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The ������Ƭapp Art Museum presents a new exhibition, “Leonardo Cremonini (1925-2010) – Timeless Monumentality: Paintings from The William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation,” on view from Friday, November 4, 2016, through Saturday, March 4, 2017, in the museum’s Walsh Gallery in the Quick Center for the Arts on the campus of ������Ƭapp.

An opening reception , free and open to the public, will take place on .

The Italian painter Leonardo Cremonini (1925-2010) attained the height of recognition and critical acclaim in the second half of the twentieth century.  His British contemporary Francis Bacon was an early admirer and praised him to the poet W. H. Auden.  Italian literary giants Umberto Eco, Italo Calvino, and Alberto Moravia authored lyrical appreciations of his work.  Another champion was William Rubin, legendary director of The Museum of Modern Art, who articulated the essential idea that Cremonini’s canvases embody a “spirit of timeless monumentality.”

Although he enjoyed this renown, and his work is to be found in numerous public collections across Europe and the United States (including MoMA), Cremonini is today largely unknown to all but a few art-world specialists.  The ascendancy of abstraction and Conceptual art and concurrent marginalization of figurative painting in the later twentieth century are part of the explanation for this arc of renown followed by obscurity (a trajectory that is by no means unique in the history of art).

This survey exhibition of thirty works from the peerless holdings of The William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation—the first devoted to the artist in over two decades, presented at a moment of renewed interest in modern and contemporary Italian painting—will serve to introduce Cremonini to new audiences and foster a critical reappraisal of his art.  William Louis-Dreyfus, long an admirer of Cremonini , collected his work in depth.  He was a generous and enthusiastic supporter of the ������Ƭapp Art Museum’s exhibition and was energetically involved in its planning until shortly before his death on September 16 of this year.  It is a great sadness that he did not live to see its realization.  In tribute to this extraordinary man, whose profound kindness and generosity of vision in support of the Harlem Children’s Zone was the subject of a recent film, Generosity of Eye , by his daughter actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus and her husband, Brad Hall, the exhibition is presented in his memory.

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A program of films and lectures, free and open to the public , complements the exhibition. Prior to the opening reception on , Yvonne Elet, associate professor of art history and architecture, Vassar College, will present “Raphael's Garden in Mussolini's Rome and the American Countess who made it Modern.”  On , Emily Braun, distinguished professor, Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, will speak on Cremonini and Magic Realism in Italy .  And on , Stephan Wolohojian, curator of European paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, presents Leonardo Cremonini: Obstacles, Journeys and Reflections. .

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Also planned in conjunction with the exhibition, is Italian Film at Fairfield , a 3-part program of films and lectures devoted to Italian cinema from the 1960s to the present, organized by Mary Ann Carolan, PhD, professor, modern languages & literature, and director of ������Ƭapp’s Italian Studies Program.

La dolce vita , an Italian classic, introduced by Dr. Mary Ann Carolan, will be shown on . , in the Kelley Theatre, Quick Center for the Arts.  The films of Nanni Moretti are explored on , when Millicent Marcus, professor of Italian, Yale University, presents a lecture entitled The Restless Priest and the Reluctant Pope: From the Mass is Over to Habemus Papam (Multimedia Room, DiMenna-Nyselius Library). Italian Film at Fairfield programs are free and open to the public; no advance registration required.

This series has been made possible by a generous grant from The Humanities Institute of the College of Arts & Sciences as well as by support from Italian Studies Program, Departments of Modern Languages & Literatures and Visual & Performing Arts.

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The exhibition is open to the public when the University is in session, Wednesday through Saturday from 12 noon – 4 p.m. For further information about the exhibition and related programs, please consult the museum’s website .

The exhibition was organized by Dr. Linda Wolk-Simon, Frank and Clara Meditz Director and Chief Curator, ������Ƭapp Art Museum, and is made possible by a generous gift from the Louis-Dreyfus Foundation.  It is presented in memory of William Louis-Dreyfus.  A fully illustrated catalogue is available.