24 Hour Museum  
 
Text-only Version
July 5 2009
Search this site
Home
City Guides
Show Me
News
Exhibitions
What's On
Trails
Website of the Week
Links
For Museums and Galleries
For Teachers
For Volunteers
Press
Welsh Home
About Us
ICONS - a portrait of England
Map Search
Exhibitions Online
e-news Registration
arts council england logo
MLA
System Simulation Ltd
 
ITALY'S DIVISIONIST PAINTERS AT LONDON'S NATIONAL GALLERY
By Dawn Marshallsay 02/07/2008
a circular painting of woman on a deck chair

Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo (1868-1907) The Living Torrent, 1895-6 Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan (Sprind gift, 1986) © Su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali

Exhibition Preview - Radical Light, Italy's Divisionist Painters 1891-1910 at the National Gallery until September 7 2008.

If you’re going to Italy this summer, the National Gallery’s new Divisionist exhibition presents a far cry from your ideal vision of olive groves basking under the Mediterranean sun. These atmospheric ‘snapshots’ hark back to a darker time in Italy’s history.

Disillusioned after the unification of Italy in 1871 failed to bring the democracy and national progress it had promised, and fearing that Italian painting was lagging behind the rest of Europe, artists were ready for change, both politically and artistically.

But rather than radicalise art, a group of avant-garde northern Italians attempted to restore the order and continuity to art that had been destroyed by the Impressionists, hence why the Divisionists are also known as the Neo-Impressionists.

Luigi Russolo (1885-1947), Lightning, 1909-10. © Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome. Photo Alessandro Vasari

a painting of a thunder storm

This was achieved through a move to the country and what the artist Giovanni Segantini called the “investigation of colour in light." However, even though the Divisionists may have escaped the bleak cities of Milan and Turin, it seems the darkness followed them to the countryside.

Yet there is the light of hope in every one of their paintings. Applying the theories of optical science, the Divisionists separated colours into individual dots and strokes, which appear to blend at a distance, introducing a more colour-conscious form of Pointillism.

Alternatively, dots of contrasting pigments were applied to create vast differences between light and dark from a distance. The National Gallery has good reason to name its exhibition “Radical Light”.

a painting showing a group of people led by a man and woman in the foreground

© Su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali

(Above) Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo (1868-1907), The Living Torrent, 1895-6. Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan (Sprind gift, 1986).

Displaying over 50 works by Italy’s Divisionist painters between 1891 and 1910, this is the largest show of its kind to be held in the UK, and one of the first outside Italy to examine this vital movement.

The evolution of Divisonism is laid out in its entirety across the gallery’s walls, from its early beginnings to the formation of Italian Futurism, which emerged from this earlier artistic and political movement.

On the political front, Divisionists such as Giovanni Segantini, Angelo Morbelli and Emilio Longoni adopted Socialist ideas and strove for 'an art not for art’s sake but humanity’s sake'.

Vittore Grubicy de Dragon (1851-1920) Morning, 1894-1911. Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milano (Gam 1718). © Comune di Milano. All rights reserved

a painting of light streaming through trees

Such artists escaped to the countryside, but they continued to champion the rights of the oppressed. Pellizza’s The Living Torrent (1895-60) depicts the unstoppable progress of the proletariat in Volpedo, marching towards the light of social justice. Nearby, Morbelli returned to Piedmont, where he painted oppressed women rice workers in For Forty cents! (1893-5).

The Divisionists might not have achieved enough cohesion to spread internationally, but the plurality of their vision is what makes this movement so distinctive.

National Gallery, London
 

The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5DN, England
T: 020 7747 2885
Open: Open daily 10.00-18.00, Fri 10.00-21.00

Related Articles
Titian secrets revealed as Cupid and the lion become public property
Disused prison outbuilding becomes creative centre for National Gallery outreach scheme
The National Gallery's old masters inspire new music from young composers
John Cale stars in Pablo Picasso-themed Museums at Night at The National Gallery
Japanese Cinema and Art Festival brings Oscar winner to The National Gallery
London primary school pupils take on the greats in National Gallery display
Antony Gormley invites people to be living monuments on Trafalgar Square Fourth Plinth
| e-news registration | e-mail story to a friend | tell us what you think |
 
The Scottish Fisheries Museum celebrates 40th anniversaryThe Scottish Fisheries Museum celebrates 40th anniversary
A fresh twist on 'Gay Icons' at the National Portrait GalleryA fresh twist on 'Gay Icons' at the National Portrait Gallery
Poor.Old.Tired.Horse at the Institute for Contemporary ArtsPoor.Old.Tired.Horse at the Institute for Contemporary Arts
The iconic art of Commando comic at the REME MuseumThe iconic art of Commando comic at the REME Museum
Topshop artist finds Small Wonders in Museum of ImaginationTopshop artist finds Small Wonders in Museum of Imagination
Step through the minds of artists in must-see Hayward summer showStep through the minds of artists in must-see Hayward summer show
Anglo-Japanese sculpture vultures in Scottish stone showsAnglo-Japanese sculpture vultures in Scottish stone shows
Exquisite Bodies explores the curious and grotesque story of the anatomical modelExquisite Bodies explores the curious and grotesque story of the anatomical model
Danish artist Kirkeby gives dark contemplation on meaning at Tate ModernDanish artist Kirkeby gives dark contemplation on meaning at Tate Modern
JW Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite at the Royal Academy of ArtsJW Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite at the Royal Academy of Arts
Salthouse Church to host Salthouse 09: Salt of the Earth
Workshop Missoni: Daring to be Different at the Estorick Collection
New Mary Rose Museum gets final go-ahead from HLF
Le Corbusier's Indian designs testify to power of simplicity
Beyond Bloomsbury: Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19
Darwin birthplace announces ambitious inaugural 10-day "Festival of Ideas"
Cartoon superheroes seize the London Underground
Surrey schoolteacher bags BP Portrait Award 2009 at National Portrait Gallery
Exhibitions online
e-news Registration