Vasco Ascolini's Metaphysical Visions at Milan's Bagatti Valsecchi Museum

The Bagatti Valsecchi Museum in Milan hosts 'Visioni Metafisiche,' the first Milanese exhibition of photographer Vasco Ascolini (born 1937 in Reggio Emilia). The show juxtaposes Ascolini's works with sculptures by Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen, and paintings by Giorgio De Chirico, drawn from the Gipsoteca of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara and private collections. Curated by Antonio D'Amico and Luca Carnicelli, the exhibition highlights Ascolini's theatrical approach to photography, where artworks appear as actors on a stage, often wrapped in bubble wrap. Ascolini, a leading figure in Italian photography since the 1960s, was the official photographer of Reggio Emilia's Teatro Municipale 'Romolo Valli' from 1973 to 1990. His 1989 exhibition 'Vasco Ascolini. Aosta metafisica e altri luoghi' featured a catalog text by art historian Ernst H. Gombrich, who praised Ascolini's ability to capture 'stillness and solitude in a scene charged with premonitions.' The current exhibition connects the museum's noble house spaces with the photographic collection of the Fondazione Pasquale Battista. Ascolini learned from fellow Reggio Emilia photographer Stanislao Farri, who died two years ago at 97.