Adriana Bisi Fabbri Exhibition at Museo del Novecento, Milan

The Museo del Novecento in Milan presents a comprehensive exhibition dedicated to Adriana Bisi Fabbri (Ferrara, 1881–Travedona Monate, 1918), a painter and caricaturist of remarkable independence. Curated by Giovanna Ginex and Danka Giacon, the show originates from the artist's archive, meticulously collected by her son and donated to the museum by heirs. The exhibition features a large quantity of archival materials displayed in central cases, including letters embellished with fine drawings, alongside a substantial nucleus of works by Bisi Fabbri and artists from her "constellation." A second cousin of Umberto Boccioni, she portrayed Boccioni's mother, prompting a comparison between the two artists. A section is dedicated to her husband, Giannetto Bisi, with portraits and works reconstructing his activity as a journalist and critic. Another section reconstructs her artistic inspirations from authors like Meunier and Previati. The exhibition includes theater costumes, illustrations for newspapers and magazines, extraordinary caricatures of "ideal types" (the congressman, the handsome young man, the little woman, the hooligan), and a "bunker-room" with works on the tragedy of World War I, where her painting takes on expressionist tones. The show is well-conceived and installed, allowing discovery of a little-known artist with an ever-changing but valid style, valorizing the archive in a non-scholastic manner.