ThoughtGallery.org > Artist Talk: Joel Meyerowitz on Morandi’s Objects

Artist Talk: Joel Meyerowitz on Morandi’s Objects

CIMA is pleased to welcome celebrated American photographer Joel Meyerowitz to discuss his recent project, Morandi’s Objects. Working in Morandi’s Bologna studio, Meyerowitz created portraits of 270 objects used by the artist as inspiration for his still-life paintings. A selection of these photographs, along with one of the objects from Morandi’s studio, are on view at CIMA.

Thanks to the support of the Istituzione Bologna Musei | Museo Morandi, Meyerowitz was granted access to the rooms in Casa Morandi, where the painter’s objects still remain. Taking over 700 photographs, Meyerowitz completed a profoundly taxonometric survey of 270 dust-covered objects in the small room where Morandi worked: vases, shells, bottles of all sizes, painted over, filled with raw pigments, colored bottles or plain, silk flowers, jugs, boxes, tin cans, funnels, and more. Meyerowitz treated his photographs as portraits, turning each object slowly until one facet spoke more clearly than any other and revealed the secret identity that Morandi valued each object for.

Meyerowitz worked at Morandi’s table, where the light still falls, as it always has, on the circles and lines the painter drew to mark the positions of his objects. The background remains as Morandi left it, a pale, rosy golden paper that is brittle and ready to crumble at the slightest touch. His presence is in the room. As the essayist Maggie Barrett affirms, “entering the studio of such an important artist means exploring his soul in depth; a place inviting the visitor to translate these objects into a meaningful portrait of the artist.”

Copies of his new book, Morandi’s Objects (Damiani Editore, 2015), will be available for purchase.











When: Wed., Nov. 18, 2015 at 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Where: Center for Italian Modern Art
421 Broome St., 4th floor
646-370-3596
Price: $10; free for CIMA members and students with ID
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CIMA is pleased to welcome celebrated American photographer Joel Meyerowitz to discuss his recent project, Morandi’s Objects. Working in Morandi’s Bologna studio, Meyerowitz created portraits of 270 objects used by the artist as inspiration for his still-life paintings. A selection of these photographs, along with one of the objects from Morandi’s studio, are on view at CIMA.

Thanks to the support of the Istituzione Bologna Musei | Museo Morandi, Meyerowitz was granted access to the rooms in Casa Morandi, where the painter’s objects still remain. Taking over 700 photographs, Meyerowitz completed a profoundly taxonometric survey of 270 dust-covered objects in the small room where Morandi worked: vases, shells, bottles of all sizes, painted over, filled with raw pigments, colored bottles or plain, silk flowers, jugs, boxes, tin cans, funnels, and more. Meyerowitz treated his photographs as portraits, turning each object slowly until one facet spoke more clearly than any other and revealed the secret identity that Morandi valued each object for.

Meyerowitz worked at Morandi’s table, where the light still falls, as it always has, on the circles and lines the painter drew to mark the positions of his objects. The background remains as Morandi left it, a pale, rosy golden paper that is brittle and ready to crumble at the slightest touch. His presence is in the room. As the essayist Maggie Barrett affirms, “entering the studio of such an important artist means exploring his soul in depth; a place inviting the visitor to translate these objects into a meaningful portrait of the artist.”

Copies of his new book, Morandi’s Objects (Damiani Editore, 2015), will be available for purchase.

Buy tickets/get more info now