Giorgio Morandi – Time Suspended II is among the largest and most significant exhibitions devoted to the artist in the United States in 20 years. Curated by Marilena Pasquali – founder and director of the Giorgio Morandi Study Center, Bologna – and Mattia De Luca, the exhibition brings together approximately 60 works from across Morandi’s career on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the artist’s death.
The exhibition is the second part of a project presented for the first time by the Galleria Mattia De Luca in 2022 in Rome and expanded in 2024 by the New York exhibition, through the careful selection of works from prestigious private and museum collections around the world to reflect the breadth and depth of Morandi’s life and oeuvre.
With paintings and works on paper dating between 1913 and 1964, the exhibition includes the artist’s signature still life arrangements, as well as landscapes and flower paintings, and feature a number of examples that have never before been shown in New York.
The presentation – installed in an historic townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side – takes place in a contemplative space in keeping with the environment in which the works were originally created, and as with the Rome exhibition, the New York show will be accompanied by the publication of a catalog by Allemandi Editore.
Born in Bologna in 1890, Morandi lived a quiet life, rarely traveling outside of Italy and preferring the solitude of his home and studio. A towering figure of 20th century art, Morandi lived through two world wars and there is no question that the weight of conflict and disorder impacted his life and work. His search for mental order and harmony of form is clearly reflected in his instantly recognizable still life arrangements where he transforms doubt and chaos into a period of waiting – suspending time and judgement to avoid the realities of the era.
While Morandi largely remained in Italy, his work was exhibited internationally and widely admired both during and after his lifetime. His legacy is preserved in institutional collections around the world – from The White House and the Museum of Modern Art, New York to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice and the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. His aesthetic has permeated all aspects of the cultural realm, with paintings appearing in celebrated films including Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita and artists including John Baldessari, Frank Gehry, Vija Celmins, Edmund de Waal, Wayne Thiebaud, Zeng Fanzhi and Robert Irwin, among others, citing his inspiration.
His influence can be seen in the distinguished and varied ownership histories of many of the works in this exhibition – from works previously owned by Robert Rauschenberg, the legendary Italian director Vittorio De Sica, and noted dealer Curt Valentin, and a painting that was shown at the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1957 when Morandi beat out Jackson Pollock and Marc Chagall for the grand prize for painting by a jury led by MoMA Director of Alfred Barr, to a work that has been cherished in the same family since it was acquired directly from the artist in 1947.
Giorgio Morandi – Time Suspended II aims to enhance the figure of Morandi as a man and artist firmly anchored to the 20th century: a man who lived through two world wars and felt the weight of disillusionment, the loss of references, the defeat of all beliefs. To stem the drift of the human, the painter seeks a mental order, a harmony of form, a matter that becomes light, without however erasing the thrill of doubt that is found in each of his images, transformed into waiting and suspension.
