"Viaggio in Italia II: Konrad Helbig - Herbert List&quo
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Tuesday, October 21, 2025


"Viaggio in Italia II: Konrad Helbig - Herbert List&quo



BOLOGNA, ITALY.- The Galleria d’Arte Moderna presents "Viaggio in Italia II: Konrad Helbig - Herbert List," on view through December 1, 2002 and curated by Peter Weiermair. Viaggio in Italia II marks the continuation of the series of exhibitions that the Galleria d’Arte Moderna is dedicating to the works of foreign photographers who have helped spread the image of Italy around the world. In the spirit of the great tradition of the “Grand Tour”, artists and writers as well as common tourists have visited Italy, fascinated by its history, its great artistic traditions, its landscapes, and also by its people. All these aspects are to be found in the images captured by the two photographers featured, who – like so many travellers from Northern Europe – come to Italy to rediscover a primordial, archaic dimension in which the mythical splendours of the Classical Era may still be sensed.

Born in Lipsia, Konrad Helbig (1917-1988) coupled his work as a tourist guide with an ever-growing passion for the history of art and classical archaeology, as is to be seen in his photographs. He was particularly fascinated by Sicily, where he spent long periods of time after the second world war. He assiduously portrayed works of art and landscapes, but also young local people who he saw as incarnating the myth of pre-industrial or even Arcadian culture. Through his images carefully composed from a formal point of view, young fishermen with their impertinent charm embody the canons of classical artistic perfection – it is no coincidence that the photographer had interspersed these portraits with images of ancient bronze sculptures in a trial volume compiled in collaboration with the archaeologist Herbert von Buttlar. The Bolognese exhibition gives the opportunity at last to exhibit previously unseen parts of Helbig’s works, among which several pages of this very volume, never before published. The exhibition is laid out so as to explore the subtle link between modern day Sicily (albeit post-WWII Sicily which seems so far away from us now) and that of an idealised past, a branch of the mythical culture of ancient Greece, loosely following in the footsteps of Wilhelm von Gloeden. 

Herbert List (Hamburg 1903, Munich 1975), doted with a solid classical education and forced to leave Germany following the racial persecutions of the Nazi regime, was fascinated by the magical atmospheres emanated by the classical ruins of Greece and southern Italy, which he brought out using astute tricks of light and shade under the influence of Man Ray and the school of surrealist aesthetics. Yet List considered technique as a secondary element and the camera as a tool useful for representing reality; he saw the interpretation as being given by the subjectivity expressed in the shot. The art historian Gunther Metken, reflecting on List’s visionary images, coined the expression “metaphysical photographer”: Herbert List’s photographs in fact offer a metaphysical vision of nature found in his images to be laden with lyricism and mystery. The shots taken of town squares or of moments of daily life are often conceived as metaphors: sometimes integrating the juxtaposition of events and visions, reality and illusion are mixed together while a conventional approach to the subject is replaced by an attempt to unveil the ultimate sense of the universe. Art is “a vision made visible,” says List, who prefers magical realism to objective neutrality. Through his photographs, he is able to shape these visions, loading them with spiritual and symbolic textures. Most of the photographs on show here come from the Herbert List inheritance, and will be exhibited here for the first time ever.











Today's News

October 21, 2025

Rembrandt U.S. Tour Kicks Off at Gibbes Museum in Charleston

Gagosian juxtaposes old masterwork with contemporary giants at Art Basel Paris

Last call for collectors to bid on antique fishing lures from the superlative Wayne & Lori Edens collection at Morphy's

Gao Xiaowu - Art Reflecting Modern Chinese Society

Tornabuoni Art pairs Giorgio Morandi and Lucio Fontana in Paris show

Albert Oehlen's new paintings explore nude bathers at Gagosian Paris

Turner's only royal commission to return to public display for 250th anniversary of the artist's birth

Unveiling an invisible archive: Rome honors pioneering artist and archaeologist Maria Barosso

Emotional geometry at Perrotin: Jean-Michel Othoniel's shimmering works reconcile minimalism and sensuality

Berlin's "Degenerate Art" sculpture find returns home

Milan's Palazzo Morando transformed by 'Fata Morgana' exhibition of mystical art

Neue Nationalgalerie traces networks of Max Ernst, Dalí, and Tanning through provenance research

U2 legend Adam Clayton's collection of iconic guitars heading to Julien's Auctions

Polish women photographers take center stage at Belfast Exposed in major UK/Poland season showcase

Gladstone now representing Celia Paul

"Thé Dansant" Joana Vasconcelos x Bernardaud, an exhibition where art and tradition collide

Grogan & Company announces November fine jewelry and fine art auctions

EVA Foundation opens in Bucharest: a home dedicated to women artists

Autumn/winter 2025-26 season at MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków

ACE announces inaugural Multichannel Commission for South Australian artists

The Power Plant presents fall/winter exhibition program: Jeneen Frei Njootli and Lucy Raven




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



The OnlineCasinosSpelen editors have years of experience with everything related to online gambling providers and reliable online casinos Nederland. If you have any questions about casino bonuses and, please contact the team directly.


Truck Accident Attorneys

sports betting sites not on GamStop



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)


Editor: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez


Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
       
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful