Starting in Turin, the new directorship of Bellini and Merz was announced by the Castello di Rivoli (where Artissima 2010 will be directed by Francesco Manacorda).  At the same time, the Japanese Gallery of the Museum of Oriental Art has been brightened up by the loan of a set of fifty prints by Utagawa Hiroshige from the UniCredit Group Art Collection.

Curated by Guy Covegal and Beatrice Avanzi, and under the direction of Gabriella Belli, Marie-Paule Vial, and Matthew Teitelbaum, the show now open at the MART stems from an international collaboration involving that museum, the Direction des Musées de Marseille, and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, with special support from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.  Open until May 23, 2010, From Stage to Painting: TheMagic of Theatre in 19^th-Century Painting, fromDavid to Delacroix, and Füssli to Degas presents roughly 200 works, including paintings, drawings and set models from public and private collections all over the world.  The show uses the theatre and stage sets as indicators of the progress of painting towards a modern idiom, from the end of the 18^th century to the early 20^th century.  It is a unique opportunity to admire masterpieces on display for the first time in Italy, by artists from Jacques-Louis David to Eugène Delacroix, from Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres to Edgar Degas, among many others.

The solo exhibition of Cristina Iglesias at the Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro will continue until March 21, 2010.  The show represents a unique experience of space, "a meeting of water, earth, light, monastic architecture, with passages through bronze gardens made up of unyielding and thus everlasting vegetables and plants, shadows of alabaster surfaces, transparent stained glass, and much more."

At the MAMbo, following a show dedicated to Zorio, a master of Arte Povera, the movement will be celebrated in 2011 with a series of shows curated by Germano Celant.  A great review, open from March 25 to July 25, will explore the cinematic art of Fellini.  Curated by Sam Stourdzé, Fellini, la Grande Parade is intended to expose the mechanisms of Fellini's creative method by using a cross-disciplinary approach, combining film visuals with photos, as well as with artworks inspired by the director's work.

Several shows on the calendar at the MACRO are being managed by Luca Massimo Barbero, a member of the Scientific Commission of UniCredit & Art.  These offer much to look forward to, from a retrospective exhibition dedicated to Urs Luthi to an imposing installation by Cucchi, from the younger Valentino Diego and Pietro Ruffo to a tribute to Oscar Savio and his black-and-white shots - all of which will be open until April 5.  And starting on March 10, an imposing installation by French artist Daniel Buren, also created with the support of UniCredit Group, will welcome visitors at the entrance to the museum.

Moving from Italy to the international scene, A Feast for the Eyes: Food in Still Life will be open until May 30, as the Bank Austria Kunstforum investigates the still-life genre, interpreting food as a mirror of social change, from modern to contemporary art.  In collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung in Munich presents an exhibition on India and treasures from royal collections, seen here for the first time in Europe, from February 12 to May 24.

Curated by Ulrich Domröse, a retrospective dedicated to German photographer Herbert Tobias will be open until March 28 at the Galerie Rudolfinum in Prague.  The show travels through the oeuvre of an artist regarded as the enfant terrible among post-war photography, whose images - imbued with fantastic elements, as well as with melancholy and nostalgia - explore the difficulty of capturing one's own nature.

On March 8, the UniCredit Pavilion in Bucharest will announce the names of the artists, the venues, and the opening events that will make up the upcoming fourth edition of the Bucharest Biennial, curated by Felix Vogel.

Stay tuned!

(Photo: Edgar Degas - L'orchestra dell'Opéra, c.1870. Olio su tela, cm 56,5 x 46. Parigi, Musée d'Orsay Mart)

INFO

www.castellodirivoli.org  Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli Turin

www.artissima.it  Artissima, Turin

www.maotorino.it  MAO, Turin

www.mambo-bologna.org/eventi MAMbo Bologna

www.mart.trento.it  Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto

www.fondazionearnaldopomodoro.it Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, Milan

www.macro.roma.museum/ Macro, Rome

www.bankaustria-kunstforum.at  Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna

www.hypo-kunsthalle.de Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich

www.galerie-rudolfinum.com  Galerie Rudolfinum, Praha

www.pavilionunicredit.org  Pavilion UniCredit, Bucharest

www.bucharestbiennale.org Bucharest Biennale