Osvaldo Licini. Che un vento di follia totale mi sollevi

Osvaldo Licini: Let Sheer Folly Sweep Me Away
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice 
September 22, 2018–January 14, 2019

Curated by Luca Massimo Barbero 


The exhibition will commemorate the 60th anniversary of Osvaldo Licini’s death (1894–1958). In 1958 Licini exhibited 53 works, dating from 1925 to 1958, at the 29th Venice Biennale, in a gallery designed by Carlo Scarpa. Supported by Peggy Guggenheim’s friend and art critic, Giuseppe Marchiori, he was awarded the Grand Prix for Painting. Licini was a major figure in the development of Italian art in the first half of the 20th century. Following his early figurative works, Licini rejected realism and painted fully abstract works. The exhibition will comprise around 80 paintings that will exemplify Licini’s art, made of colors and signs that he viewed as expressions of energy, willpower, ideas, and magic.