Leoncillo

This is the catalog of the exhibit held in Florence from 3rd December 2021 until 5th June 2022. Conceived as a real ‘solo’, the exhibition is the first in an Italian museum dedicated to investigating the deep relationships that Leoncillo had with the ancient, archaic and classical, as well as with the great masters of the Renaissance and Baroque, throughout its thirty years of activity (1938-1968). The collaboration with other Florentine museums and institutions is consolidated: one of Leoncillo’s most famous works is, in fact, exhibited at the National Archaeological Museum of Florence to underline the continuity of a fruitful dialogue between contemporary art and the past, in this case with the artistic expression of the ancient Etruscans, whose creations impressed Leoncillo with their profound understanding of human feelings suspended between love and death, life and afterlife. The printed works (sculptures, panels and papers) highlight the continuity of gaze that runs through the entire work, beyond the more traditional classifications based solely on stylistic criteria: in fact, from the hybrid and monstrous beings of 1939 until the last and celebrated decade in which the experience of matter triumphs, through the neocubist season (1946-1955).