Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò Hosts Exhibition of Giorgio Morandi Etchings through Oct. 31

An exhibition of etchings by one of the most influential contributors to minimalism Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964) is on exhibit through Oct. 31 at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, 24 W. 12th Street. Gallery hours are weekdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.  For further information, call 212-998-3851.  
    
The exhibition is held in conjunction with a major retrospective of Morandi’s work, on view through Dec. 14, 2008, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and an exhibition entitled “Giorgio Morandi: Watercolors and Drawing 1920-1963” at the Italian Cultural Institute in New York.
    
Morandi has, throughout work in various media, drawn a paradox between simple form and non-specific abstraction.  By turning his attention to apparently neutral, repeated themes — still lifes of familiar domestic objects, views from his apartment on Bologna’s Via Fondazza, scenes of the Emilia-Romagna countryside — Morandi freed himself of having to conceive of each picture as a new, unprecedented, narrative event.  In the etchings, he considered the essential, abstract issues of picture-making itself.