From February 15 to June 29, 2025, thirty years after the last exhibition dedicated to him, Palazzo Reale returns to celebrate the originality of a multifaceted artist like Felice Casorati.
Organized in collaboration with the Casorati Archive, the Milanese exhibition presents the most complete exhibition dedicated to the artist in the city, with a wide and varied selection of masterpieces, capable of highlighting the versatility and creativity of this great artist.
The last exhibition dedicated by Palazzo Reale to Casorati (Novara 1989-Turin 1883) dates back to 1963. Casorati was one of the most important artists of the early twentieth century and an exponent of the current of magical realism. This new retrospective is curated by Giorgina Bertolino, Fernando Mazzocca and Francesco Poli, among the major scholars of the artist.
The exhibition on Casorati places at the centre of the exhibition project the bond between the painter, engraver, set designer and designer and the city of Milan, which he considered strategic for the modern art market and the setting for the most contemporary artistic trends of his time.
Fourteen rooms will chronologically retrace the different phases of Casorati's production, from his Symbolist beginnings to the end of the 1950s. In total, over one hundred works are on display, including paintings, sculptures and sketches for theatrical sets, including those for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Rome Opera and La Scala in Milan, from public and private collections, including the Gam in Turin, the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome, the Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna Ca' Pesaro in Venice, the Mart in Rovereto, the Museo del Novecento in Milan, the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Genoa and the Galleria d'Arte Moderna Forti in Verona.
The works on display include the 'Portrait of his sister Elvira', dating back to 1907, 'The Heiresses' from 1910 and the famous metaphysical triptychs of 'Woman' (1918-19) and 'Girl' (1919) and some works exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1924, such as 'Still Life with Mannequins', 'Portrait of Hena Rigotti', 'Double Portrait' and 'Concert' (1924) and the 'Annunciation' from 1927.
From sculpture to graphics, from drawing to illustrations to a great passion for applied arts and music, Felice Casorati in his long career developed a personal style that, despite crossing the major avant-gardes of the twentieth century, has managed to maintain its own very original stylistic figure. His passion for music has led him to a vast activity as a set and costume designer.
He was one of the longest-lived artists of his time and had the opportunity to experience the birth and development of the avant-garde. His artistic production was initially influenced by symbolism, then by the research of Gustav Klimt and Paul Cézanne, until reaching in the 1920s a production in line with the Return to Order movement in its neo-Renaissance stylistic features.
Casorati is often associated with the movement of magical realism, due to the suspended atmosphere of his works and the reference to the Renaissance figurative tradition of the 14th and 15th centuries.
