Books

Starting this month, Stefano Peccatori takes over as President & CEO of the U.S. publisher Rizzoli International Publications, a market leader in the illustrated books segment, and of Rizzoli Bookstores, which heads one of New York’s most prestigious bookstores.

Peccatori, who has served in the Mondadori Group for 30 years now, in his new position – together with his role as General Manager of Piemme, Sperling & Kupfer and Mondadori Electa reporting to Mondadori Libri CEO Enrico Selva Coddè – will be in charge of the publishing, commercial, financial and administrative units of the two Mondadori Group companies operating in the United States under the Rizzoli, Rizzoli New York, Rizzoli Electa, and Universe brands, and through the Rizzoli Bookstore bookshop.

Concurrently, Marco Ausenda, who has led Rizzoli International Publications and Rizzoli Bookstores since 2002, becomes Chairman of the Board of Directors.

At 31 December 2021, consolidated revenue of the two companies was over $ 55 million, a remarkable performance indeed against the challenging backdrop of the U.S. market.

Rizzoli New York opened its eponymous flagship bookstore in 1964 on Fifth Avenue and began publishing in 1974, becoming an award-winning world leader in fashion, interior design, cuisine, art, architecture and photography. The Rizzoli Universe Publishing brand was launched in 1990, enabling Rizzoli’s entry into the pop culture world of humour, beauty, sports, performing arts and LGBTQ issues with highly successful programming. In 2016, Rizzoli International Publications was acquired by the Mondadori Group. 2018 saw the birth of the new Rizzoli Electa brand, with further boosted the publishing house’s production and publication of art catalogues in English and for the organization of international exhibitions.

Spare, the autobiography of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, published by Penguin Random House and for Mondadori, in Italy, is being released worldwide today, January 10, 2023.

 From the very first pages, Spare takes readers back to one of the most poignant images of the twentieth century: two little boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin under the entire world’s pained and horrified eyes. As the funeral of Diana was being celebrated, billions of people wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry were thinking or feeling, but also how their lives would move forward from there.

Now, at last, Harry tells his story.

“The Heir and Backup: such definition was neither a judgement nor ambiguous. I was the shadow, the second in line, the plan B… I was summoned as a backup, a distraction, a diversion and, whenever necessary, a spare part. … All of this had been made clear to me since I can remember and reaffirmed periodically ever since.”

Before losing his mother, the then 12-year old Prince Harry was regarded as the cheerful and carefree Backup of the more serious Heir to the throne. However, that time of mourning changed everything. Harry began having issues at school and found himself struggling against his own anger and solitude. Moreover, since he blamed the press for his mother’s death, he had a hard time accepting life under the spotlight.

At twenty, he joined the British Army. Discipline gave him stability, and two missions turned him into a hero at home. However, he soon found himself more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and crippling panic attacks. But most of all, he was unable to find true love.

Then, he met Meghan. The world was captivated by that novel-like story and rejoiced in their fairy tale wedding. Yet, Harry and Meghan were pursued by the press since the very beginning, struck with numerous insults, racist comments and lies. Seeing his wife suffer, and fearing for their safety and sanity, Harry found himself forced to flee the country in an attempt to prevent history from tragically repeating itself. Few have dared to leave the royal family over the centuries. His mother had been the last to do so…

For the first time, Prince Harry tells his story, an account of his journey reported with unquestionable truth. Spare is an exceptional book full of particulars, revelations and intimate details emphasised by the awareness – conquered at a great price – that love always prevails over pain.

Prince Harry intends to support a certain number of British charities with the profits of Spare. The Duke of Sussex has donated 1,500,000 dollars to Sentebale, an organisation he set up with Prince Seeiso in memory of their mothers and which supports the vulnerable children and youngsters suffering from HIV/AIDS in Lesotho and Botswana. The prince will also donate 300,000 pounds to WellChild, a no-profit organisation he has supported for fifteen years as a royal and which provides home care to children and youngsters with complex health needs whenever possible.

