ROME (AFP) - Rome's newly restored Palazzo delle Esposizioni was to reopen on Friday with three major exhibitions featuring ab
stract expressionist Mark Rothko, US film great Stanley Kubrick and Italian sculptor Mario Ceroli.
The monumental neoclassical building was closed for five years for restoration work that included expanding the cinema and equipping a lecture hall with multimedia technology.
Now styled as Palaexpo, "the greatest cultural centre of Roman life is opening, dedicated to all manifestations of contemporaneity," Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni said at a media presentation Thursday.
With more than 10,000 square meters (100,000 square feet), the venue is the Italian capital's largest exhibition space. The restoration work, which cost some 28 million euros (40 million dollars), also added a restaurant, cafeterias and playrooms for children.
On the ground floor is the retrospective of the work of Rothko, the celebrated US artist of Russian origin who lived from 1903 to 1970.
"This space, a sort of giant church, fascinated Rothko," said curator Oliver Wick. "This will probably be the last major retrospective that can be done of Rothko," he warned, referring to the ever-rising valuations of the artist's works.
Rothko's "White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose)" fetched 72 million dollars at a Sotheby's auction in May, setting a world record for contemporary art.
The 70 works shown here trace the artist's development from surrealism to large-format canvases with intense colours and blurred edges, Rothko's so-called "classics" which had pride of place at the Venice Biennale in 1958, his breakthrough into the European art world.
One hall shows Rothko's last compositions, dominated by the colour black, possibly reflecting his dependence on anti-depressants and alcohol -- which eventually led to his death by suicide.
"They represent his relationship with the viewer, whom he rejected, whom he avoided," said Christopher, one of the artist's sons, who with his sister Kate played a key role in helping to put together the exhibition.
Wanting to be "interdisciplinary" as well as to demonstrate the vitality of modern art in Italy, Palaexpo invited leading contemporary artist Mario Ceroli, 69.
The exponent of so-called "poor art" has creative installations and sculptures of wood, glass and coloured powder in the exhibit, as well as giant frames using natural materials such as charcoal, ash, branches, tree trunks, straw and wool.
The rich universe of the Italian plastic artist is matched by that of Stanley Kubrick, a cinema icon famous for his perfectionism who accumulated notes, scripts, photographs, books and other memorabilia presented here.
The palazzo's newly expanded cinema will offer a retrospective of Kubrick's films, from his mythical "Lolita" to war films such as "Paths of Glory" and "Full Metal Jacket" to period pieces such as "Spartacus" and "Barry Lyndon" and the more recent "Eyes Wide Shut," without forgetting his chimeric "2001: A Space Odyssey."
The Rothko and Kubrick retrospectives run until January 6, while the Ceroli exhibition is to close on December 2.
...
