Swiss Canton of Ticino which was the birthplace of his wife. This time was rich in contacts with both old and new friends from Paris such as Wotruba, Germaine Richier, Giacometti, Haller and Banninger. There are many portraits in bronze and plaster from this period and in 1944 Marini exhibited at the Kunstmuseum in Basle.

When the war was over Marini returned to his previous existence in Milan, reopening his studio and taking up his teaching job at Brera again. At the 24th Venice Biennale in 1948 a room was dedicated to his works. He met Henry Moore, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship, and Curt Valentin, the American merchant who organised an exhibition for him in New York in 1950. The Accademia dei Lincei awarded him the Feltrinelli prize in 1952 and in 1957 the Hague city council commissioned a large equestrian group, a copy of which is on display in San Pancrazio.

More and more personal exhibitions followed in northern Europe and Marini intensified his output of paintings (an area of activity which he had never abandoned) in the mid 60s. In 1973 the Marino Museum exhibition was inaugurated in the Civica Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Milan with an important collection of portraits. A permanent display was dedicated to him at the Neue Pinakothen in Munich in 1976, in 1978 an exhibition of paintings and sculptures was taken to Japan and in 1979 a documentation centre for his works was set up in Pistoia.

Marino Marini died in Viareggio in 1980.

The Marino Marini Museum
Piazza San Pancrazio - 50123 Firenze
Tel./Fax: ++39 +55 219432

The Marino Marini Museum is situated in the deconsecrated church of San Pancrazio, one of the oldest churches in Florence. This church has been modified many times in the course of its history. In the 15th century it was restored by Leon Battista Alberti, who built the Santo Sepolcro Chapel for theRucellai family and linked it to the church with a carved architrave. In the 18th century the church was remodernised by Giuseppe Ruggeri,who added a free-standing structure inside, leaving the original walls intact. Following the Napoleonic suppressions of the 19th century the church was used for holding lotteries, as a law court, and finally as a tobacco warehouse. At this time an iron gallery was added to divide the nave into two floors and in 1808, in order to conserve the Albertian triforium, the columns and architrave were transferred to the facade creating the portal which was surmounted by a neo-classical style lunette.

After a period as a military depot, San Pancrazio finally became the home of a collection of works of art donated by Marino Marini and later by his wife Marina. The church was restructured by Lorenzo Papi and Bruno Sacchi, who succeeded both in conserving the building's various architectural stratifications and in respecting Marini's desire for an exhibition site with airy spaces and atmospheric lighting - obvious requirements, given that the statues were originally created for outdoor sites. The intense light from the apse window, for example, bathes the monumental Horseman (1957-8; original in a public park at the Hague) which is the first exhibit in the museum's itinerary.

The layout of the exhibition is organised thematically, not chronologically. The apse and transept house works from the period after the second world war representing exhausted horsemen overwhelmed by the vigour of their horses, executed in crude forms with broken lines and sharp edges. The materials used are bronze and cardoso - a stone from Versilia, where the sculptor had a house in the early 50s.

Near the entrance on the right, a group of early paintings are displayed in a separate room reflecting Marino's desire to put these works behind him on his departure for Milan in 1929. Unlike later paintings, none of these works are studies for sculptures.

Next comes a group of statues from the period 1930-35 representing maidens,Pomonas and reckless young horsemen. These are works of high artistic merit which evoke sensations of pure serenity.

Going upstairs to the mezzanine on the left of the nave we reach a collection of works in Etruscan style from the late 20s to the early 40s showing an affinity with the art of Arturo Martini (who offered Marino the professorship of the Monza Art School). In contrast to the use of dazzling Mediterranean marble dear to the German humanists, several Italian artists in this period shared Marino's predilection for the domesticity of the Etruscan terracotta fragments which were currently being unearthed by archaeologists.

A small section on the same floor is dedicated to portraits, perhaps one of the best-known aspects of Marino's output. These works cover a broad period, from a 1930 sculpture to a portrait of Oskar Kososchka dated 1976-7. They are expressionist portraits which highlight the subjects' personalities, often with traces of humour.

On the top floor (reached by the stairs on the right) we encounter the Juggler of 1939 in bronze with touches of colour. Jugglers, like horsemen and Pomonas, are one of the constant themes of Marino's art.

In the centre of the room, gathered in a circle is a group of dancers in coloured plaster dating from the late 40s to 1955 and at the sides of the room are small plaster and cement representations of horses and horsemen. The large paintings on the walls are from the 1950s and feature recurring subjects: jugglers, masks and dancers. The far end of the room is dominated by the enormous plaster horseman of 1952-3 almost thrown from the saddle by his horse. As well as the statue there is a display of drawings and prints. Some of the drawings are works in their own right, such as the beautiful profile of Marini's wife Marina, while others are studies for statues or paintings.

And so we come to the end of our tour of the works of Marini conserved in the museum: a tour through fifty years of artistic expression. ...

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