What a wonderful world

The Long Story of The Ornament in Art and Nature

a fascinating and original journey through the centuries to explore the extent to which Decoration and Ornament tell us about ourselves and our world. The decorative impulse is found in the earliest traces of human expression; it characterises past and present aesthetic creation without distinguishing between structural and accessory elements. Ornaments envelop us to such an extent that we are no longer aware of them. It is therefore a matter of acknowledging and identifying the (only apparently) minor lexicon that surrounds us in everyday objects, works of art, fashion and architecture.

The exhibition intends to investigate the origins and developments of the multifaceted union between daily life, art and decoration, and to then consider in detail the experiences of much of twentieth-century and new millennium art, in which themes of ornamentation have once again come to the fore. 

In addition to some items of Protohistory, the exhibition will span over two thousand years of art history, from the Roman period to the Middle Ages and on to the present day, with works by artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Leonardo da Vinci, Moretto, Giovan Battista Piranesi, William Morris, Alphonse Mucha, Koloman Moser, Maurits Cornelis Escher, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Giacomo Balla, Gino Severini, Sonia Delaunay, Josef and Anni Albers, Victor Vasarely, Arman, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Claudio Parmiggiani and Shirin Neshat.

What a Wonderful World
The Long Story of The Ornament in Art and Nature
Skira editore, 2019
16,5 x 24 cm; 320 pages; 208 colour illustrations; 55 b/w illustrations

Essays by:
Alessandra Anceschi, Marco Belpoliti, Maurizio Bettini, Sergio Bettini, Marco Biraghi, Antonio Bonfitto, Elena Canadelli, Massimo Carboni, Paolo Cesaretti, Enrico Maria Davoli, Giuseppe Di Napoli, Marzia Faietti, Pasquale Fameli, Claudio Franzoni, Paola Gandolfi, Roberto Gilodi, Thomas Golsenne, Marco Lazzarato, Liliana Leopardi, Gianfranco Marrone, Pierluca Nardoni, Simonetta Nicolini, Andrea Pinotti, Alessandra Sarchi, Roberta Sironi, Gian Luca Tusini, Riccardo Venturi, Gerhard Wolf, Luigi Zoja