The Focus Verso l’alto. Gerardo Dottori, marking the 140th anniversary of the artist’s birth, opens on Friday, December 6, at the Galleria Russo Archivi. Curated by Massimo Duranti and Andrea Baffoni, the exhibition aims to shed light on a lesser-known aspect of the artist’s work: retracing, through a collection of drawings, the entire career of Gerardo Dottori, a prominent figure in 20th-century art.
The display of around forty graphic works allows curators Massimo Duranti and Andrea Baffoni to emphasize the centrality of drawing in Dottori’s artistic exploration. The exhibited pieces outline a concise journey through the artist’s creative development, from his training at the Academy of Fine Arts to Aeropainting, showcasing the dynamism that makes him a rare example among the artists of his time.
This journey through Dottori’s drawings begins with works dated 1896, when, as a teenager, he was already mastering composition and draftsmanship in anatomical studies and wall decorations.
The second chapter focuses on human figures, sometimes caricatured, of men and women, particularly self-portraits and portraits of his sister Bianca. The exhibit also features a light-hearted bestiary of farm animals and striking depictions of rural Umbrian architecture.
No exhibition of Dottori would be complete without his written words: these are represented by a rare Parolibera (free-word composition) created during wartime, along with three postcards featuring drawings of his experiences as a soldier at the front, accompanied by short narratives.
Also noteworthy is a small selection of distinctly Futurist drawings with abstract-dynamic forms, such as studies for the central part of the Triptych of Speed and a vertical dynamism of shapes.
The exhibition concludes with several examples of Aeropainting, including a rare sketch for the painting that won the Golfo della Spezia prize, Four Studies for Landscapes, and an ethereal composition of clouds.
Throughout Dottori’s drawings, spontaneity and incisiveness emerge as common denominators: a veritable script of fine, almost intangible linework. This ranges from the classic softness of chiaroscuro and cross-hatching in his early training to the characteristic spiral ductus—spontaneous and decisive—in his Futurist and Aeropainting works.
The exhibition provides a broad and high-quality overview that illustrates the poetic vision of Gerardo Dottori while also bearing witness to the prolific and varied activity of the renowned Futurist and master of Aeropainting.
