22 April – 24 July 2022

Open from 11 am to 7 pm, closed on Wednesday

“Thus ‘the eminent dignity of the arts of fire’ arises from the fact that their products bear the most profoundly human mark, the mark of primitive love. […] The forms created by fire are modeled more than any other, as Paul Valery pointed out so well, “in order to be caressed.”

Gaston Bachelard, “The Psychoanalysis of Fire”, 1937

On Fire is the title of the first exhibition entirely dedicated to the use of fire as a means of artistic creation among the post-war avant-garde movements. The exhibition, curated by Bruno Corà and promoted by the Fondazione Giorgio Cini and Tornabuoni Art, brings together some of the most iconic works either made with fire, or that include the presence of flames.

The exhibition is developed through six sections. These offer the opportunity to discover together for the first time the following artists and their relation with fire: Yves Klein, Alberto Burri, Arman, Jannis Kounellis, Pier Paolo Calzolari and Claudio Parmiggiani.

Naturally fugacious, fire has no shape, weight, or density. It has always been a source of fascination for artists, both for its potential effects on other materials and for its potential active presence in works of art. The post-war avant-garde movements experimented with fire on various materials, thereby exploiting its destructive as well as its generative effects.Thus, in the work of these great artists, fire became not only the sensitive protagonist, but also a medium of innovation within their pictorial and visual language.

Although the artists shared the use of fire, the exhibition focuses on each master, highlighting the different ways in which they employed this element. Fire can be found as an instrument of combustion (Klein, Burri, Arman); as a living presence with its own sensory and sometimes spectacular effects, such as light, heat, and even noise (Klein, Kounellis, Calzolari); and lastly, as a pictorial trace using the smoke obtained through combustion (Calzolari, Parmiggiani).

On Fire gathers 28 works, including several previously unseen or rarely shown masterpieces, thanks to the collaboration with the artists’ foundations and important international private loans. Through these works, the exhibition documents one of the most radical, and at the same time unexplored, revolutions in the visual language of contemporary art.

You cannot go to Venice ? Book a guided video tour !

A team member of Tornabuoni Art will walk you through the exhibition through a private video guided tour.

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