Installation view of works by Lorna Simpson and Ellen Sarrett at the exhibition \u201cDay as Night: The New American Realism\u201d at Palazzo Barberini, Rome. Photo: Alberto Novelli. Courtesy of the A\u00efshti Foundation. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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This 2018 ink and acrylic painting by Lorna Simpson depicts a series of blue-toned brick building facades in a photographic style. Day for night<\/em>Refers to a film technique where a night scene is filmed during the day, a classic example of cinematic technique. Currently, Simpson’s painting hangs in a dazzling neo-Rococo apartment on the top floor of Rome’s Palazzo Barberini. There, it is the focus of a major exhibition of the same name, which revolves around the concept of playing with reality, with the work confronting political, social and cultural tensions in the United States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Installation view of works by Frank Bowling and Jacqueline Humphries at the exhibition \u201cDay as Night: The New American Realism\u201d at Palazzo Barberini, Rome. Photo: Alberto Novelli. Courtesy of the A\u00efshti Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The exhibition, titled \u201cDay for Night: The New American Realism,\u201d features works from the private collection of Beirut collectors Tony and Elham Salameh, and will be on view at Palazzo Barberini through their A\u00efshti Foundation until September 8. The Salamehs are one of the world\u2019s most prolific and respected collectors of contemporary art, with a focus on American art. \u201cDay for Night\u201d showcases their extensive collection, featuring 150 works by major contemporary artists including Cindy Sherman, Kara Walker, Mark Bradford, Faith Ringgold, Tshabalala Self, and Arthur Jafar, among others. Curated by Massimiliano Gioni of the New Museum and Flaminia Gennari Santori of the Palazzo Barberini, the exhibition is a powerful survey of contemporary American art, offering both boundary-pushing interventions in the birthplace of the Baroque and a daring investigation of some of the most outspoken American artists working today. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Installation view of Maurizio Cattelan\u2019s work at the exhibition \u201cDay as Night: The New American Realism\u201d at Palazzo Barberini in Rome. Photo: Alberto Novelli. Image courtesy of the A\u00efshti Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cDay for Night\u201d is the first major exhibition of contemporary art to take place in the 17th-century Palazzo Barberini, which normally exhibits Italian art from the 16th to 19th centuries. Also notable is that the exhibition takes place in the palace\u2019s ornately decorated Rococo rooms, which are not usually open to the public. <\/p>\n
From the moment visitors enter the exhibition, they are drawn to the concept of \u201cAmerican Realism.\u201d \u201cSalam\u00e9s\u2019 collection itself suggested the theme of this show because such an important nucleus of works in the collection are by American artists,\u201d Gioni explained. The show builds a picture of the US through artists who are simultaneously documenting and questioning the country\u2019s fraught recent history. Notions of light and dark are also front and center in a nod to Caravaggio, the master of painting.\u201d [Salam\u00e9s\u2019collectionitselfsuggestedthethemeofthisshowbecausesuchanimportantnucleusofworksinthecollectionarebyAmericanartists\u201dGioniexplainedTheshowbuildsapictureoftheUSthroughartistswhoaresimultaneouslydocumentingandquestioningthecountry\u2019sfraughtrecenthistoryNotionsoflightanddarkarealsofrontandcenterinanodtoCaravaggiothemasterofChiaroscuro<\/em>Because the Palazzo Barberini houses the world’s largest collection of “Caravaggist” paintings – paintings created by the 17th century artist in the style of the master. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Installation view of Nicole Eisenman\u2019s work at the exhibition \u201cDay as Night: The New American Realism\u201d at Palazzo Barberini in Rome. Photo: Alberto Novelli. Image courtesy of the A\u00efshti Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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This is evident from the first gallery visitors enter, which features work by Nicole Eisenman, Dana Schutz, and Salman Tur. \u201cThey are all interested in the grotesque and a form of narrative that doesn\u2019t shy away from the omnipresent darkness,\u201d Gioni said. \u201cEisenman\u2019s paintings dark light<\/em> (2017)\u2014the image of a man, perhaps the artist\u2019s alter ego, casting the flash of a flashlight into the night\u2014seems like a perfect allegory for the role that art plays in revealing the truth in a world where truth itself is unravelling. It\u2019s no mere coincidence that the character holding the flashlight is also wearing a red hat that resembles a \u201cMAGA\u201d hat: things seem to be more complicated than an allegory of painting and truth.