Gian Alberto Dell'Acqua - Ricordi di una lunga vita

Publisher: Skira

Year of publication: 2023

Language: Italian

Size: 15 x 21cm

Pages: 232

Binding: Paperback

Description: Art was the leitmotif of Gian Alberto Dell'Acqua's life, his constant professional commitment but also pleasure and personal interest The "gentleman of the figurative arts": this was Gian Alberto Dell'Acqua for Paolo Grassi, who summarized in this definition some of the salient aspects of his personality.The elegance of manners, the great correctness, the dedication to work understood as service, the ability to listen and mediate, are very clear traits in the memory of those who knew him. And also the story of his long and industrious life, which Dell'Acqua had thought of reserving for his family but which is now added to the testimonies with which Brera wanted to pay homage to his greatest superintendents, confirms those qualities that have made his memory unforgettable. From training to the experiences of the Biennale, from trips to the rich library dedicated to the passion for philosophy, Dell'Acqua tells his life and analyzes the most important interventions made as superintendent: the acquisitions, which enriched the art gallery with works especially Lombard - from Giovanni da Milano, to Cairo, to Cerano, to Procaccini - as well as the extraordinary purchase of the Tarot by Bonifacio Bembo; and then the many restorations conducted with the "magician" Pellicioli and with the many trusted restorers, from Ottemi della Rotta, to Mario Rossi, to Guido Fiume, met - a young partisan - during the war. It recalls the authorization granted to the church of San Fedele to place on an altar of the ancient Tibaldian building the polychrome ceramic altarpiece by Lucio Fontana. Another important initiative, destined to change the appearance of Brera opening it to modernity, was the purchase of Palazzo Citterio in 1972. But in going back to those years now far away, Dell'Acqua does not forget his direct collaborators, from the bursar to the archivist, to the typists, to the then young art historians, to all whom he reserves a thought.