The English versions of Spare will be published in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa by Random House, a division of Penguin Random House UK, and by Random House Canada in Canada. The book will also be translated and published in 15 other languages: Spanish, Plaza & Janés/Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial; German, Penguin Verlag/Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe GmbH; Brazilian Portuguese, Objetiva/Grupo Companhia das Letras; European Portuguese, Objectiva/Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial; simplified Chinese, Penguin Random House China; Danish, Politikens Forlag; Dutch, Hollands Diep, a division of Overamstel; Finnish, Otava Publishing Company Ltd.; French, Éditions Fayard; Greek, Pedio Books; Hungarian, Corvina Books; Italian, Mondadori; Polish, Wydawnictwo Marginesy; Romanian, Nemira Publishing House; Swedish, Albert Bonniers Förlag.

 # # #

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, is a husband, father, human rights activist, military veteran, mental health advocate and environmentalist. He lives in Santa Barbara, California, with his family and three dogs.

Prince Harry

Spare

Mondadori.

January 10, 2023

Hardcover, 540 pages, € 25,00

You can find it here.

Cover credits

Cover design: Christopher Brand

Cover photo: Ramona Rosales

Spare, the memoir of Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, is to be published simultaneously around the world on 10 January 2023. The book, whose cover photo has already been revealed, will be published in Italy by Mondadori, in paper and digital formats. It will be released in a total of 16 languages around the world.

From the opening pages, Spare takes the reader back to one of the most poignant images of the twentieth century: two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow and horror. As the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, took place, billions of people wondered what the princes must be thinking and feeling, and how their lives would move forward from there.

Now at last Harry tells his story.

With its raw, unflinching honesty, Spare is a landmark publication. Full of insights and revelations, the book is the result of profound self-examination and the awareness – achieved at great personal cost – that love always triumphs over grief.

Prince Harry wishes to support a number of British charities with donations from the proceeds of Spare. The Duke of Sussex has already donated 1,500,000 dollars to Sentebale, an organisation he set up with Prince Seeiso in memory of their mothers, which supports vulnerable children and young people in Lesotho and Botswana affected by HIV/Aids. The prince will also donate 300,000 pounds to WellChild, a no-profit organisation of which he has been patron for fifteen years, which makes it possible for children and young people with complex health needs to be cared for at home, wherever possible.

Readers can find information about the book on the Mondadori website: https://www.mondadori.it/libri/spare-il-minore-prince-harry/
The English-language editions of Spare will be published in North America by Random House U.S. and Random House Canada; in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa by Transworld, a division of Penguin Random House UK; in Canada by Random House Canada. The book will also be translated and published in 14 other languages: SPANISH Plaza & Janés/Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, GERMAN Penguin Verlag/Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe GmbH, BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE Objetiva/Grupo Companhia das Letras, EUROPEAN PORTUGUESE Objectiva/Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, SIMPLIFIED CHINESE Penguin Random House China, DANISH Politikens Forlag, DUTCH Hollands Diep, a division of Overamstel, FINNISH Otava Publishing Company Ltd., FRENCH Éditions Fayard, GREEK Pedio Books, HUNGARIAN Corvina Books, POLISH Wydawnictwo Marginesy, ROMANIAN Nemira Publishing House, SWEDISH Albert Bonniers Förlag.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, is a husband, father, human rights activist, military veteran, a mental health campaigner and an environmentalist. He lives in Santa Barbara, California, with his family and three dogs.

Prince Harry
Spare
Mondadori
10 January 2023
Hardcover, euro 25,00

A partnership with the historical archives of Italy’s most prominent companies has produced “Posters by major Italian companies”, a special publishing initiative by the Mondadori Group for collectors of timeless treasures of the art of advertising.

The initiative involves a number of Italy’s biggest and best-known historic brands – Barilla, Manetti & Roberts, Martini, Pavesi, Pirelli, Olivetti, Ducati, Fabbri 1905, Voiello – bringing back ten unique vintage advertising posters of great artistic and cultural value that made their mark on the advertising scene between the Thirties and the Nineties.

