Above: Richard Avedon’s 1981 photograph, “Natassja Kinski and the Serpent,” is superimposed over one of a cage protecting a cluster of bones in the crypt below Sant’Anna la Misericordia, home to Palermo’s Galleria d’Arte Moderna.
Granted this Richard Avedon photo of “Natassja Kinski” in the nude was not displayed in such close proximity to bones in the crypt of the church of Sant’Anna alla Misericordia, but, after all, nothing is more naked than bones. And churches in Italy have always been home to art, religious art that in the time of its creation was considered contemporary.
When citizens in Palermo determined they needed to have a Modern Art Museum in 1906, they boldly ventured forth to Venice in 1907 to acquire avant-garde works to supplement their Sicilian collection. Launched in 1895, the Venice Biennale quickly garnered international prestige. Ongoing buying trips through the years enabled the museum to trace the evolution of symbolism and modernism in art.
Continue reading “Postcard from Palermo, Sicily: Modern art in Sant’Anna haunt”
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