Gauguin and the Nabis in dialogue with Italian avant-garde at Palazzo Roverella

Palazzo Roverella in Rovigo hosts 'I Nabis, Gauguin e la pittura italiana d’avanguardia', curated by Giandomenico Romanelli under Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo. The exhibition contrasts the Pont-Aven school, galvanized by Paul Gauguin from 1886 with artists like Émile Bernard and Paul Sérusier, and the Burano school led by Nino Barbantini in the 1910s-20s, featuring Gino Rossi, Umberto Moggioli, and Pio Semeghini, who were excluded from Venice Biennials. It also includes works by Felice Casorati and Oscar Ghiglia, linked to Venice through training or Biennial visits. French artists Édouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, and Félix Vallotton exhibited at Venice Biennales in 1905 and 1907, influencing local styles. Romanelli notes that Italian artists like Gino Rossi and Cagnaccio di San Pietro are little known abroad and deserve international exposure. The show comprises about 100 works from private collections and museums, starting with Breton painters like Eugène Lawrence Vall and Charles Cottet, then Gauguin and his followers (Bernard, Sérusier, Ranson, Amiet, Filiger, Lacombe, Verkade, Vallotton). A room is dedicated to Maurice Denis, theorist of the Nabis, who rejected naturalism for synthetism and cloisonnisme. Italian artists include Gino Rossi, Oscar Ghiglia, Umberto Moggioli, Teodoro Wolf Ferrari, Felice Casorati, Cagnaccio di San Pietro, and Arturo Martini. The exhibition runs until January 14, 2017, with a catalog published by Marsilio.