Arturo Tosi. The Fruits of the Earth

The exhibition displays a series of paintings depicting still lifes, where the protagonists are the fruits of the earth. However, to understand the artistic language and profound poetic sensibility that characterise the works of this master of the last century, it was decided to present them together with similar paintings stored in the museum's collections. Such artworks were indeed painted by artists who enjoyed a close friendship with Tosi in professional and human terms, such as Filippo de Pisis, Felice Carena, Ardengo Soffici, Ottone Rosai and Carlo Carrà. This deep bond with the main protagonists of the Italian artistic scene in the first half of the 20th century is amply documented by a dense, unpublished correspondence, which is presented in the exhibition through the display of several letters.

Born in Lombardy, the artist was one of the supporters in the 1920s of the Novecento art movement, which, after the experiments of the avant-garde, particularly the Futurists, directed artists towards a return to order that referred to classical antiquity, purity of form and harmony in compositions. The artists featured in this exhibition with Tosi were undoubtedly influenced by this movement, although interpreted personally in each case.

The selection of Tosi's paintings in the exhibition belongs to the artist's heirs and dates from the 1930s to 1956, the year of his death. Thus, we can admire his still lifes that, unlike those of all his friends and colleagues in the exhibition, seem to be composed only of colour that becomes chromatic matter, applied with great freedom and producing an ever-changing outcome.

The exhibition, like the catalogue published by Sillabe, is curated by Simonella Condemi and Maddalena Winspeare and is promoted by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism with the Regional Secretariat of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism of Tuscany, the former Special Superintendence for the Historical, Artistic and Ethno-anthropological Heritage and the Polo Museale of the city of Florence, the Gallery of Modern Art of Palazzo Pitti, Sillabe and Firenze Musei.