1947: The Year That Shaped Modern Art

Back in 1947, a group of artists including Achille Perilli, Ugo Attardi, Carla Accardi, and others came together in Rome to create the Forma Uno manifesto. This document stressed that art’s true nature is found in the imaginative expression of 'pure form' through the use of color, drawing, and three-dimensional materials. To honor Perilli’s 70-year artistic career, the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg is hosting a retrospective from December 19, 2018, to February 3, 2019. Curated by Dimitri Ozerkov and Luca Barsi, the exhibit is supported by the Centro Studi dell'Opera di Umberto Mastroianni and the Consulate General of Saint Petersburg. In 1947, Le Corbusier began designing the Unité d'Habitation in Marseille, a brutalist residential complex that features shops, community spaces, and a school, completed between 1947 and 1952. An exhibition at Museo Nivola in Orani, Sardinia, from December 22 to March 17, 2019, will display Le Corbusier's drawings from the Nivola collection, organized by the Fondazione di Sardegna and Fondazione Nivola. Meanwhile, Eduardo Paolozzi created his collage 'I was a Rich Man’s Plaything' in 1947, marking the start of his Bunk series and influencing British Pop Art a decade earlier than its American counterpart. An exhibition at Alma Zevi gallery in Venice, running until December 20, features Paolozzi’s early works.