Secessione e Avanguardia. L’arte prima della Grande Guerra 1905 – 1915

The exhibition Secession and Avant-garde. The art before the war 1905 - 1915 explores the fervent time of literary and artistic innovations that enveloped Italian culture immediately before the First World War. A time of political and social contrasts, during which artists questioned the concepts of modernity and avant-garde.

In the twilight of the positivistic mythology of the Belle Epoque, a new generation of young artists arises in open conflict with the established system of official exhibitions, contesting the selection criteria and claiming the autonomy of research and freedom of expression. In various Italian cities, they organized the Exhibitions of the rejected, a first demonstration of opposition.

The Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea has requested to the Massimo and Sonia Cirulli Archive the loan of the 1912 painting by Aroldo Bonzagni, Moti del ventre, first shown in the Exhibition of rejected paintings and sculptures, organized by the same Bonzagni in the halls of Milan’s Caffè Cova to protest against the commission of "X National Exhibition of the Brera Academy" who had refused his "Crucifixion".