Gladioli
Pictorial cycle by Fiorenza Bassetti Exhibition extended until 29 August
The first museum to devote an exhibition to a single pictorial cycle of Fiorenza Bassetti, the Museo Vincenzo Vela will show more than 200 canvases, paintings on paper and some photographs of the cycle dedicated to Gladioli, a body of work that is particularly representative of the Ticinese artist's poetics.
The selected cycle of works is typical of the way in which the artist works: consistency in the search for themes that offer the potential to develop structures that provide a means of expression and enable disparateness of forms, and which she can develop over the years (her first gladioli were painted twenty years ago) in always different combinations.
The artist has provided different aspects of the gladiolus - whose name derives from, and appearance resembles, the sword - as it blooms and withers, as it appears and fades away, in its dying and rebirth. The artist uses these declinations as a metaphor for life and death, a central theme for Bassetti.
Excluding no example on the basis of its appearance, and with great refinement, the artist focuses on her subject, at times preferring a realistic representation, at others attempting to depict the flower's non-representational qualities. Central to this is the presence of the dominant colour, generally red, which she applies to different supports, such as canvas and Japanese paper, and that, in the process, acquires more autonomy and helps create a powerful visual tension.
The exhibition, accompanied by photographs linked to the theme, has been organised in partnership with the cantonal art museum of Lugano, which will display a wide selection of the artist's photographs at the same time. This will clarify the dialogue that exists between the two means of artistic expression, which Fiorenza Bassetti exercises with equal effectiveness.