Starting this week, selected points of sale will offer fans of vintage collectors’ items a limited edition of the first five items in the series:

• “Notte di Stelline” (“Starry Nights”), a poster from the historic wall calendar designed by Adolfo Busi in 1931 for Barilla, the company founded by Pietro Barilla 145 years ago. In the illustration, chubby, lively children play with pasta of different shapes, demonstrating that pasta is good for you and gives you lots of energy, in an indirect response to the Manifesto of Futurist Cooking and its call to abolish pasta.
• “Venere moderna” (“Modern Venus”), an iconic advertising poster published by Manetti & Roberts. Designed in the Thirties by an artist from Puglia, Gino Boccasile, it is inspired by the maternal elegance of the archetypal figure of woman at the time, portraying a child playfully sprinkling the “Modern Venus” with talcum powder.
• “Jockey”, a work Martini commissioned of French painter Jean Droit in 1948. With a great focus on detail and bold expressive power, Jockey metaphorically recalls a horse race in which jockeys ride vermouth bottles: the Martini bottle is in the lead, while the other two lag behind in the background.
• “Bambino con i Pavesini” (“Baby with Pavesini biscuits”), designed by Gian Carlo Rossetti in 1961, brings back the timeless image of the Pavesini baby, a representation that was repeatedly brought back and updated over the years to suggest that Pavesini biscuits are nutritious and appropriate for even the smallest children.
• “Pirelli BELTED tyre”, a 1961 advertising poster designed for Pirelli by Riccardo Manzi. The artist designed book covers and advertisements in his humorous style, bringing a note of colour and merriment to the graphics in this poster popularising an essential product: reinforced tyres guaranteeing perfect safety at the wheel, paradoxically and ironically suggesting they are safe even if the driver can’t see properly.

The second limited edition collection will be available at selected points of sale starting on 17 November:

• “Vera pasta all’uovo” (“Real egg pasta”), an illustration depicting the emblematic Cubist chicken in support of the quality of Barilla pasta, produced in 1954 by Erberto Carboni, the great graphic artist and coordinator of the company’s image. The poster is a true homage to the quality of raw materials.
• “Tetractys”, an advertising poster created in 1956 by Giovanni Pintori, the designer whose original graphic works made Olivetti products known and recognised the world over. The tree-like portrayal of Tetractys underlines the proliferative potential of the Olivetti computer.
• Ducati 916, a true work of art in motion created in 1993 by designer Massimo Tamburini, incarnates the essential values of Ducati: Style, Sophistication and Performance. Probably the most iconic of all the motorcycle manufacturer’s models, the Ducati 916 offers an all-new synthesis of technology and design; its tempered headlights, in the middle of the poster, mesmerised the world in the Nineties.
• “Brezza che ristora” (“Refreshing breeze”), an advertising poster from the Forties for Amarena Fabbri (Fabbri 1905): an invitation to face the summer heat with Fabbri, renowned for its historic ties with the world of advertising – with Carosello and Fabbri telling the story of “a painter a week – Renato Gottuso” – and the world of art, with the Fabbri Award for Art.
• The print by Voiello – main sponsor of “Procida Italian Cultural Capital 2022” – dates back to the second decade of the twentieth century. The unknown artist offers an allegorical representation of Mediterranean identity and the city of Naples – underlining the company’s ties with the area – conveying a message about the Italian identity and quality of the ingredients and the production process.

The posters – available at the news-stand in specially designed display units emphasising their unique qualities – are sold with an exclusive booklet providing information in which collectors can find out all about the history of the product, the artists, the companies and much more.

The ten advertising posters are available in the best news-stands and supermarkets at a price of € 8.90 each.

The “Pisanello. The World’s Tumult” exhibition opens in Mantua.  An exhibition created to mark the 50th anniversary of the exhibition curated by Giovanni Paccagnini, where one of the most important acquisitions in the field of art history in the twentieth century was presented: the discovery in the rooms of the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua of the Arthurian cycle painted using mixed techniques around 1430-1433 by Antonio Pisano, known as Pisanello.

