The Collection
Introduction to the Casamonti Exhibition Itinerary
It is with sincere satisfaction that I inaugurate the Casamonti exhibition itinerary in order to share with the public the most significant passages of a human and professional trajectory traced over the years, and thus testify to the very personal latitude of my dedication to art. The exhibition traces – thus – the path that has marked my human and artistic maturation.
Starting from my youth and letting myself be guided only by the emotions of the moment, I loved and selected works that were special to me. Thus, a rhapsodic exhibition route has taken shape, and now finds its home, in which differences and distances shine through, bearing witness to the mutability of emotions and the human condition. And so we proceed between paintings and sculptures, dialogue between living authors and sacred monsters no longer with us, encounter works from the early 20th century and contemporary works, measure Italian creativity and international inspiration.
The protean nature of the exhibition itinerary allows the public to be offered changing perimeters, ever new suggestions, references in the making.
Naturally, in the editorial process, it was necessary to give the exhibition itinerary an albeit magmatic order. The chosen solution – in fact the only one in any way plausible – is to arrange the works following a chronological thread, grouping them into two sections: the first, from the early 20th century to the 1960s; the second, from the 1960s to the present day.
This articulated visual panorama is made even broader and more seductive by the contribution provided by my family members and the many friends who have cultivated, each according to their own preferences and inclinations, my own passion for art and its saving power. This project has therefore grown and continues to grow thanks to the works that they make available from time to time, with not infrequently surprising effects.
I thought – finding the comfort of all those who participate in it – that I would like to share this project with my beloved Florence, which has always been an emblem of the values that art carries. I am indeed strongly convinced of the educational potential of art, capable of structuring and educating thought, the soul, and the consistency of our living. This Path is our answer to Dostoevsky’s question: yes, beauty sublimated by art can save the world.
From the very first moment, I wanted the Route to take place in an architectural context capable of magnifying the beauty and history of Florence. The piano nobile of Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni is very suitable for this purpose. The building, considered one of the most beautiful and well-known in our city, was built in 1520 by Baccio d’Agnolo and is located in a focal point of the historical centre of Florence, offering from Piazza Santa Trinita the way to Via Tornabuoni. A place that I feel affectively close to, as it was in this very street, in 1981, that I inaugurated my first gallery, which took its name from it. It is my very vivid conviction that this circularity, which on its return defines my history and traces my human and professional path, can represent a drive and a source of inspiration for art lovers, in search of new declinations of beauty and the way to tell about it: this is the objective that the Association will pursue, starting with the exhibition itinerary, cultivating the living language of art.
Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni is called upon to preserve within its ancient walls the silent dialogue between the arts, our history and History.
Roberto Casamonti
The Subjectivity of the Exhibition Itinerary
Due to the lack of homogeneity of the works, epochs, trends and stylistic features, the exhibition itinerary moves along an evanescent, barely perceptible route.
The chronological order (in two sections) constitutes only a faint trace that tries to hold together works that differ profoundly in consistency, subject, inspiration and origin.
However, the absence of a definite ‘artistic-cultural’ guiding thread, replaced by the spark of a personal electrocution (mine and that of my family and friends), gives the public the privilege of exploring the exhibition sequence with their own – very personal – itinerary.