Agostino Arrivabene's Crema Exhibition Explores Pride Through Dante and Michelangelo

A solo exhibition of Agostino Arrivabene (born 1967, Rivolta d'Adda) opened at the Museo Civico di Crema e del Cremasco, curated by Silvia Scaravaggi. The show, titled around the theme of 'superbia' (pride), features thirty works including preparatory studies, drawings, and paintings. Central is the triptych 'Le due morti' (The Two Deaths), comprising the eponymous painting and new works 'Usura' and 'L'inaudibile II', addressing pride, usury, and vanity. Arrivabene cites Michelangelo's 'Last Judgment' as a transformative influence, discovered in 2018 while in Rome for costume and set design work on 'Samson and Delilah' at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo. The exhibition also includes 'Purgatorio, Canto XI (I Superbi)', a panel referencing Dante's Divine Comedy, part of Arrivabene's ongoing project since 2019 to create a new iconographic edition of the poem. Works span from the 1990s self-portrait as Odysseus to recent pieces like 'Verbo', 'Il mio nous manifesto', 'La crisalide II', and 'Contra mundum'. Technical experimentation includes encaustic, calcography via dripping on acetate transferred to canvas, and painting on stone. The exhibition is produced by the Museo di Crema in collaboration with Azimut Capital Management.