The exhibition, produced and promoted by the Mantua Palazzo Ducale, is part of a wide-ranging, long-term programme to promote the work and the Sala dedicated to the artist, together with the adjacent Sala dei Papi. In fact, the layout of the entire room (9.50 × 17.50 m [31.16 × 57.41 ft]; 3 walls out of 4 have also revealed the frescoed sinopie; 100 square metres between the frescoes and sinopie) was permanently remodelled to make better use of an exceptional discovery for Italian artistic heritage.

Thanks to a new lighting system, the project completely restores clarity to the paintings, which were pulled out and relocated over fifty years ago. Instead of the natural diffused lighting from before, warm lighting is now aimed at Pisanello’s wall paintings, bringing out the reflections of the golden inserts and the painting’s magnificent details. In addition, a raised platform allows the visitor to appreciate the paintings at the correct distance calculated by the artist as, until now, the guided tour path was 110 cm [43,30 inch] lower due to subsequent changes to the room.

So, there is now a “new” tour path, enhanced by additional equipment, which allows the public to rediscover the richly-detailed work from the “correct” point of view, as described by Pisanello, as well as its curving lines and the artist’s extraordinary meticulous touch.

The permanent work in the Sala del Pisanello is supported by the work of the Politecnico di Milano, the regional campus of Mantua, under the supervision of Eduardo Souto de Moura; the temporary part of the exhibition is designed by Archiplan Studio which has also been in charge of providing all the artworks.

“Pisanello. The World’s Tumult”, curated by Stefano L’Occaso, is an exhibition that involves two large adjacent, connecting rooms on the main floor, the Sala del Pisanello and the adjacent Sala dei Papi, in addition to the rooms on the ground floor, set up to exhibit an overview of Late Gothic culture in Mantua, displaying an excellent selection of paintings, sculptures and miniatures.

The Sala del Pisanello is dedicated to the cycle of paintings linked to the preparatory drawings, the wall paintings and the sinopie exhibited. The Sala dei Papi is permanently set up with historical photos, the material traces of a special removal operation, some currently unexposed sinopie and everything that can describe the technique in Pisanello’s paintings, their discovery, the aforementioned exhibition in 1972 and the restoration work from the 1960s to today.

An interactive multimedia system completes the exhibition. It’s possible to view all the details of the Arthurian cycle at a magnification never seen before via a touchscreen monitor, and navigate an accurate three-dimensional reconstruction of the Sala del Pisanello created by the 3D designer Matteo Morelli when it was still called the Sala dei Principi, or at a point in time prior to the work that led to the discovery of the cycle.

Finally, in the rooms of the Appartamento di Santa Croce on the ground floor, suitably shielded from outside light, there are works from about the year 1400 to the middle of the 15th century that show and give an overview of the panorama of contemporary artistic culture in Mantua. These include the Dalle Masegne statues that now decorate the cathedral; the works of Stefano da Verona, another leading figure in the age of Pisanello; the illuminated manuscripts that show the development of the Gonzaga family’s tastes, a development that leads to the example of the missal of Barbara di Brandenburgo, started by Belbello da Pavia and finished by Girolamo da Cremona, in a richly Renaissance style.

Works by Pisanello that are not directly linked to the Arthurian cycle also find a home in this room.

The exhibition includes about 30 works, including international loans such as Pisanello’s masterpieces like the Virgin and Child with Saint Anthony and Saint George from the National Gallery of London, in Italy for the first time since its “departure” in 1862, and the paintings in the Louvre Museum in Paris. There’s also the Adoration of the Magi by Stefano da Verona from the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan and, last but not least, the precious Madonna of the Quail, one of Pisanello’s juvenilia, considered to be one of the symbolic works of the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona, also available by virtue of an existing promotion agreement between the two Museums based on the artistic relations between Verona and Mantua.

