From December 14, 2013
to January 15, 2014
The first edition of this exhibition-sale around Corsican painters and Corsica was held at the gallery in October 2011. The success of this event with collectors and the public, and that of the exhibition devoted to Pierre Bach in 2012, led us to renew the experience. Encouraged by the interest of these many enthusiasts, we continued our search for new pieces around the painting in Corsica. In the winter of 2013, we were able to propose a collective exhibition, which brought together a hundred works from private collections, executed between the second half of the 19th century and the end of the 20th century.
A part of the exhibition was dedicated to Corsican painters, whether they were born there or whether they were, like Pierre Bach, Corsican by adoption. Either because they have always worked in Corsica, or because they have devoted a large part of their production there. Over the two centuries we are dealing with, several generations of artists have chosen to stay on the island or to return there after their training. They are concentrated around two regional poles: Ajaccio and Bastia. But there are also Corsican painters far from their island, in Paris, Marseille or North Africa, who are not isolated from the island's artistic milieu and frequently return to their origins.
The second part of the exhibition focused on the production of painters in Corsica: some are occasional visitors, travelers eager to find a preserved nature, stopping in one of the ports of the island that they will not fail to describe. But more numerous are the artists who stay there regularly, the painters "friends of Corsica". In both cases, their work is not dedicated to Corsica. Other subjects have retained their brushes. They are orientalists, painters of Montmartre or of Provence and have brought on Corsica a new look.
This exhibition was an opportunity to affirm once again our attachment to the island, its beauty and its traditions. The year 2013 had a particular resonance for the city of Marseille, since it was the culmination of a long-prepared project. "Marseille, European Capital of Culture" revealed a city that is resolutely turned towards the sea, a port open to cultural exchanges and attentive to its neighboring shores. We began this year with an exhibition devoted to travel and ended it with a tribute to Corsica. The city has always been, for historical and geographical reasons, the first host of the Corsican diaspora. Many islanders have settled here over the past centuries and even today, the Corsican community is very present. Leaving the private framework of the collections, the Corsican painting of the XIXth and XXth centuries knows a revival of interest near the public. We wished through these exhibitions, to carry to Marseille this impulse, to participate modestly in the rediscovery of the Corsican painting.
Painters presented : Jacques Martin CAPPONI, François CORBELLINI, Léon Charles CANNICCIONI, Dominique FRASSATI, Lucien PERI, Paul CORIZZI, Pierre VELLUTINI, Pierre BACH, Albert GILLIO, José FABRI-CANTI, Louis Ferdinand ANTONI, Olynthe MADRIGALI, Marcel POGGIOLI, Tony CARDELLA, Robert FALCUCCI...
