PARIS.- Tornabuoni Art Paris is pleased to present Painting and Poetry. Ungaretti and the Art of Seeing, an exhibition that celebrates the convergence of literature and visual arts through the figure of the Italian poet Giuseppe Ungaretti (Alexandria, Egypt 1888 - Milan 1970).

Ungaretti met Picasso, de Chirico, Severini in Paris on the eve of the First World War. Many years later, in Rome, he met Italian artists such as Dorazio, Capogrossi and Burri, among others. The intensity of these encounters, from Paris to Rome, made him more than a privileged witness of an unprecedented artistic period. Nurturing a deep fascination for painting, Ungaretti developed his own literary style in the continuity of languages, making possible a true encounter between the arts. Establishing a link between poetry and painting, the exhibition is a continuation of the gallery’s ex- ploration of the dialogue between artistic disciplines: it is a follow-up to Utopia, an interdisciplinary exhibition linking Italian art and design, which took place in 2019.

Painting and poetry. Ungaretti and the Art of Seeing is made possible by literary critic Alexandra Zin- gone, a leading expert on Ungaretti’s poetry, and her deep knowledge of the artists he met. This pro- ject marks the second stage of his collaboration with the gallery, following the success of the exhibi- tion Piero Dorazio, Luminous Textures in 2021.

The project will feature writings, correspondence and poetry by Giuseppe Ungaretti alongside impor- tant works by prominent Italian and European artists from the 1910s to the 1960s, including Giacomo Balla, Ardengo Soffici, Carlo Carrà, Gino Severini, Amedeo Modigliani, Giorgio de Chirico, Pablo Pi- casso, Enrico Prampolini, Ottone Rosai, Jean Fautrier, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Franco Gentilini, Alberto Burri and Piero Dorazio.

Figurative works such as Giovane seduta (1905) by Amedeo Modigliani and Piazza d’Italia con piedis- tallo vuoto (1955) by Giorgio de Chirico cover the walls of the second floor of the gallery, witnesses of Ungaretti’s Parisian encounters.
The exhibition continues and moves towards abstraction with major works by Alberto Burri, such as two Catrame from 1950, and Giuseppe Capogrossi with a selection of Superfici from the 1960s that bear his glyph and pay tribute to Ungaretti’s presence on the Roman art scene.

The exhibition concludes with the relationship between Giuseppe Ungaretti and Piero Dorazio, with historical pieces from the artist’s reticule series, such as Chez Andersen (1959), and La Luce (1971), a book made by the two artists, containing handwritten poems by Ungaretti and lithographs by Dorazio.

The opening of the exhibition Painting and Poetry. Ungaretti and the Art of Seeing, on April 18, will be preceded by a presentation by Alexandra Zingone at 6 pm. Using Ungaretti’s writings, Zingone will trace the poet’s travels from Alexandria (Egypt) to Paris and finally to Rome, as well as his artistic en- counters with a generation of artists whose production is profoundly revolutionary.

A catalog in Italian and English published by Forma Edizioni will accompany the presentation. It will include archival images and writings by Ungaretti, as well as a critical essay by Alexandra Zingone highlighting the importance of the relationship between painting and poetry in the poet’s production.

Founded in Florence in 1981 by Roberto Casamonti, on the street from which the gallery takes its name, Tornabuoni Art has since opened exhibition spaces in Crans-Montana in 1993, Milan in 1995, Forte Dei Marmi in 2004, Paris in 2009, London in 2015, and Rome in 2023.

Specializing in Italian post-war art, the gallery presents the work of artists such as Fontana, Burri, Cas- tellani, Bonalumi, Boetti, Scheggi, and Manzoni. Tornabuoni Art has an important collection of works by early 20th century Italian artists such as de Chirico, Morandi, Balla and Severini as well as inter- national artists such as Picasso, Mirò, Kandinsky, Hartung, Poliakoff, Dubuffet, Lam, Matta, Christo, Wesselmann, Warhol and Basquiat.

In addition to promoting Italian art, the Tornabuoni Art collection also presents the works of young contemporary artists, such as the Italian artist Francesca Pasquali. Tornabuoni Art participates in major international art fairs including Paris+, TEFAF in Maastricht and New York, Art Basel, Art Basel Miami, Art Basel Hong Kong, Miart in Milan, Frieze Masters in London, Frieze Masters Seoul, Artge- neve in Geneva and Artmonte-carlo.

The gallery also works closely with museums, artists’ estates and institutions, for example with the Fondazione Burri and the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice on a retrospective of Alberto Burri’s work, scheduled to coincide with the opening of the 2019 Venice Biennale or recently on a group show, On Fire, dedicated to the use of fire and bringing together works by Arman, Alberto Burri, Pier Paolo Cal- zolari, Yves Klein, Jannis Kounellis and Claudio Parmiggiani, which coincided with the opening of the 2022 Venice Biennale.