‘Devotion’ (2015), image courtesy of Collezione Maramotti
A recent concert brought me to the opening of an exhibition by Anna Conway at the Collezione Maramotti in the small town of Reggio Emilia. The Maramotti family are the owners of the Max Mara fashion brand, and house their expansive art collection in their former factory, a magnificent Fifties building built with a mixture of Modernist Industrial styles. Most untypically for Emilia-Romagna in early March, it was pouring it down, the town square huddled against the onslaught.
The opening evening commenced with a musical programme of 20th Century music inspired by a Conway’s works, which are simultaneously photo-realistic yet convey a sense of emptiness, playing with scale and proportion to interweave domestic interiors, city- and landscapes.
‘It’s not going to happen like that’ (2013), image courtesy of Collezione Maramotti
‘Perseverance’ (2015), image courtesy of Collezione Maramotti
Operating on the post-Leipzig School principle of the ambiguous space and the ambiguous figure within that space, her protagonists appear exhausted by the demands of 21st Century society. Her landscapes owe a debt to early 20th Century surrealists such as De Chirico and Magritte, their absurd contrasts – battleships on a frozen grass sea, a bathroom sink against a landscape wallpaper, outsize hoardings abutting a kitchen – a calling card for the possibilities of the image. The works’ titles, Devotion, Determination, Perseverance, Potential are derived from motivational posters and through their unlikely subject matter imply a deadpan critique. However, just as one is never sure of Conway’s subjects, this critique too remains ambiguous. Is it a reference to the painterly process, or a form of social commentary?
Achille Maramotti, MaxMara’s founder, began collecting art during the 1960s, and the collection includes Arte Povera, including an impressive early Jannis Kounellis and Mario Merz. The Italian Transavantgardia is also well-represented, as is the 1980s New York painting scene. In addition to the aforementioned Kounellis, stand-out works include Francis Bacon, Huma Bhabha and Peter Halley – well worth a detour from Milan.
‘Determination’ (2015), image courtesy of Collezione Maramotti
‘Potential’ (2015), image courtesy of Collezione Maramotti
“Purpose” is on display at Collezione Maramotti until 31 July 2016