Among the contributors supporting both the exhibition being undertaken and continued, we must highlight the Banca Agricola Mantovana Foundation. For many years it has offered its support to the initiatives promoted by the Palazzo Ducale, contributing to the promotion of the national artistic heritage and the dissemination of art and culture in the Mantuan community.

The exhibition comes with a brochure published by Electa and will be open until 8 January 2023.

From 6 October 2022 to 22 January 2023 the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa presents the grand exhibition “Rubens in Genoa” dedicated to Pietro Paolo Rubens (1577–1640) and his relationship with the city. The exhibition was produced by the City of Genoa with the Palazzo Ducale Cultural Foundation and our publishing house, Electa, and thanks to the support and participation of the sole sponsor, Rimorchiatori Riuniti S.p.A.

The curator is Nils Büttner, professor at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart as well as Chairman of the Centrum Rubenianum in Antwerp, and Anna Orlando, a Genoese independent scholar and co-curator of the exhibition “The Age of Rubens” held at the Palazzo Ducale in 2004.

Sixteen sections of the exhibition are set up in the rooms of the Sale dell’Appartamento of the Palazzo Ducale on the main floor of the building. Paintings, drawings, tapestries, furnishings, precious accessories and antique books are also exhibited together. There are over a hundred works, demonstrating the greatness of an artistic capital visited by one of the greatest artists of all time. It’s a selection that affirms the name of Superba that was given to Genoa, where Rubens stayed several times between 1600 and 1607. It’s also a selection that allows us to retrace and, in many cases, to reconstruct the relationship with the Genoese patrician, one which continued even after the master’s return to Antwerp.

Thirty works attributed to the Rubensian oeuvre: eighteen autograph works, together with paintings that definitely left the painter’s workshop under his supervision and with direct work by him, in addition to two priceless accounts of lost works known through subsequent works. It’s a significant collection, the likes of which hasn’t been seen in Genoa — a city that still houses works by Rubens in churches, museums and private collections to this day — since the eighteenth century. In addition, an extraordinary selection of 80 works rounds out the story of the cultural and artistic context of the Ligurian city in its heyday. During his trip to Italy (1600–1608), Rubens definitely saw and studied Tintoretto and Luca Cambiaso. During his stay, and specifically in Genoa, he met Sofonisba Anguissola, Giovanni Battista Paggi and Bernardo Castello; and collaborated with Jan Wildens and Frans Snyders. All these artists are exhibited.

Fifteen never before exhibited Rubensian works appear in Genoa and ten for the first time in Italy. Two examples of the latter. The first, a self-portrait from 1604–1605, from a private collection. Recently rediscovered, it is an oil study in preparation for a self-portrait that Rubens included in a now lost Mantuan altarpiece. The second, Saint Sebastian Healed by Angels, circa 1615, from a private collection, is now traced to the commission by the famous condottiero, Ambrogio Spinola, thanks to a recent and important documentary discovery. Never exhibited fully, The Resurrected Christ Appearing to His Mother (with a figure from an underlying composition), circa 1612–1616. This painting, from a private collection, depicts the risen Christ standing in front of two kneeling women. Both female figures represent the Mother of Jesus. A recent X-ray revealed the presence of a second female image beneath the painting’s surface, which is compositionally similar, but iconographically different. Both figures are now visible. At this event the studies and comparisons with the well-known Rubensian iconography will be exhibited. Among the new additions are two splendid portraits: Violante Maria Spinola Serra, circa 1607, from Buscot Park (Oxfordshire-The Faringdon Trust) and Geronima Spinola with her granddaughter Maria Giovanna Serra, circa 1605–1606, from Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie. These absolute masterpieces of European Baroque portraiture are both exhibited for the first time with their identities rediscovered.

