Antonio Calderara's Lyrical Abstraction at MASI Lugano

The MASI Lugano presents 'Antonio Calderara – Una luce senza ombre', a retrospective curated by Elio Schenini that challenges the binary view of Calderara's shift from figuration to abstraction. The exhibition, running until January 22, 2017, proposes a 'third way'—that his transition was neither a drastic break nor an inevitable progression but a continuous, personal journey. Starting with 1920s Milanese landscapes and a portrait of his father, the show includes a striking vertical painting of his wife Carmela. Calderara's work is described as 'painting of light', linked to Paul Signac. The exhibition layout creates a spatial narrowing to symbolize the move to abstraction. It also features works from Calderara's personal collection by Lucio Fontana, Getulio Alviani, Kengiro Azuma, and Josef Albers, now in the Fondazione Antonio Calderara on Lake Orta. Calderara and Albers shared an empirical approach to painting. The show includes paintings, watercolors, graphics, and artist books, highlighting Calderara's lyrical abstraction independent of Informel or geometric abstraction.