The White Screen
Artworks and new exhibition spaces from the 1950s to today
November 23, 2022
Palazzo Bianco / Palazzo Rosso.
Caterina Marcenaro, Franco Albini and Franca Helg for the museums of Genoa.
With:
Giovanna Forlanelli - Luigi Rovati Foundation
Raffaella Fontanarossa - Art Historian.
Fondazione Luigi Rovati hosted a series of dialogues to focus on the major changes that affected museums since the Second World War: four appointments curated by Fondazione Federico Zeri and Associazione Amici di Federico Zeri.
In the years of the economic miracle, architectural rationalism immersed works of art in a new light and space. Minimal geometries, very clear backgrounds, and moving panels altered the perception of objects, their form and color. Leading the postwar reconstruction, museum directors of the 1950s found themselves making decisions that would long define the shape of picture galleries and art galleries.
Collaboration between art historians and architects was intense. Fernanda Wittgens, Carlo Scarpa, Franca Helg, Franco Albini, and Caterina Marcenaro are just a few of the protagonists of this capital season of Italian and international museology. But the dialogue was not easy. A fear soon arose that architecture would take center stage, confining the works - the real protagonists - to a paradoxical background. Dwelling on this conflict between container and content is perhaps the best way to reflect on today's layouts and the relationship between museums and temporary exhibitions.