It has been more than 25 years since the Museo ItaloAmericano
first opened its doors in a loft above Caffé Malvina
in San Francisco’s North Beach district. From that unpretentious
beginning, the museum has grown to be a fixture of the San
Francisco art scene. It is also one of Fort Mason Center’s
premier museums, a destination for art lovers as well as lovers
of Italian and Italian American culture.
"Selections from the Permanent Collection” celebrates
that cultural heritage as well as the important place that
the Museo plays in it. It is hard to imagine San Francisco's
Italian American community without the enduring presence of
the Museo Italo-Americano. The museum's current exhibition
shows once again the strength of the Museo's contribution
to that community.
“Selections from the Permanent Collection” includes
more than 40 pieces in all media ranging from small and large
animal sculptures by San Francisco icon Beniamino Bufano to
large abstract paintings by Gianfranco Pardi and Giovanni
Ragusa. There are watercolors from the 1940s by John Grillo
and another from the turn of the current century by contemporary
artist Peter Scaturro. Italo Scanga’s large, colorful
metaphysical sculpture and Giuseppe Zigaina’s abstractly
intricate ink print on paper represent one end of the art
spectrum while Gottardo Piazzoni’s small, plein air oil
sketches of Monterey County are clearly in another. And lest
one think that there are no Italian or Italian American women
artists, there is the enigmatic oil painting, “La
Maschera” by Antonella Cappuccio and the brightly
pointillistic landscape of Giannina Liberto-LaLanne.
Photography has not been overlooked in the Museo collection.
One small gallery is devoted to the beautiful color photographs
of Andrea Bartolucci from his “L’Albero dell’Oro”
series. The photographs depict the many facets of olive
oil production in Italy.
This is clearly a collection worth savoring. Curator Elena
Brittain took on the task of choosing from the Museo’s
impressive holdings to put together an exhibition rich in
history and artistic flavor.
For more information, see the Visual Arts listing. For information
about the Museo ItaloAmericano, visit www.museoitaloamericano.org.
