The Italian Ambassador in Oslo, Stefano Nicoletti, attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the exhibition titled “Piranesi and the Modern” set up at the National Museum in the Norwegian capital.
The exhibition analyses the influence that the visionary 18th century architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi had on defining the idea of modernity in a range of artistic disciplines through the 20th and 21st centuries. Innovations in fields such as abstract painting, film editing, and strong contrasts in photography all owe their art to this Italian artist.
Even if Piranesi is best known for his lithographic portrayals of Rome, the exhibition focuses on his lithographs of imaginary architecture contained in his Prigioni immaginarie (Imaginary Prisons, 1761) and the Campo Marzio plan of Rome (1762), which highlight how artists, architects, filmmakers, and writers of the 20th and 21st centuries have drawn inspiration from his labyrinthic passageways and infinite spaces. In addition to Piranesi’s lithographs, the exhibition also displays works by Pablo Picasso, Robert Delaunay, Ragnhild Keyser, Alvin Coburn, Sergei Eisenstein, Le Corbusier, Rem Koolhaas, Julie Mehretu.
At the event, Ambassador Nicoletti thanked the National Museum of Norway for dedicating one its first exhibition to the Italian artist.
