Exhibition: Marino Marini. Arcane Fantasie (Arcane fantasies)

A world of horses and knights, of warriors and ancient gods, of jugglers and dancers. The artistic genius of Marino Marini—one of the most important Italian artists of the 20th century— is explored in all its complexity and variety in Arcane Fantasies, an exhibition hosted by Fort Bard in collaboration with 24 Ore Cultura and the Marino Marini Museum of Florence.

The exhibition, curated by Sergio Risaliti, director of the Museo Novecento in Florence, and held in the Cannoniere (Gunports) exhibit area of Fort Bard, focuses on the main sources of inspiration and recurring themes in Marini’s work, presenting no fewer than 23 sculptures and 39 works on canvas and paper. A highly idiosyncratic trajectory in terms of artistic growth and coherence, oscillating between a return to archaism and the supremacy of dreams and imagination. Marino Marini was always drawn to figurative language, even when it led him to dramatic decompositions of the plastic form.

A language of great power and coherence that finds its highest expression in horses and riders, the best-known subjects of his production, transformed into a means of interpreting reality and narrating the human condition. Figures that with time become less defined and increasingly expressive, eventually taking the form of sculptural metaphors.