Let’s Enjoy the Collision of Classic and Trendy：Exhibition of Italian Realism Painter Pietro Annigoni 

How impressive is this Italian painting “all-rounder” who is fascinated by Chinese ink painting?

He is one of the most famous Italian artists of the 20th century.

He is the most beloved portrait master by Queen Elizabeth II and well-known across the UK,

He is also Time Magazine’s chef portrait artist, 

He is Pietro Annigoni.

Screengrab via Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum

“‘Staring’-Exhibition of Italian Realism Painter Pietro Annigoni”

just had its grand opening at Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum on April 2nd, 2021.

The exhibition will display 53 of Pietro Annigoni’s works in 5 sections. The creation spanning 50 years has fully demonstrated his pure and colorful artistic career. It is also the second solo exhibition of a Western artist in Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum following Norwegian expressionist master Edward Munch in 2020.

Screengrab via Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum

As one of the few “all-rounders” in art history who is proficient in various painting techniques and makes good use of many painting materials, Pietro Annigoni has fully and comprehensively demonstrated his omnipotence through a variety of themed works Painting skills.

Screengrab via Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum

Realistic painting art has a long-lasting and far-reaching charm. The point of this exhibition is that it shows the “encyclopedia”-style artistic creation techniques of the realist master Annigoni. His lines are loose and flexible, and the characters presented are vivid and powerful.

Screengrab via Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum

When you come to the exhibition, you will see the master’s famous portrait- “Lady with a Pearl Necklace”. The facial expressions in the picture are soft and natural, and the details of the surroundings are rich and harmonious.

Lady with a Pearl Necklace-80*60cm Oil painting on canvas

Screengrab via Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum

There are also a large number of sketches in the exhibition. Among them, the draft portrait of Queen Elizabeth he painted is very precious. The simple outline of the lines makes the queen’s charm and temperament emerge.

Left: “Portrait of Queen Elizabeth” Right: “Queen Elizabeth Portrait Sketch”

Screengrab via Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum

The ancient and complicated oily Tempera painting technique is the most important and brilliant part of Annigon’s creation.

The works curated in this exhibition, “Self-Portrait”, “The Hermit’s Gathering-Anacoletti in the Desert”, and “The Hermit in the Desert” painted by Annigoni with oily Tempera. While succeeding, Annigoni realized: “I found that my works, although not all, are opposed to the current genre, even out of time.”

Self-Portrait-Pietro Annigoni 1910-1988 

Screengrab via Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum

Annigoni believes: “The only new things in my heart that urge me to act are my happiness, my pain, my excitement, and my passion for the life of my world.” “I use my greatest enthusiasm Paying attention to every contemporary art phenomenon in Italy and abroad, and always listening.”

The Hermit’s Gathering-Anacoletti in the Desert-80*100cm 1947 Oily Tempera on Board

Screengrab via Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum

One person, one exhibition, more than 50 groups of works, but almost covers the painting techniques and materials that have nearly disappeared from the early Renaissance until the present, or are still widely popular.

It is worth mentioning that this exhibition will also display his “Indian Sketching” series of works drawn with Chinese ink and wash. This unique technique and material of traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting can be used with ease in his pen, regardless of the level of the picture. The composition, the light and shade changes of the brush strokes all reflect the exquisite skill of the painting “all-rounder”, the painter’s love for painting creation, and the courage and enthusiasm of integrating traditional and contemporary through practice.

Indian Sketching-39*57.5cm 1957 Paper, brush, Chinese ink, and light color

Screengrab via Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum

When you “stare” at Pietro Annigoni’s paintings, a scene or a portrait, quiet and far-reaching, but with a slightly cold atmosphere, is actually “undercurrents”, that is the artist himself. Emotions, intense perceptions, and hidden passions.

The Hermit in the Desert

Screengrab via Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum

In addition, there are many portraits and human body sketches drawn by Annigoni in different periods, all showing Annigoni’s solid modeling ability and realism skills, light, accurate, delicate, elegant, and precise beauty. It is in the same line as his oil paintings.

Portrait of Umberto Gonadanro-60*50cm 1981 Wood oil painting

Screengrab via Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum

What we discover from this pure and ordinary artist lies in his persistence in the inheritance of traditional art, as well as the transmission of public aesthetics, universal value, and spirit of art. At the exhibition, you will feel the most ordinary beauty of realism, the purest emotion and the most authentic depiction, and the life experience of the master. 

Screengrab via Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum

Shanghai Jiushi Art Museum housed in the iconic Bund 27, on the sixth floor of a modern Renaissance-style building. The museum is a comparatively new addition to Shanghai’s art scene, and exhibitions usually revolve around the historical changes of the Bund and Shanghai’s unique haipai culture. 

Screengrab via ELLE DECO