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The Menil Collection and the Collezione Ramo present the exhibition “Silent Revolutions: Italian Drawings from the Twentieth Century”

The first major retrospective on Italian Drawings from the Twentieth Century in the United States will be inaugurated tomorrow in Houston, the result of a collaboration between the prestigious “Menil Drawing Institute” of Houston and the “Collezione Ramo” of Milan. The exhibition will be on view at the Menil Drawing Institute through April 11, 2021.

“Silent Revolutions” will feature 70 drawings by Afro, Mirella Bentivoglio, Alighiero Boetti, Giorgio de Chirico, Lucio Fontana, Domenico Gnoli, Jannis Kounellis, Carol Rama, and others. This exhibition is co-organized by Edouard Kopp, Chief Curator, Menil Drawing Institute, and Irina Zucca Alessandrelli, Curator, Collezione Ramo, with the support of the Embassy of Italy to the United States and the Consulate General of Italy in Houston.

Starting with Futurism and throughout the twentieth century, Italy produced a series of highly innovative revolutionary artistic movements, which had a significant international impact. Nowhere was this creative spirit more evident than in the realm of drawing, which gave Italian artists free rein to experiment with a wide range of materials and techniques, allowing them to create new artistic concepts and styles. Drawing was the medium artists used to come to terms with the great themes of history and myths, language and subjectivity, the body, modern cities, space and abstraction.

“The exhibition on Italian Drawings from the Twentieth Century, hosted by the Menil Drawing Institute and in collaboration with the Collezione Ramo, will shed new light on some of the most distinctive movements in Italian art and culture” Ambassador Varricchio noted. “From Futurism to Metaphysical Art, Spatialism to Arte Povera and beyond, this carefully curated exhibition, featuring artists such as Lucio Fontana, Maria Lai and Umberto Boccioni, will enthuse the many viewers and bring them even closer to Italy and its many marvels”.

The works on display from the Collezione Ramo are beautifully showcased in this short video by Virgilio Villoresi, which can be viewed here.