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Installation view of works by Matthew Wong, Sterling Ruby and Nate Lowman at the exhibition \u201cDay as Night: The New American Realism\u201d at Palazzo Barberini in Rome. Photo: Alberto Novelli. Image courtesy of the A\u00efshti Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cDay as Night\u201d builds on the previous exhibition, \u201cDark Light,\u201d named after Eisenman\u2019s work and also curated by Gioni, which will take place at the A\u00efshti Foundation in Beirut in 2022. The new version of the exhibition speaks directly to the Italian context and present moment. \u201cSome works return in both exhibitions, but the focus in Rome is much clearer,\u201d says Gioni. \u201cThe Baroque, a product of illusion and propaganda, spectacle and trompe l\u2019oeil, grandeur and religion, was born at the Palazzo Barberini, fusing an uncanny combination of the organic and inorganic, the artificial and the natural\u2014an art that deliberately confused reality and fiction.\u201d This premise was key to the curators\u2019 decision to delve into \u201cAmerican Realism.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Installation view of works by Charles Ray at the exhibition \u201cDay as Night: The New American Realism\u201d at Palazzo Barberini, Rome. Photo by Alberto Novelli. Image courtesy of the A\u00efshti Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The exhibition is all the more relevant now that the US election is approaching, which has heightened the issues addressed in the artists\u2019 work, from racism and prejudice to climate change and immigration. \u201cThe focus on the US, especially in this year, has also added a different tone \u2013 almost a vertigo, I fear,\u201d Gioni said, \u201caround conversations and debates that are bound to become increasingly heated.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a room on the first floor that Gioni affectionately calls the \u201cCrazy Landscape Room,\u201d works by Nate Lowman, Matthew Huang, Josh Smith, Sarah Hughes, and Sterling Ruby allude to the climate crisis through intensely colored landscapes and depictions of storms and destruction. Next door, works by Andra Ursuta, Joan Semmel, Sanja Kantarovsky, Richard Prince, and Janiva Ellis offer, in the curator\u2019s words, a \u201crhapsody about the body.\u201d Here, raw and powerful depictions of the female form inevitably surface with references to the ongoing debate over women\u2019s bodily autonomy in the United States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Installation view of Urs Fischer\u2019s work at the exhibition \u201cDay as Night: The New American Realism\u201d at Palazzo Barberini, Rome. Photo by Alberto Novelli. Image courtesy of the A\u00efshti Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The exhibition also intoxicates with its contrast between its ancient settings and the cutting-edge contemporary art on display, particularly through a series of interventions on the upper floors. A large sculpture by Urs Fischer of a horse and a hospital bed crossed together \u2013 reimagining the tradition of equestrian sculpture \u2013 sits in the atrium, just in front of a 17th-century master staircase designed by Francesco Borromini. Meanwhile, Maurizio Cattelan\u2019s pigeons roost in the Atrio Bernini on the other side of the building.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, new sculptures by Charles Ray reimagine archangels, transforming classical figures into soft-bodied surfer figures. The sculptures are located in the Sala Ovale, which offers views of the monumental Pietro da Cortona ceiling frescoes. The Triumph of Divine Providence<\/em> (1632\u201339) and a statue of Apollo outside the gardens. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Installation view of works by Peter Bradley and Melvin Edwards at the exhibition \u201cDay as Night: The New American Realism\u201d at Palazzo Barberini in Rome. Photo: Alberto Novelli. Image courtesy of the A\u00efshti Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Most striking, however, is the dazzling series of rooms in the Rococo Apartments, in which Gioni makes extensive use of abstraction and the work of black artists. \u201cA unique system of values \u200b\u200bemerges in these apartments, in the textures of silk wallpapers, frescoes, marble and mirrors,\u201d Gioni notes. The atmosphere of excess, as well as colonialism, expressed through murals depicting indigenous peoples, required a deft curatorial touch. The curatorial emphasis here, Gioni says, is not on \u201cthe grotesque and the interplay of dark and light\u201d but on \u201ctexture and abstraction.