Giovanni Gastel's 100 Musical Portraits at Villa Reale di Monza

The exhibition 'Giovanni Gastel per Rolling Stone. Le 100 facce della musica italiana' runs until September 25 at the Villa Reale di Monza, in the recently restored Secondo Piano Nobile apartments once used by House of Savoy guests. The show presents 100 black-and-white and color portraits of Italian music figures—songwriters, musicians, singers, authors like Mogol, and DJs like Claudio Cecchetto—shot by photographer Giovanni Gastel for a special Rolling Stone issue. Gastel, a fashion photographer who began his career at Christie's in the 1970s and later worked for Vogue Italia, Mondo Uomo, and Donna, drew on his passion for Renaissance art, Pop Art seen at Rotonda della Besana in the early 1970s, and the photographic work of Irving Penn. Curator Denis Curti noted that Gastel's photographs cross an invisible line of confidence and intimacy, making the gaze itself the subject, akin to Roland Barthes' punctum.