Molle

Maria Cernuschi Ghiringhelli 1990

Marrocco, Armando

1966 - 1966 - XX

700

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 62; Larghezza: 65; Profondità: 30

Metallo verniciato

Astrattismo in Italia nella raccolta Cernuschi Ghiringhelli - Villa Croce - 1985

Armando Marrocco is an Italian artist, painter and sculptor. He began his exhibition activity in 1968 in Milan and continued it over the next two decades with many significant appearances in solo and group exhibitions. The work ‘Molle’ in the Museum's collection alludes in an ironic and vaguely pop manner to a representation of the work of art which for the artist recalls (albeit in a sarcastic manner) natural reality. Once caressed, the steel springs collide with each other, generating sounds and noises as well as oscillations that recall the possibility of a sculptural element offering dynamic optical effects in a quest that involves the various senses and the involvement of the viewer.

Macchina inutile

Maria Cernuschi Ghiringhelli 1990

Munari, Bruno

717

quattro elementi in legno laccato bianco in sviluppo orizzontale

Astrattismo in Italia nella raccolta Cernuschi Ghiringhelli - Villa Croce, Genova - 1985

Bruno Munari was a great experimenter, also in the direction of the applied arts. He started making the first ‘Machines’ in 1933 and in fifteen years designed 93 of them, using techniques derived from the industrial production of serial products. The first works had allusive titles (‘Sensitive Machines’, ‘Machine Breath’), which then turned ironically into ‘Useless Machines’ to emphasise the pure and unique aesthetic function unrelated to any functionality and efficiency. ‘Personally, I thought it would be interesting to free the abstract forms from the static nature of the painting and suspend them in the air, connected to each other so that they would live with us in our environment, sensitive to the true atmosphere of reality’.

Quipu

Marini Montesoro M. 1957 donazione

ambito incaico

Quipu

counting instrument

knife sheath

Collezione Missioni Cattoliche Americane 1893

knife sheath

XIX - 1891 - 1900

C.A.515

Canada

Si utilizzavano due pelli conciate tagliate secondo la forma della lama che vi doveva essere inserita, e cucite insieme. La superficie del fodero poteva essere decorata con conterie di vetro policrome, frange, borchie, sonagli metallici e aculei di porcospino, che venivano divisi a seconda della misura, ammorbiditi in bocca e, presso alcune tribù, spaccati; quindi erano appiattiti con i denti o con le unghie. Per la conciatura la pelle veniva tesa su dei pioli e con un raschiatoio si eliminavano residui di carne e cartilagini, quindi veniva lasciata stesa al sole ad asciugare per parecchi giorni. A questo punto la pelle veniva capovolta per rimuovere il pelo, tenuta a mollo e strofinata con una mistura di grassi animali per ammorbidirla. dopo averla lasciata nuovamente ad asciugare, veniva stirata e lavorata sulle due facce con una correggia ritorta di cuoio grezzo.

Contenere il coltello

Scabbard made from two pieces of leather sewn together. Front surface entirely covered with green, orange, red, pink, light blue and blue glass beads forming concentric geometric diamond patterns within a perimeter formed by two rows of transparent white beads. A border of orange, blue and pink conteries in alternating bands covers the seam of the scabbard and the hem of the opening. On the back, a strip of leather sewn vertically allows the scabbard to be inserted into the belt.

Hoshi suji Kabuto

ambito giapponese

Hoshi suji Kabuto (ribbed star helmet)

war helmet

Cementoarmato

Maria Cernuschi Ghiringhelli 1990

Uncini, Giuseppe

1960 - 1960 - XX

759

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 61,5; Larghezza: 61,5

Cemento e ferro

Astrattismo in Italia nella raccolta Cernuschi Ghiringhelli - Villa Croce, Genova - 1985<br>Esposizione personale - Galleria L'Attico, Roma - 1961

Uncini's first Cementarmato dates from 1958, when he moved to Rome. In an interview given by Uncini himself in 1968 in relation to this work, the artistic and design line is described - the use of industrial materials (cement and iron rod) is not determined by material interests but by the need to overcome the distinction between surface and support. The artist seeks to go beyond the pictorial surface in order to intervene in space with an absolutely new technique; creating not a new expression, but through self-representing and self-signifying objects - The structure of reinforced concrete is thus assumed by the artist as an already existing reality that contains within itself the principle of form, both flat and three-dimensional, and the opposition between fullness (the concrete) and emptiness (the space designed by the iron rods) in the search for an object that represents itself independently of social reality.

Natura ferita

Collezione LAB - Laboratorio Bassa Lunigiana 2001

Uecker, Günther

- XX

2506

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 70; Larghezza: 50

carboncino, matita, cenere, colla su carta

After his art studies in Germany, Uecker joined the Zero Group in 1957. The surface covered with nails stands as an antithesis to the painted surface and at the same time allows the artist to explore the articulation of light through the shadows created by the nails. The work in the Museum's collections is part of this field of research. The juxtaposition of the pine trunk treated on its surface with glue and ash as if to protect its integrity, with the violent and destabilising presence of the nails driven into the upper part of the trunk. A nature that recalls the artist's sign - gesture and makes explicit his ironic and desecrating will in reference to the environment and its mistreatment by mankind. In addition to the sculpture, the preparatory drawing is also in the collection. With charcoal and pencil, Uecker draws in a gestural and almost violent manner the design that he will realise three-dimensionally.

Sovrapporta con San Giorgio

1887 - acquisto

Gagini, Giovanni

MSA 527

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 81; Larghezza: 206.5; Profondità: 15

ardesia scolpita- incisa

Slate superstructure depicting St. George on horseback with sword raised in the intent to slay the dragon, while the princess with raised arms observes the scene. On either side of St. George are two totally obliterated heraldic arms: only the helmets with cat figures as crests are preserved. Coming from the collection of sculptor Santo Varni, it was originally placed in Palazzo Fieschi in Piazza San Lorenzo.

Fresnel lens

Fresnel lens

4642

Tipo di misura: diametro; Unità di misura: cm; Valore: 60; Profondità: anello massimo; Tipo di misura: altezza; Unità di misura: cm; Valore: 80; Profondità: ottica completa

vetro/ bronzo

The Fresnel lens decisively improved the age-old problem of the visibility of a lighthouse from a great distance. Until then, two factors had been at play: the height of the lighthouse and the intensity of the light produced.
Coastal towers with fires burning at the top have been known since ancient times.
For centuries the fire was fed by burning wood, later coal, with the problems associated with finding the material and the difficulty of transporting and lifting it to the top of the lighthouse.
Other problems were related to wind and rain, which extinguished the flame: the installation of protective glass was useful on the one hand, but limited visibility due to the opacity of the glass, which was caused by poor quality material and soot. It was only during the 18th century that the situation improved thanks to new techniques of glass production and the use of new fuels that gave off little or no smoke: candle wax, olive oil, whale oil (spermaceti), acetylene gas, and finally the definitive electrification of lighthouses.
In the meantime, great progress was being made in the field of optics and light refraction in particular: it was realised that converging the rays of a light source by means of mirrors or lenses improved its visibility at great distances.
The physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel achieved this in 1827 by shaping the outer surface of a lens into a series of concentric rings, at the centre of which was the light source. His invention solved the other problems, which were the weight, thickness and bulk of an ordinary spherical lens.
The light reflected from the lens in the Galata Museum was visible up to 27 miles (15 km) away.

Fronte del sarcofago di Pagano Doria

Scultore lombardo attivo a Genova

Fronte del sarcofago di Pagano Doria (13011)

MSA 43

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 90; Lunghezza: 233

marmo