TRAVEL IN A GARDEN: "Marc Chagall, Ottavio Missoni. Dream and Colour." Sesto Calende, Italy.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

"Marc Chagall, Ottavio Missoni. Dream and Colour." Sesto Calende, Italy.

The exhibition "Marc Chagall, Ottavio Missoni. Dream and Colour." celebrates the work of Ottavio Missoni (1921-2013), fashion designer, and Marc Chagall (1887-1985), painter, at the Archeological Museum in Sesto Calende, a town northwest of Milan on the banks of the Ticino river near Lake Maggiore, not far from Missoni's headquarter in Sumirago.

In 1958, Ottavio Missoni and his wife Rosita presented their first small collection of dresses in Milan, surprising the audience with their use of knitted fabrics and colours. Along the years, they developed their unmistakable combinations of shades, enhanced by the careful choice of yarns, knit stitches and patterns, from the famous zigzags to stripes.

Colours have an immediate, irresistible appeal in the patchwork tapestries on display. They invite to get closer and discover details, textures and depth. Geometric shapes create fascinating complex structures free from subject and story, pure forms.

Tapestries are surrounded by 24 lithographs of "The Story of the Exodus" and by some of the drawings for the "Bible Series" by Marc Chagall. The Russian born painter began his illustration of the Bible in 1931 and, working at different times, completed his work with 105 black and white drawings in 1956. Instead, colour lithographs of the Exodus are dated 1966. The choice to return after ten years to this religious subject was due, in part, to the possibility of using new printing colour techniques.

Chagall used vivid and intense colours to give shape to his memories, dreams and emotions, to his Russian life and Jewish traditions.

Marc Chagall was one of the artists who inspired Ottavio Missoni. Colour is a distinctive element in their works and their dreams are a gift.