Museums in Italy and abroad, as well as private collectors, have granted special loans in recognition of a project based on long years of studies and scientific research by the curators, and motivated by the support of a prestigious international honorary scientific committee, composed of the top experts in the field. It’s not only thanks to the research to prepare the exhibition, but also due to the rediscovery of a painting by Rubens that had been lost for two centuries, and which was definitely present in Genoa in the seventeenth century. At this event it is submitted to the scrutiny of international scholars who have never seen it before to prove its attribution. The work itself is a study for the altarpiece, The Miracles of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, still in the Chiesa del Gesù church in Genoa.

These and many other new additions are presented to the public in an exhibition on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the publication of the book, Palazzi di Genova, by Pietro Paolo Rubens, printed in Antwerp in 1622. It is an anniversary celebrated in the first room, where two original copies are exhibited, including a rare copy of the first edition, without subsequent additions.

Three books have been published by Electa on the occasion of the exhibition, curated by Anna Orlando: the brochure, also curated by Nils Büttner, presents all the new additions that have come about due to the new research and important updates that resulted from preparing the exhibition; the guide to the exhibition, an easy tool to follow the guided tour; the guide, In Genoa with Rubens, that accompanies the Rubensian tour to discover the masterpieces in the Genoese palaces and in the churches that Rubens definitely visited. For the occasion, Abscondita has published Palazzi di Genova, edited by Anna Orlando. The book contains tables, plans and sections of the buildings selected by Rubens. There’s abundant material to account for not only the complexity, but also the features and comforts of Genoese homes.

The Palazzo Ducale exhibition event has enabled a great project to be created: “Genova per Rubens. A Network“, imagined and curated by Anna Orlando. Indeed, it’s the most important cultural network ever initiated in Genoa centring on a single artist. More than sixty public and private companies are involved in this project dedicated to Rubens and his special relationship with the city. It is an extensive network of collaborations that has made it possible to create introductory talks, cultural events, special openings, side events and further exhibition projects.

“Rubens in Genoa” will be open until 22 January 2023. For information and tickets: palazzoducale.genova.it and www.ticketone.it.

After announcing the appearance of the master, Norihiro Yagi – author of Ariadne in the blue sky and Claymore – Star Comics and Lucca Comics & Games revealed two other important international guests during the press conference for the 2022 festival that are linked to the massive Knights of the Zodiac – Saint Seiya fictional universe.

At Lucca we’ll be joined from neighbouring France by writer Arnaud Dollen and illustrator Jérôme Alquié, authors of the official Knights of the Zodiac – Saint Seiya spin-off that was announced during Lucca Comics & Games’ official 2022 press conference.

The series, entitled Knights of the Zodiac – Saint Seiya: Time Odissey, will consist of 5 volumes that will be released by the Star label.

The master, Kurumada, personally supervised the project, which has an art style very close to the anime, and gave fans a personal message that can be read in the first issue.

The 5 volumes will be available in a 21 x 28 cm hardback format. Additionally, each of them will also be available in a collector’s edition​, with volumes measuring 25.5 x 33.8 cm, containing unpublished extra material and exclusive content. Both the Regular and Collector’s Edition of the first album will be available from 28 October in comic stores, bookstores, online stores and, of course, at Lucca Comics & Games.

Jérôme Alquié and Arnaud Dollen will be at Lucca Comics & Games from 29 to 31 October. Events that are open to the public that they will be participating in will be announced soon.

From the dawn of time, the gods of Olympus have fought for control of the Earth. Against them stands the goddess Athena, aided by her knights! When a new opponent enters the scene, the Knights’ very future is at stake. Can Ikki, the Phoenix Bronze Knight, unravel the threads of destiny?

Jérôme Alquié

The French illustrator and colourist was born in 1975 and got his start illustrating artbooks for Japanese anime in the ‘80s. A big fan of Saint Seiya, he’s created numerous illustrations over the years, and helped create the trailer for Saint Seiya – The Hades in 2001. In 2003, he made studies for statues of Captain Future and Captain Harlock. In 2011, he formed an artistic partnership with Arnaud Dollen with the series The Supernaturals (Delcourt). In 2019, the Captain Harlock comic mini-series, written by Dollen, started being published with Kana. At the same time, the two were working on creating Saint Seiya Time Odyssey.

