“Il Cielo in una Stanza” (The Sky in a Room) is the first posthumous exhibition on the internationally renowned artist Ettore Spalletti.
Éric de Chassey and Spalletti studio curated the presentation of his works from the 1980s to 2016.
A selection of his paintings and sculptures completely re-imagines the central hall of the national gallery in Rome, turning it into a landscape that takes us directly into the work of Ettore Spalletti.
As soon as we cross the threshold of the great hall, it is as if Ettore takes us by the hand through his works, as if giving us permission to be able to relax and stop to breathe, leaving behind us the traffic, street, cars, and screeching trams of Rome.
Spalletti’s colors – blue, pink, gray – bring a sense of peace.
In this room there is the sky of his land, the color of his sea, and the pink of his sunsets; we can’t help but perceive them.
You feel a sense of gratitude standing before one of his huge monochrome canvases, which are hung in a very unique way, winding around the columns and the vases. Yes, you feel gratitude, because it’s the first time in the exhibition that you can see and feel what the artist felt every day when he came into his studio in Cappelle sul Tavo where everything was about order and harmony.
He is a very unique artist, and his work is very precise.
We find primary, geometric shapes, verging on severe, including ellipses, amphorae.
Though he was solitary in his art career, he loved the work of Giorgio Morandi and was a good friend of Enrico Castellani.
He was in the generation of Arte Povera artists with Giuseppe Penone, , Jannis Kounellis, Luciano Fabro, Emilio Plini, and Enzo Cucchi, who paid careful attention to re-envisioning classical art.
His approach is one of synthesizing and playing with shapes. The ellipsis is at the entrance to the hall, representing the egg of his beloved Piero della Francesca. The blues are those of his angels.
The use of gold leaf edging his canvases takes us into the Renaissance.
The vases are from the past but his touch brings them closer to us, purified yet full of materiality.
His art is timeless as art should be.
National Gallery
October 25 to February 27, 2022
Rome