Mario De Maria, "Marius Pictor" | Dear Shadow

The Ottocento Museum Bologna on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his death (which occurred on March 18, 1924) celebrates symbolist painter Mario de Maria, also known as "Marius Pictor" through an exhibition "Marius Pictor (1852-1924). Dear Shadow scheduled from March 21 to June 30, 2024.  

The exhibition showcases 70 paintings, including unpublished, masterpieces and works rediscovered and restored for the occasion by the Museo Ottocento Bologna, which come from several prestigious Italian museum institutions (such as the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome, the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Milan, and the Gallerie degli Uffizi in Florence), as well as from national and international private collections. 

The event aims to create an examination of De Maria's production in order to delve into the peculiar path of the artist, a tormented and complex man, a companion of Gabriele D'Annunzio, the father of "Italian Symbolism" and one of the first founders of the Venice Biennale. 

The initiative is part of the project Bologna pittrice | Il Lungo Ottocento | Il Lungo Ottocento | 1796 - 1915, promoted by the Settore Musei Civici Bologna that involves 15 exhibition venues and builds a path in Bolognese painting from the Napoleonic age to the beginning of the Great War. The exhibition is curated by Francesca Sinigaglia. 

Ombra cara is divided into seven sections that reconstruct De Maria's life from his beginnings to the last years of his life: the itinerary is structured as a "narrative" through the words of the author, central to the artistic changes of the late 20th century. His words come from the letters De Maria sent to his friend Vittore Grubicy de Dragon, now preserved in the Grubicy archive at Mart in Rovereto and the De Maria archive at the Correr Museum Library in Venice. 

The exhibition starts from the author's early formative years in Bologna, then the Roman experience with D'Annunzio with the illustration of Isaotta Guttadauro, to the analysis of his personal contribution to the founding of the Venice Biennale. 

Ombra cara ends by investigating the relationship between De Maria and the cities of Asolo and Bologna, through the series dedicated to the Putredine of the House of Satan and the macabre narratives of the second half of the 1910s.