Discoveringancientchristianity in Sicily and Tunisia
Crayons on paper, 2007
Collection of the Orestiadi Foundation of Gibellina
The Diocesan Museum, displayingnumerous works of mostlyreligious art, givesus a chance to show the artwork of a great master of contemporary art: Mimmo Paladino. His work "Discoveringancientchristianity" wascreatedas a poster for the exhibit by the Orestiadi Foundation at the Bardo National Museum in Tunisi in 2009, analyzing the christianorigins of Tunisia starting from the preachings of Saint Agostino, born in thoselands. This work of art shows the evolution of techniques, colors, and shapesthrough the centuries and howthere'sstillspace for themes of sacredness in the contemporarylanguage.
Mimmo Paladino (Paduli, Benevento, 1948)
Together with Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, and Nicola De Maria, he is one of the mostprominentfigureheads of the Transavantgarde, a movementpresented to the public for the first time by the critic Achille Bonito Oliva at the Venice Biennale in 1980.
Starting from the second half of the 80's the techniques vary from drawing to etching, from painting to insertingthree-dimensionalelements in canvases, culminating with the creation of hugebronzestatues and installations, amongwhich the monumental Salt Mountain, created for the recital "La Sposa di Messina" (Friedrich Schiller, directed by Elio De Capitani), enacted for the Orestiadi Foundation in Gibellina in 1990. This work of art wasshownagain in twootheroccasions, in Plebiscito Square in Naples in 1995, and in Duomo Square in Milan in 2011, concurrently with the retrospectivededicated to the artistat the Royal Palace.
Throughouthis career he would go on to havecountless and prestigiousexhibits, from being one of the first contemporaryitalianartists to havetheirs works displayedat the National Gallery of Fine Arts of Beijing in 1994, to the 2015 edition of the Venice Biennale. In 2023 he made his cinema debut with "The Divine Comet", where he mixesDanteAlighieri's Divine Comedy with the neapolitanchristmastradition.
Paladino's works can be found in the collections of the mostimportant international museums, amongwhich the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art, New York's MOMA Metropolitan Museum and the Guggenheim, Berlin's Nationalgalerie, Amsterdam's Stedelijk Musem and London's Tate Gallery.