"Mirror of the soul" - an exhibition of the Italian artist Antonio Ligabue opened in the Museum of Contemporary History of Russia

Retrospective exhibition of artist and sculptor Antonio Ligabue (1899-1965), one of the outstanding masters of Italian art of the XX century, was opened in the Museum of Contemporary History of Russia.

 Antonio Ligabue - standing aside from artistic trends and academies, a genius self-taught, endowed with exceptional talent, art critics call him an outstanding expressionist.

The audience will see an impressive selection of paintings by the artist and expressive sculptural works cast in bronze on the originals that were created from the clay of the Po River.

Continuing suffering and pain, being in a psychiatric hospital and outside its walls: art has become an outlet for Antonio Ligabue, a simple and understandable way out, the essence of his existence in the outside world. His life passed between Switzerland and the Padan plain, in communion with the world of animals, which the artist loved with all his heart and which he depicted with the accuracy of the anatomist: it is known that, transferring violent colors to his canvases, plunging into ecstatic state, he roared and howled , imitating the beasts.

From domestic animals depicted in early works, to grinning tigers, terrifying lions, snakes, predators who rush to sacrifice or fight for survival: the fantasy transformed the forests of the Po Valley into a real jungle.

The most painful thing, not letting the artist all his life, is expressed in self-portraits: in them he loudly screams in pain, like a wounded beast, painting allows a tormented soul to find a voice and deliverance. Ligabue's paintings are imbued with anxiety, loneliness, the instinctive struggle for existence, the desire to win a place under the sun, a desperate desire to find love and friendship - something that no man can do without, no matter what era he lives.

January 25, 2018 - March 11, 2018