Afranio Metelli Centenary Project, curated by Serena Schioppa

Opening: 14 December, 11.30–13.30
Until 23 February (Monday 10.30–13.30, Thursday to Sunday 10.30–13.00 and 14.30–17.30)

A tribute to Afranio Metelli (1924–2011) celebrating the Umbrian artist’s centenary, curated by Mahler & LeWitt Studios curatorial fellow Serena Schioppa. Metelli was known for his diverse practice incorporating drawing, collage, painting and sculpture. A typical Afranio thing! presents four key cycles of works, all focused on the repetition of particular subjects: self-portraits, still lives, boxers and ‘after’ Balthus, a series inspired by the French artist’s famous painting Guitar Lesson. The subtle variations which appear throughout each cycle create a contrast between the familiar and the unknown, the everyday and the exceptional. Metelli obsessively manipulated his subjects, turning each painting into a visual ritual in which he copies and elaborates incessantly.

A typical Afranio thing! focusses on just four series in order to emphasise the urgency Metelli felt in understanding and promoting art as an ongoing, daily conversation capable of responding to current feelings and ideas – unfolding arguments, occasionally finding accords – and so being constantly new and relevant.

Each series reveals a complex plot made up of small differences. Every work testifies to Metelli’s constant research on the possibility of generating new meanings through repetition. Metelli and Sol LeWitt, who lived and worked in Spoleto for extensive periods throughout his career, were close friends and colleagues: their common interest in seriality is not insignificant. 

A typical Afranio thing! encourages the viewer to focus on details, to discover hidden differences and to reflect on the aesthetic value of reiteration. The latter, for Metelli, is never redundant, but seems to become a meditative and, at the same time, practical act: a continuous rediscovery that transforms art into an infinite process of variation. 

The exhibition is the result of a residency carried out by Schioppa at the Mahler & LeWitt Studios in partnership with the Afranio Metelli studio and archive. The exhibition also provided the opportunity for the cleaning and stabilisation of selected works, including framing. 

The Musei Civici di Spoleto and the Metelli family would like to thank Carol LeWitt for her generous support of the Afranio Metelli Centenary Project. 

Afranio Metelli was born in Campello sul Clitunno in 1924. After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia, he moved to Gualdo Tadino, an Umbrian city where he worked as a ceramic decorator until 1952. He then moved to the French Riviera, attracted by the artistic environment of Vallauris, where the influence of Picasso deeply marked his style. In 1954 he was in Rome and, starting in 1960, he began to experiment with abstract forms, using innovative techniques and materials. After a period in Mexico, where he concentrated on the reproduction of Mayan images, and a period in Los Angeles, he returned to Italy in 1971, participating in numerous exhibitions. Starting in the 1980s he exhibited in various galleries, especially in Umbria, and in 1991-92 he participated in Sol LeWitt’s Open Mind exhibition in Hartford. Metelli died in Spoleto on 28 June 2011.