Giorgio Morandi

Giorgio Morandi – Early passion for modern art; Paul Cézanne as role model

Giorgio Morandi was born in Bologna on 20 July 1890. It initially seemed he would follow his father as a businessman, but working in his father’s office did not satisfy the young man, for his interest lay early on in art. His father therefore financed his art-loving son several years of study at the Accademia di belle arti di Bologna, and Giorgio Morandi enthusiastically absorbed everything he was offered in terms of knowledge. Modern art soon crystalised as his particular passion, with the French master and new interpreter of Impressionism, Paul Cézanne, in particular, becoming an admired idol of the prospective painter. His loose interest in Futurism brought him into contact with Carlo Carrá and Umberto Boccioni which subsequently led to his participation in a futuristic exhibition in Rome. The Cubism of Georges Braques and Pablo Picasso influenced the artistic development of Giorgio Morandi, as did the work of Henri Rousseau and the art of ‘pittura metafisca’.

Conscious reduction of shapes and colours

Giorgio Morandi limited himself early on primarily to still lifes, and only occasionally painted a few landscapes. He intentionally concentrated on a harmonious, delicate colour palette made up of pink, yellow, grey-blue and ochre, and, in combination with the modest, repetitive choice of motifs which included only a few simple vessels, he created contemplative portraits which achieved a certain depth exclusively through the skillful contrast of light and dark areas. In the course of his life, Giorgio Morandi increasingly reduced the details of his depictions until predominantly geometric forms remained. It was precisely through this self-restraint that he achieved a particular sensuality that soon made the artist – one regarded as a painterly ascetic – world famous. Morandi also attracted attention with his etchings, was a celebrated guest at numerous exhibitions, and for a time held a chair at his old university in Bologna. 

Politically uninterested; painting as the centre of life

Giorgio Morandi remained unmarried and lived until his death with his sisters in the Via Fondazza in Bologna where he used his living room as a studio. When he became ill with lung cancer as a result of his intense tobacco use, he spent the summer near Grizzana where he painted numerous landscape pictures. Morandi travelled abroad only once: in 1956, he visited Winterthur for a collaborative exhibition with Gabriele Manzù. He used this opportunity to visit the Baseler Kunstmuseum, the Kunsthaus in Zurich and the Oskar Reinhart Collection. Giorgio Morandi died on 18 June 1964 in his birthplace of Bologna. After his death, there was occasional criticism from those who saw him as a follower of Benito Mussolini: Although Morandi had participated in a Futurist exhibition in 1938 which had been misused by the Italian fascists for propaganda purposes, there is much to suggest that the painter, completely uninterested in politics, was hardly aware of those unsavoury circumstances.