Peggy Guggenheim Collection mounts largest Marina Apollonio retrospective in Italy

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice is hosting 'Oltre il cerchio', the largest museum retrospective ever dedicated to Marina Apollonio in Italy. The exhibition, curated by Marianna Gelussi, traces the artist's career from 1963 to the present, featuring around 100 works. Apollonio, a leading figure in international Optical and Kinetic Art, explores abstraction through rigorous visual research, employing static and moving works in black and white and color. The show encompasses key cycles: aluminum works, Gradazioni su tela, Dinamiche Circolari, Rilievi a Diffusione Cromatica, and recent Dinamiche Ellittiche and Fusioni Circolari. Apollonio moved to Venice in 1948, where she met Emilio Vedova and Giuseppe Santomaso. Her encounter with Peggy Guggenheim in 1968 at the Galleria Barozzi led to the commission of 'Rilievo 505', a sculpture in aluminum and fluorescent paint on masonite that remains in the collection. The retrospective begins with this period. In the 1960s, Apollonio created 'Gradazioni' using concentric circular crowns on canvas or masonite, as seen in 'Gradazione 11. Verde giallo su rosso' (1971). 'Dinamica Circolare' employs mathematically calculated black and white lines to produce programmed space, with circles mounted on pivots that can rotate manually or mechanically, amplifying optical effects. In the early 1970s, she made her first 'Rilievi Circolari a diffusione cromatica', creating interference between drawn form and optical play.