Masterpieces en Plein Air. Italian 20th century sculpture. Works from the Loi Collection

As part of the programme of events and initiatives promoted to celebrate its centenary, the Golf Club Lugano has involved MUSEC to set up an exhibition of sculptures by 20th century Italian masters in the golf course area, including the names Francesco Messina, Luciano Minguzzi and Giacomo Manzù. "Masterpieces en Plein Air. Italian 20th century sculpture. Works from the Loi Collection' presents nine works of great intensity and artistic quality distributed along the playground, which, for the occasion, is transformed into an artistic path of surprising uniqueness. The nine sculptures, predominantly in bronze, come from the Loi Collection and were selected by MUSEC both for the quality of their sculptural technique and for the range of sentiments expressed, which characterised the research of 20th century masters. Their placement on the playing field seeks full harmony with the landscape that frames them. Each work is accompanied by a short critical statement and a poetic passage, inspired by the work itself, written by great names in 20th-century Italian literature. The open-air exhibition is completed by a notebook published by the Culture and Museums Foundation of Lugano (“Capolavori en plein air. Scultura italiana del Novecento. Opere della Collezione Loi”, edited by Nora Segreto).

The artists in the exhibition: Piergiorgio Colombara (b. 1948); Paolo Delle Monache (b. 1969); Maïmouna Guerresi (b. 1951); Giacomo Manzù (b. 1908-1991); Giuseppe Maraniello (b. 1945); Francesco Messina (b. 1900-1995); Luciano Minguzzi (b. 1911-2004); Augusto Perez (b. 1929-2000); Giuseppe Spagnulo (b. 1936-2016).

Nicola Loi was born in 1942 in Sardinia, but soon moved to Rome and then Turin. He frequented the art scene since the 1960s and from 1967 turned his passion into a full-time job: he organised exhibitions, exhibited paintings and sculptures and produced editions of art engravings. From the beginning, he was attracted to sculpture and, when he founded the 'La Colomba' gallery in Turin in 1974, he was the first in Italy to focus on sculpture. In 1986, he founded 'Studio Copernico' in Milan, which privileges the relationship with the artists he follows, takes care of their image and publications, organises events and markets their works. In 2003 he became a member of the newly established 'Fondazione Francesco Messina' and in 2006 he created 'Materima', a real sculpture city in Casalbeltrame (Novara).

Dates and timetable

• 03.07.2023: 17:00
• 10.07.2023: 17:00
• 17.07.2023: 17:00
• 21.08.2023: 17:00

Attention: only on appointment by sending an e-mail to [email protected].