Arnaud Dollen

Aerospace engineer, novelist and comic book writer. He began collaborating with Jérôme Alquié in 2002, creating the fantasy novel, The Ring of Seven. After the Supernaturals​​series (Delcourt), he created the recent ​Saint Seiya Time Odyssey, again in partnership with Alquié. He currently works as the lead author on the Cross the Ages project (www.crosstheages.com).

The first retrospective in Italy dedicated to Max Ernst (1891–1976), the German – later American and French – painter, sculptor, poet and art theorist, opens in Milan on 4 October 2022. The exhibition, promoted and produced by the City of Milan – Culture and by Palazzo Reale with Electa, in collaboration with Madeinart, is curated by Martina Mazzotta and Jürgen Pech.

There are over 400 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, collages, photographs, jewellery and illustrated books from museums, foundations and private collections, in Italy and abroad. These include the GAM in Turin, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the Museum of Ca’ Pesaro in Venice, the Tate Gallery in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Cantini Museum in Marseille, the State Museums and the Arp Foundation in Berlin, the Beyeler Foundation in Basel, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid.

The long period of study and research carried out by the curators has made it possible to include among the loans about eighty paintings, works and documents that had not been exhibited to the public for several decades. 

The breadth of themes and experiments in Ernst’s work spans over seventy years of 20th century history, between Europe and the United States, constantly eluding any definition. Pictor doctus, profound connoisseur and visionary interpreter of the history of art, philosophy, science and alchemy, Max Ernst is presented through this project as a humanist in the neo-Renaissance sense of the word. If André Chastel claimed to find in Ernst a sort of “reincarnation of those Rhenish authors of Bosch-type devilishness”, Marcel Duchamp found “a comprehensive inventory of the different eras of Surrealism”.

On the main floor of the Palazzo Reale visitors can immerse themselves in a fascinating tour that traces the artist’s adventurous creative path, marked by the great historical events of the twentieth century and filled with great loves, as well as illustrious friendships. The tour recounts events from Ernst’s life, grouping them into 4 main periods, in turn divided into 9 themed rooms that reveal interdisciplinary approaches to his art.

It’s a large, idealised library, that of the artist’s, composed of illustrated books, study manuals, photographs, objects and documents, winding through the entire tour of the exhibition, inviting visitors to engage in games to find the references and similarities between the sources of inspiration and the works themselves.

Like a great cabinet of curiosities, and analogous to Max Ernst’s universe, the exhibition and the companion book challenge visitors to discover fascinating games of perception that are at times marvellous, others astonishing, where logic and formal harmony are combined with unfathomable mysteries, where works, techniques and constellations of symbols lead us beyond painting.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a brochure published by Electa, a guide and a new edition, also by Electa, of two fundamental works by Paola Dècina Lombardi on the surrealist movement: Surrealism 1919–1969. Rebellion and Imagination and Women, Freedom, Love. A Surrealism Anthology.

“Max Ernst” will be open from 4/10/2022 until 26/02/2023. For information and tickets: www.maxernstmilano.it, www.electa.it and www.palazzorealemilano.it

The exhibition devoted to Fortunato Depero (Fondo 1892 – Rovereto 1960), an ingenious creator of theorized futurist aesthetics in the Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe manifesto signed with Giacomo Balla, in 1915, opened to the public on September 7 2022, at Mantua’s Palazzo della Ragione contemporaneously with the Festival of Literature. The exhibition Depero’s automatic acrobatic brings about 80 important masterpieces of the early 1900s (1917-1938) to Mantua for the first time and will remain open to the public until February 26 2023.

The exhibition was designed exclusively for the spaces of the Palazzo della Ragione by Electa, in cooperation with the Mart, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto. The curation is handled by Nicoletta Boschiero, manager of Depero’s Futurist Art House.

