Marino Marini, between archaic and modernity

Horses and riders are the best-known subjects of Marino Marini, a painter and sculptor from Pistoia who is considered among the greatest artists of the Italian 20th century: a subject that in the course of his production has become a symbol through which to read reality and narrate the human condition.

A major retrospective exhibition set up in the Cannon Rooms of the Forte di Bard in the Aosta Valley from June to November 2024 – the result of a prestigious collaboration between 24 ORE Cultura, Forte di Bard and the Marino Marini Museum in Florence and curated by Sergio Risaliti, director of the Museo Novecento in Florence – focuses attention on Marini’s main sources of inspiration and recurring themes in his research, presenting the public with as many as 23 sculptures and 39 works on canvas and paper.

An artistic journey suspended between the return of thearchaic and the supremacy of dream and fantasy, which always starts from the figurative element and gradually becomes more expressive until the decomposition of plastic form. A world of horses and horsemen, warriors and ancient gods, jugglers and dancers, in which emerges all the complexity and variety of the artistic genius of Marini, an artist who was able to see in the recovery of a lost and ancestral time the possibility of restoring sacredness to art.

The expressive power of Marino Marini’s works was enhanced by the dialogue with the imposing walls of the Fortress of Bard, a grandiose defensive bastion now transformed into a cultural center-a unique context that made the exhibition a must-see for contemporary art enthusiasts.