At the Russo Gallery an exhibition paying tribute to one of the most original exponents of the Futurist movement. Painter, sculptor, photographer, fashion designer, draftsman, architect, inventor and goldsmith: Thayaht, born Ernesto Michahelles, was an eclectic and innovator, an experimental forerunner of new artistic sensibilities.
The exhibition, premiered at ArteFiera Bologna from January 27 to 30, 2017, is curated by Daniela Fonti with advice from the Seeber Michahelles Archive and with the Association for the patronage and promotion of the figure and work of Ernesto and Ruggero Alfredo Michahelles and testifies to the multifaceted richness of the artist’s creative itinerary, which moves between Decó taste and Futurist avant-garde, thanks to the presence of about two hundred works including sculptures, drawings and paintings ranging from 1913 to 1940. A true “global artist,” Thayaht in fact ventured into multiple fields of operation, from painting to sculpture, from fashion to applied arts, from set design to graphic illustration and advertising, from goldsmithing to furniture. All of his work, however, is distinguished by synthetic lines and forms, which through precise geometries express an exquisite elegance. On display are drawings, plans, paintings and some of his most celebrated sculptures, such as the Bautta, the Violinist, the Sentinel, the Flutist, the Tennis Player, and the Fishes, along with the
scenic Dive, made for the 1932 Venice Biennale. In the variety of works on display
the exhibition thus reconstructs Thayaht’s eccentric and complex personality in the artistic world of the twentieth century.
In the catalog (Manfredi Edizioni) critical texts by Daniela Fonti, Elisabetta Seeber and Carla Cerutti.
