He was an excellent sculptor, perhaps the greatest Italian sculptor of the Twentieth Century, capable of expressing himself equally in wood or stone, clay or bronze. In the dazzling Paris of the Belle Époque he became acquainted with the sculpture of Maillol and the graphics of the "Nabis", group, and his work was on show at the 1912 Salon D'Automne together with De Chirico, Boccioni, Modigliani, and Gino Rossi.
His first one man show took place in Milan in 1920, and was presented by Carlo Carrà, a painter who was fated to influence him and point him towards a strongly volume conscious form of composition that lead to a gradual simplification of his shapes. His considerations on the art of sculpting, entrusted to the pages of "La scultura lingua morta" (1947), are to this day among the most inspired thoughts regarding the fate of this ancient skill, but his fame certainly never reached the heights of many artists of his generation. And this despite the fact that his work is very visible and certainly does not go unnoticed: his "Minerva" dominates the main square of the Roman University Campus , while in Milan there is no mistaking his decorations for the Law Courts or - close by the Duomo - the bas-reliefs with which he embellished the façade of the Palazzo dell'Arengario.
Yet, the masterful and eclectic talents of Arturo Martini (1889 - 1947) have had to wait for almost sixty years before being fully acknowledged and exploited, but now can no longer be questioned given the exhibition that opens on the 8th of November in Milan - and then moves to the Capital on the 25th of February 2007 - in the prestigious surroundings of the Museo della Permanente and the Stelline Foundation, over a quarter of a century after the last major exhibition dedicated to his work (that also took place in the Lombardy capital, in the rooms of the Palazzo Reale).
Promoted by the Fondazione Stelline of Milan, Società per le Belle Arti ed Esposizione Permanente in Milan, by the Soprintendenza alla Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome, the show aims to present an in-depth analysis of the creative development of the Treviso artist, from his first works right up to his more personal and mature production and ending up with the particularly successful work of his later years. The over 100 works on show - of varying dimension, both small and large, and in many cases previously unseen - selected by Claudia Gian Ferrari, Elena Pontiggia and Livia Velani, document the greatness of their author, showing off his versatility - clearly marked by his experimentation with every kind of material - and the consistently high quality of his production.
The exhibition also includes an interesting itinerary around the town that reveals the locations where the artist's monumental works have been situated, including lesser known works, that were nevertheless the result of important public commissions.