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI began to explore the work of artists like Frank Bowling, Peter Bradley, Melvin Edwards, Sam Gilliam, and Jack Whitten, who balanced abstraction with political engagement in the 1960s and early 1970s,\u201d Gioni notes. \u201cThese black painters asserted their right to formalism and abstraction, challenging the notion that their work had to depict the struggles of the African American community during the Civil Rights Movement.\u201d The rooms also feature work by Lebanese artists, an obvious nod to Salameh\u2019s background, and by a younger generation of black artists who also powerfully confront history and politics rather than depicting them figuratively. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Installation view of the Sala Marmi at the exhibition \u201cDay as Night: The New American Realism\u201d at the Palazzo Barberini in Rome. Photo: Alberto Novelli. Image courtesy of the A\u00efshti Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Another great example of the contrast between old and new is the huge salon-style exhibition in the Sala Marmi, featuring works by the likes of Ludovic Nkoth, Anna Weyant, Jordan Casteel and Derrick Adams, each of which captures the power of portraiture in a unique way. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe dazzling beauty of the Salon exhibition halls was characteristic of many collectors in the 17th century: it was a symbol of wealth, power and connoisseurship,\u201d Gioni said. There are many grotesque elements in these portraits, which Gioni weaves into the exhibition\u2019s ground floor, challenging the canon of Western art history and its narrow notions of beauty and power. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Installation view of the works of Simone Fattal and Rayyane Tabet at the exhibition \u201cDay as Night: The New American Realism\u201d at Palazzo Barberini, Rome. Photo: Alberto Novelli. Courtesy of the A\u00efshti Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The room also embodies the enormous logistical effort required to realize the exhibition. \u201cThe Sala Marmi is essentially a brand new room built on a scaffolding system that supports the walls on which more than 60 paintings are hung,\u201d explains Gioni. Transporting the artworks from Beirut and around the world to the historic Palazzo Barberini and installing them in such a protected landmark building was a daunting challenge, Gioni explains. \u201cIt was forbidden to even hammer a nail into the wall,\u201d he points out. <\/p>\n
Yet these challenges never stopped Tony Salam\u00e9, who had always dreamed of hosting an exhibition in Italy because of his deep connection to the country\u2014a passion that began when he first came to the country as a teenager, through his extensive travels working for fashion and luxury brands, and ultimately led to his Italian citizenship. Salam\u00e9 was drawn to the opportunity to exhibit at Palazzo Barberini from the beginning. \u201cI was struck by the beauty of the place,\u201d Salam\u00e9 says. \u201cRome is famous. Also, Palazzo Barberini and the collections are very relevant to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Thomas Clemente Solomon, Toni Salame, Flaminia Gennari Santori and Massimiliano Gioni. Photo by Alberto Novelli. Courtesy of the A\u00efshti Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Salameh\u2019s frenetic collecting influenced the exhibition\u2019s presentation; some of the works on display were acquired weeks or months before the show opened. \u201cI always joke with Tony that when I\u2019m working on his shows, it\u2019s like he goes out and buys the ingredients\u2014and they\u2019re often the best\u2014and I just have to focus on cooking,\u201d said Gioni, who has collaborated with the collector on his Beirut show for nine years. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a relief because when I\u2019m working on other shows, I have to worry about ingredients and cooking, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Salameh is inspired by the fact that a new international audience is able to discover his collection, which is usually only shown in Beirut. “I think it’s good to show and share the work, and the audience doesn’t always have to be the same,” he says. Even for those who are very familiar with these artists, seeing their works in the breathtaking halls of Palazzo Barberini is absolutely refreshing. “I love discovering these artists in such an unexpected place,” adds Salameh.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Cathy Lesser<\/p>\n
Casey Lesser is the Director of Content at Artsy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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