After intense learning experiences in the art market field, Franco and Roberta Calarota decided to found the Galleria d'Arte Maggiore in 1978 in Bologna.
The late 70s were critical years of transition for the institutionalized art system and for the Italian private art sector. Lack of a structured circuit of public institutions dedicated to classic modern art and contemporary art corresponded with the profound change of statute for art galleries and private exposition centers. Only in 1974 did the Bolognese museum take the full title of Galleria d'Arte Moderna and in 1978 Pac Milanese re-opened after a lengthy closure starting a new season of art museums. Il Castello di Rivoli waited until 1984 to open and Il Pecci di Prato opened in 1988.
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Alessia, Franco and Roberta Calarota |
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The gallery model that was expanding in the 60s was the gallery of trend, and in some cases was not even tied to primary economic gain. Gallery expanding happened for mundane strategical reasons which made it necessary for a cultural action group to endow the instruments needed for competitive mediation in order to bring together one taste and one official culture. And even more so, the conceptual and objective discontinuity of the new artwork, compared to artwork of the past, suggested a diverse image of collectionist, someone “militant” alongside researchers, who recovered the historical pattern – mythicizing in a way – which was embodied by figures like Peggy Guggenheim in Venice immediately after the war.
The scene of the decade had changed, moreover indicated in 1969 by an exhibition held at the Galleria Civica of Modena, entitled Prima biennale delle gallerie di tendenza italiane. in which Apollinaire, Ariete, Bertesca, de'Foscherari, Fante di Spade, Gabbiano, Modern Art Agency, Notizie, Nuova Pesa, Polena, Salone Annunciata, Schwarz, Sperone, Stein and Marconi all participated.
Additionally, the aggressive quality of art magazines exclusively dedicated to contemporary art, such as “Flash Art” and “Data”, did not have the same rigor or level as the those magazines specialized in classic modern art.
Facing the profound change of the artistic system, the awareness that pushed Franco and Roberta Calarota was the fact that the element which threatened unallowable weakness and which threatened to change color without reason was the activity of documentation, knowledge and high-level economic mediation of classic modern art itself. These structures of classic modern art had not evolved to the same degree of sophistication.
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Alessia, Roberta and Franco Calarota, 2009 |
The premature aging of the historical model for art galleries, which was too often linked to rhetorical characteristics such as evocation in the bourgeois lounge, cultural lighting, outdated framing, and the presentation of artwork as complementary furnishings – prior to presentation for individual worth – risked to drown artistic generations well before their time. These generations were still largely misunderstood despite their extraordinary greatness.
In the same year, 1978, Giorgio De Chirico disappeared as a misunderstood character. According to expert opinion, he had been over reported in the final seasons of controversy. Only in 1979 did the memorable Venetian exhibition of Giuliano Briganti begin to obtain serious balance of the metaphysical. At the high-cultured Pac, Briganti was genially paired with
“Letteratura, arte: miti del '900” by Zeno Birolli and with the fundamental book by Rossana Bossaglia
“Novecento italiano: Storia, Documenti, Iconografia”. The following year was the great exhibition at GAM in Bologna, which extended to culture of the 20s and was curated by Renato Barilli and Franco Solmi. In particular “
Les Réalismes” by Jean Clair in Pompidou, was used to remind the Italian culture of the value of artists like Sironi and contemporaries in a work that was finally European.
