PRESS RELEASE
HENRAUX COLLECTION 1960-1970
Gallerie d'Italia - Milan, Intesa Sanpaolo Museum
Cortile Ottagono and Giardino d’Alessandro entrance from via Manzoni, 10
From 10 June 2022 to 17 July 2022
Exhibition curated by Edoardo Bonaspetti
IMAGES AT THE LINK:
Milano, 7 June 2022 – From 10 June to 17 July 2022 at the Gallerie d'Italia in Milan, in the Intesa Sanpaolo museum, the Henraux Collection 1960-1970 exhibition opens to the public; this exhibition, curated by Edoardo Bonaspetti, Artistic Director of the Henraux Foundation, is dedicated to the important collection of marble sculptural works, created by the Tuscan marble company.
The exhibition, which takes place in the evocative Cortile Ottagono and in the Giardino d’Alessandro of the Gallerie d'Italia in Milan, presents 7 of the 25 Henraux sculptures of the Intesa Sanpaolo collection. For this occasion, the entire group of sculptures underwent a major and innovative conservation operation. This initiative is just an anticipation of the great exhibition that will be held in Querceta di Seravezza, at the headquarters of the Henraux Foundation, from 25 July to 18 September. Starting with the enhancement of the 7 sculptures of Intesa Sanpaolo, the Milanese exhibition presents documents, archive photos, models and reproductions organised into themed groups, evoking the vital context in which the sculptures were created, the birth of the Henraux collection and the extraordinary example of corporate culture provided by the company. The elements of the exhibition are made of marble - material extracted from the same quarries chosen by the artists at the time for their own sculptures - and they convey the creative processes that lead from the raw material to the work of art, and to a unique and virtuous relationship between nature, culture and industry.
THE ARTISTIC COLLECTION OF THE HENRAUX FOUNDATION
Over more than 200 years of activity, Henraux has been at the forefront of countless projects and collaborations in international visual culture. Founded in 1821 by the former Napoleonic officer Jean Baptiste Alexandre Henraux and by the entrepreneur Marco Borrini from Versilia, the history of the marble company is intertwined with important contributions in the world of art, architecture and restoration.
After World War II, Henraux established an extraordinary relationship with visual arts, under the far-sighted direction of Erminio Cidonio, who in 1956 became the sole director of the company. In an environment shaken by impulses and the need for renewal, Henraux redefined its entrepreneurial and cultural identity, grasping in the Italian dynamism and artistic fervour the opportunities at stake between sculptural experimentation and industrial production. The meeting in 1957 with the British sculptor Henry Moore, who came to Versilia to create the monumental abstract work Reclining Figure for the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, fostered this momentum and helped to give life to a flourishing period of innovation and artistic research. In the space of a few years, Jean (Hans) Arp, Pietro Cascella, Rosalda Gilardi, Émile Gilioli, Jacques Lipchitz, Morice Lipsi, Joan Miró, Isamu Noguchi, Maria Papa Rostkowska, Giò Pomodoro, Antoine Poncet, Branko Ružić, François Stahly, Georges Vantongerloo and many others came to Querceta, a district within the municipality of Seravezza, in the province of Lucca, and made their sculptures using Henraux's workforce and marble, contributing to a wider cultural relaunch of the company and of the surrounding area.
Between the end of the Sixties and the beginning of the Seventies, the vigour of this exceptional experience began to grow weaker due to changes in the business strategies and, shortly after being exhibited in 1972 at the Cortile d’Onore of the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, the collection was dispersed. In 1973, twenty-five works were acquired by the then Banca Commerciale Italiana, under the enlightened chairmanship of Raffaele Mattioli, to subsequently be merged into what is today Intesa Sanpaolo's modern and contemporary art collection.
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USEFUL INFORMATION
HENRAUX COLLECTION 1960-1970 Exhibition
From 10 June 2022 to 17 July 2022
Gallerie d'Italia - Milan
Piazza della Scala, 6 – Milan
Opening hours and admission
Opening hours and admission is shown on the website www.gallerieditalia.com, updated according to the provisions in force
Information
How to visit safely, information and reservations at www.gallerieditalia.com, info@gallerieditalia.com, freephone number 800.167619
About Intesa Sanpaolo
Intesa Sanpaolo is Italy’s leading banking group – serving families, businesses and the real economy – with a significant international presence. Intesa Sanpaolo’s distinctive business model makes it a European leader in Wealth Management, Protection & Advisory, highly focused on digital and fintech. An efficient and resilient Bank, it benefits from its wholly-owned product factories in asset management and insurance. The Group’s strong ESG commitment includes providing €115 billion in impact lending by 2025 to communities and for the green transition, and €500 million in contributions to support people most in need, positioning Intesa Sanpaolo as a world leader in terms of social impact. Intesa Sanpaolo is committed to Net Zero by 2030 for its own emissions and by 2050 for its loan and investment portfolios. An engaged patron of Italian culture, Intesa Sanpaolo has created its own network of museums, the Gallerie d’Italia, to host the bank's artistic heritage and as a venue for prestigious cultural projects.
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Last updated 10 June 2022 at 15:58
