Luigi Veronesi

The Luigi Veronesi exhibition presents the research and graphic design component of the photographic publications in the Liliana Dematteis collection which was donated to the Photographic Collection of the Panizzi Library.
The exhibition explores the many areas of research that the author undertook during his career as painter, illustrator, graphic designer, set designer and photographer between 1936 and the 1950s.
The uniqueness of Luigi Veronesi in Italian and European art lies in his having known how to present painting and photography as complementary rather than conflicting languages in the practice of art. The principal theme of his research was space, a space that was difficult to capture and hence to depict. His ground-breaking research into the Italian art scene overlapped with that of Man Ray, Moholy-Nagy, El Lissitzkij and Rodčenko.
The collection of Liliana Dematteis, comprising photographs, graphical sketches, art books and manuals on photographic and cinematographic technique presented graphically, enables us to fully appreciate the author’s experimental ideas in which light and space together become essential elements for the creation of new images. On show will be approximately 50 abstract photographs, photographic scene sketches, graphic cover designs for “Ferrania” magazine and thirty or so volumes on photography and the language of cinema with graphic design and page proofing by Veronesi.

Luigi Veronesi was born in Milan in 1908.
He completed a course of technical studies, specialising in industrial textile design. At the same time he studied with Professor Violante, a teacher at the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, from whom he learnt painting. In his mid-twenties he became acquainted with Raffaello Giolli, who introduced him to the group of intellectuals involved with “Poligono” magazine.
Meanwhile, influenced by his father’s passion for photography, he experimented with off-camera photogram techniques. It was at this time that he got to know Lazlo Moholy-Nagy and his wide-ranging experimental work in painting, photography and film; from 1936 onwards, Veronesi would acknowledge Moholy-Nagy as his teacher along with El Lissitsky and Kandinsky.
In 1932 Veronesi travelled to Paris for the first time where he became acquainted with Fernand Leger and Georges Vantongerloo. In 1934 he followed the French Abstraction-Creation group and gave his first exhibition of non-figurative wood engravings at the Galleria del Milione in conjunction with Joseph Alberts. Later he participated in the collectives of the abstract Italians (Bogliardi, Fontana, D’Errico, Ghiringhelli, Licini, Melotti, Reggiani and Soldati) who gravitated around that gallery, but distanced himself from them for ideological reasons after the death of Edoardo Persico in 1936.
In 1939 he staged a one-man show at the Galerie L’Equipe in Paris, where he exhibited some paintings done on emulsioned canvas with photograms, tempera and oil. His experiments in photography and photogrammetry led him to use this medium in his set and costume designs for the theatre (he was collaborating at that time with the Teatro di Palcoscenico and produced many sets for the productions of Paolo Grassi, Giorgio Strehler and others). In 1938 he became involved in cinema and from the following year onwards he made several abstract films, some of which he made in colour by hand painting the film.
In 1949 he joined “Mac”, Movimento Arte Concreta, and from that year onwards participated in all the group’s exhibitions. From the 1950s onwards his exhibition activity became very intense, from his first invitation to the Biennale di Venezia in 1954, up until his personal show there in 1986.
Veronesi also had a passionate interest in teaching. As a teacher he was well loved and sought-after, first in Venice at the Corso Superiore di Industrial Design, then at the Accademia di Brera in Milan and finally at the Nuova Accademia in Milan.
Important retrospectives of his work were held at the Palazzo Reale in Milan, the Institut Matildenhohe in Darmstadt, the Sprengel Musem in Hanover, the Museum Bochum and the Stiftung fur konstruktive und konkrete kunst in Zurich.
Veronesi died in Milan in 1998.

Info
Chiostri di San Domenico
Via Dante Alighieri 11 - Reggio Emilia
Tel. 0522 451152, 0522 456249, 0522 456635, 0522 456448
Single ticket for all exhibitions 10€. Concessions 7€

Open Times:
Opening Friday 7th May, 19.00
7th May from 19.00 to 24.00; 8th - 9th May from 10.00 to 23.00
From 10th May to 13rd June: from Tuesdays to Fridays from 20.00 to 23.00; Saturdays, Sundays and festivals from 10.00 to 23.00. Monday closed. Open in the morning for schools.