In the course of his long artistic experience, Depero developed a complete art form, which included painting, theatre, scenic design, applied arts, publishing and advertising and which made him become one of the protagonists of the futurist movement. The collection accompanies visitors on a journey aimed to reveal such various creative spheres by recalling the three geographical areas that affected his artistic path.

One of the most creative seasons, which reached its ultimate peak between 1916 and 1918 and which is linked to the theatrical adventure experienced with his Swiss friend, Gilbert Clavel, starts with Capri through a series of drawings that belonged to Clavel himself. An important masterpiece, such as the Ballerina Mechanics (1917) and some beautiful ink drawings devoted to the novel Gothic Institute for suicides, or prelude to the birth of the robot in the theatrical show Flexible Dances, are also exhibited.

 In 1919, after the war, it was in Rovereto that Depero gave life to his greatest dream, that of opening an art house specialised in the fields of adversing graphics, furniture and applied arts, and, in particular, in that of the cloth inlays that became very successful in Paris, in 1925, at the international Exhibition of modern decorative and industrial arts, which was “open to all industrials whose products were artistic by nature and clearly representative of a modern trend.”

Finally, in 1928, following the successes achieved at important national and international exhibitions, Depero and his wife, Rosetta, moved to New York, where they opened Depero’s Futurist House, a sort of American branch of their art house in Rovereto. Depero’s commitment to advertising became successful with the cooperation of leading brands, as he began to design numerous covers for American Printer, Vogue and Vanity Fair, in addition to the theatrical scenographies of New Babel. A last section of the exhibition is then devoted to the long-term cooperation with the Campari brand.

The exhibition’s catalogue will be published by Electa.

Thanks to an editorial initiative against food waste, our editor Anna Spinelli has won the 2022 Nudge Global Impact Award. During the gala evening at the Peace Palace in The Hague, in the Netherlands, an international jury listened to the presentations of the six finalist projects at the latest Nudge Global Impact Challenge and decided to give the award to Anna’s work.

The theme of the 2021/2022 edition was Balancing our planet: a clear appeal to the need to respond to the negative events affecting our planet, in primis climate change and the pandemic.

From this starting point, Anna Spinelli developed a manual to educate children aged 6 to 10 about waste in the kitchen, in collaboration with Too Good To Go, the leading app in the fight against food waste.
Besides describing how much food is thrown away around the world and the serious environmental and social effects this has, the book offers much useful advice on ways to achieve a significant reduction in kitchen waste. Recipes include a contribution from Michelin-starred chef Carlo Cracco.

The project has already been put into practice: “Il manuale antispreco di Too Good To Go”, published by Il Battello a Vapore, has been available in bookstores and online since 31 May.

Anna’s high-quality publishing initiative is also a perfect match with one of the pillars of our sustainability plan which, with regard to the environment, aims to help promote a culture that protects the planet and its eco-systems.

The Nudge Global Impact Challenge is an international personal development program for young professionals, whose purpose is to support the growth of future leaders in environmental, social and economic sustainability who will have a positive impact on the world. The initiative is organised by Nudge, a Dutch organisation that brings young talents, companies and no-profit bodies together to promote sustainability across the board.

Through the Challenge, which began in 2010, every year approximately 90 young professionals from all over the world are given the chance to meet, follow training programs and discuss leadership and sustainable development, and then go on to create and implement their own impact plan. The best plans are recognised with the Nudge Global Impact Awards and receive funding to support their implementation.

The Mondadori Group has been a member of the network of Nudge partner companies for five years. Every year, it selects its own potential sustainability leaders for the Nudge Global Impact Challenge. The initiative is one of a range of activities to foster the development of young talents, as well as Diversity & Inclusion and sustainability. Anna Spinelli is the second nudger from the Mondadori Group to win the Nudge Global Impact Award after Marta Mazza, editor of Mondadori children’s books, who won four years ago with her book “Guerrieri di sogni”.

This year’s winners besides Anna were Sanne Kruid, Peter Akkerman, Sofia Kavlin and Timothy Wabukoti.