Detail of Ballerina, work by Rachel Feinstein, 2018 – At the Marino Marini Museum

Jennifer by Beatrice Brandini

The Museo Novecento presents a monographic exhibition by Rachel Feinstein, a series of works exhibited for the first time in Florence in some of the symbolic places of the cities, such as the Stefano Bardini Museum, Palazzo Medici Riccardi and the Marino Marini Museum.

The Assumption by Rachel Feinstein, 2021- At the Stefano Bardini Museum

Jesus study, work by Rachel Feinstein, 2021 – At the Stefano Bardini Museum

   

Press conference at the Stefano Bardini Museum. Sergio Risaliti, Costanza Savelloni and Rachel Feinstein

The exhibition curated by Sergio Risaliti and Stefania Rispoli is the first dedicated to this very interesting American artist in Italian museums.

       

Some glimpses of the wonderful Stefano Bardini Museum

The exhibition aims to bring the works created by the American artist into dialogue with the collections of the Stefano Bardini Museum, Palazzo Medici Riccardi and the Marino Marini Museum, the sculptural and pictorial works of Feinstein look to the Gothic and Renaissance, Florentine and Nordic tradition, and get involved with the masterpieces of the past, from Donatello to Michelozzo, up to the sculptures of the magnificent Marino Marini.

   

St. Agatha, by Rachel Feinstein at the Bardini Museum

       

Spats – Fireworks – Bandleader, works by Rachel Feinstein at the Bardini Museum

Glimpse of the Stefano Bardini Museum, works by Rachel Feinstein

Rachel Feinstein is famous for her female representations with dark tones, up to the fairy-tale, lighter and more dreamlike iconography. Among her most important works are those of the “Angels” series, in which Victoria’s Secret models are reinterpreted as superheroines but in a grotesque key, a complaint against the commodification of the female body. Or his “ferocious” investigation into luxury between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and again the beautiful paintings of saints, made without eyes on a mirrored base, the viewer can only see his…, becoming one with the painting he is looking at.

Press conference, beautiful and capable: Stefania Rispoli, Costanza Savelloni, Rachel Feinstein and Alessia Bettini

   

Artist Rachel Feinstein, wonderful!

The artist, born in Arizona and raised in Miami (both milestones), graduated from Columbia University in New York, in her work mixes romanticism and “vulgarity”, elegance and kitsch, amazement and banality, sacredness and profanity , reality and illusion.

“There are always dark, hidden messages behind beauty, and the act of sculpting is about listening to that inner voice that warns you of something that lurks beneath the surface.” Rachel Feinstein

   

Glimpses of Rachel Feinstein’s works at the Marino Marini Museum (Fireworks, 2018)

   

Glimpses of Rachel Feinstein’s works at the Marino Marini Museum (Feathers, 2018)

What we are witnessing in these three magical places is truly an interesting triangulation, first of all it is an opportunity to see, or see again, the Bardini Museum, the Marino Marini Museum and Palazzo Medici Riccardi, three jewels that house exceptional treasures and which already, separately, they would be worth a visit, but also because this umpteenth Florentine exhibition places us in front of a stimulating comparison, Florence always looks ahead without denying its past, but rather enhancing it in a new vision and/or dimension.

   

Glimpses of Rachel Feinstein’s works at the Marino Marini Museum (Ballerina, 2021)

I was really impressed by Rachel Feinstein during the press conference. She seemed almost incredulous to me, certainly grateful, for the wonderful opportunity offered to her in exhibiting her works in Florence, in these prestigious venues. It is we, spectators, who say thank you her, for the imagination, humility and passion that transpires in her works and in her being a woman so full of talent and humanity.

Glimpses of Rachel Feinstein’s works at the Marino Marini Museum (a work by Marino Marini in the left background)

Rachel Feinstein in Florence

The exhibition will be visible from 9 June to 18 September.

Good life to everyone!

Beatrice