Photo Pest: Let's Do the MAMbo!

MAMbo is an even cooler acronym than MoMA. Alas, the collection at the Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, aside from a gallery of political art from the 1960s, left a lot to be desired. This painting seems to presage the Red Brigades, a radical left group that rose out of the ashes of the anti-fascist movement and eventually adopted violent tactics, including the kidnapping and murder of an Italian prime minister. The artist definitely fits the mold of the union workers and students who comprised it.

"Corteo" by Franco Angeli (1968)

Housed in what was once an industrial bakery, the museum now focuses primarily on contemporary art, in much the same way that MoMA's PS1 does. You don't really have to know the concept behind this work--an homage to Le Corbusier--to appreciate the artist's execution. He parked a Fiat he called the "chameleon" after painting it different colors in front of several iconic Italian landmarks. My father did the something similar in black and white with his Karmann Ghias and me; one of my first internet aliases was nychameleon.

"Drive Tour #1" by Cristian Chironi (2020-21)

This shot really whet my appetite to see the Piazza del Duomo in Milan. It did not disappoint.

Remember when describing someone as a "tranny" was OK? Self-expression, no matter what the cost, was once prioritized over self-identification. From the title of the work, I'm guessing it spoofs the sex workers in Nights of Cabiria, the 1957 Fellini film.

"I travestiti, Cabiria" by Lisetta Carmi (1965-67)

This label excerpt tells you everything you need to know about the museum's curators:

. . . the silhouette of human heads is repeated multiplying itself infinitely on a white background of framed paper, transforming it into an enchanted place where signs proliferate in always unpredictable formulas. They are faces that do not ask to be sentimentally expressive but masks that prevent sexual or temporal recognition and identification, which like silent archaic memories impregnated with symbolism, float in a temporal sea that gives the entire scene a ceremonial aura.

Huh? It looks like scribbled faces to me, over a very large canvas. Kind of like the crowds in Venice.

"Teste" by Mimmo Paladino (detail, undated)

And the name of this multimedia work tells you everything you need to know about Emilio Vavarella, a University of Bologna graduate who now is an assistant professor at Skidmore College.

No matter what the angle, it left me cold

. . . bringing to mind the unkind adage "those who can, do; those who can't, teach."

"rs548049170_1_69869_TT (The Other Shapes of Me)"

Non-Italian art is also on view.

"Sleeping" by Gilbert & George (1991)

"Home and Dry II" by Christopher Muller (1996)

"Resisting Oblivion: Passion and Activism in the Feminist and Queer Archives of Bologna" probably would have resonated a lot more if I understood Italian. This very verbose comic strip--Le Straordinarie Avventure di Penthotal by Andrea Pazienza, a Bolognese man determined to capture the local scene in the late 1970s--offers a good case in point.

New York City graffiti influenced many of the artists whose work had been archived. Keith Haring donated this tender drawing to the city of Bologna in 1984 to honor the memory of Francesca Alinovi, a local art critic and author of the Emphastism Manifesto. She had championed his work before her brutal murder.

MAMbo also houses the Museum of Morandi. Still lives dominate the collection and leave the impression that Giorgio, Bologna-born, was a one-trick pony who often didn't bother to distinguish his subtle, slightly abstract compositions with different titles. Individually, they're easy to love.

"Natura Morta" (1952)

"Natura Morta" (1957)

When I asked the woman staffing the museum's gift shop if it sold any Morandi post cards for use in my Northern Italy collage, she replied "No, we're in a dispute with the estate over the rights." All righty, then.

Fiori (1957)

My "meh" reaction to the museum improved when I entered the final gallery, dominated by a mural very much like "Man at the Crossroads," one that Diego Rivera created for Rockefeller Center but now hangs in Mexico City.

It commemorates the death of the Italian Communist Party's longtime leader and includes many of his (and the artist's) fellow travelers. Look for Angela Davis, Jean-Paul Sartre, Rosa Luxemberg and Pier Paolo Pasolini as well as multiple Lenins (I count five), Stalin and Ho Chi Minh. MIA: Marx & Trotsky!

"Funerali di Togliatti" by Renato Guttuso (1972)

This silhouette likely belongs to the artist's "Typical Gestures" series. I'm guessing it's Charles deGaulle.

Untitled Work by Sergio Lombardo (undated)

Things go better with Coke, although two of the artist's paramours, both Rolling Stones' muses, might have begged to differ. Anita Pallenberg and Marianne Faithfull preferred horse.

"Coca Cola" by Mario Schifano (1962)

"Boxeur" by Titina Maselli (1965)

The outdoor event space behind MAMbo has seen better days although plenty of unleased dogs were enjoying the elevated park just beyond in the Porto neighborhood.