- Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art
The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art is a museum in
Canonbury Square in the district ofIslington on the northern fringes of centralLondon . It is theUnited Kingdom 's only gallery devoted to modern Italian art.The Estorick Collection was founded by American
sociologist and writer Eric Estorick (1913-93), who began to collect art when he moved toEngland after theSecond World War . Estorick and his German-born English wife Salome (1920-1989) discoveredUmberto Boccioni ’s book "Futurist Painting and Sculpture" (1914) while they were on their honeymoon in 1947. Before the end of their trip they visited erstwhile FuturistMario Sironi inMilan and bought most of the contents of his studio, including hundreds of drawings. They built up the collection mainly between 1953 and 1958. The collection was shown in several temporary exhibitions, including one at theTate Gallery in London in 1956, and the key works were on long term loan to the Tate from 1966 to 1975. The Estoricks rejected offers to purchase their collection from the Italian government and museums in theUnited States andIsrael . Six months prior to his death Eric Estorick set up the "Eric and Salome Estorick Foundation", to which he donated all his Italian works. The Estorick Collection moved to its current premises in Northumberland Lodge, a convertedGrade II -listed Georgian house, in 1998. The project was supported by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.The core of the collection is its Futurist works, but it also includes figurative art and sculpture dating from 1890 to the 1950s. It features paintings by Futurism's main protagonists:
Giacomo Balla ,Umberto Boccioni ,Carlo Carrà ,Gino Severini ,Luigi Russolo andArdengo Soffici , works byGiorgio de Chirico ,Amedeo Modigliani ,Giorgio Morandi ,Mario Sironi andMarino Marini , and a number of paintings and sculptures by contemporary English artists includingEdward Dutkiewicz . In addition to the main displays from the permanent collection, the Estorick Gallery organises temporary exhibitions, both in its own galleries, and on tour.External links
* [http://www.estorickcollection.com/ Official website of the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art]
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