Exit Morandi: Longhi's Homage to the Bolognese Master at Museo Novecento

The Museo Novecento in Florence presents 'Exit Morandi', an exhibition curated by director Sergio Risaliti and Cristina Bandera, director of the Fondazione Roberto Longhi. The show centers on the manuscript 'Exit Morandi' written by art historian Roberto Longhi upon the death of Giorgio Morandi on June 18, 1964—the same day the 23rd Venice Biennale opened, awarding the International Painting Prize to American Robert Rauschenberg. Longhi's text, read on the TV program 'L'approdo' on June 28, 1964, is displayed alongside a video of his reading. The exhibition features about thirty works by Morandi, mostly from the 1930s to the 1950s, including 'Natura morta (di oggetti in viola)' (1937), which Longhi received as a gift, and 'Natura morta' (1954). Loans come from the Galleria Nazionale di Roma, the Archivio Longhi, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, and private collections. The show explores Morandi's influences from Piero della Francesca to Cézanne, and Longhi's critical perspective that Morandi's 'solemn luminous elegy' stood apart from the Pop Art triumph at the Biennale. The exhibition also references philosopher Mario Perniola's concept of the 'expanded art' world and the speculative bubble that followed the 1960s. 'Exit Morandi' runs at the Museo Novecento in Florence.