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The idea of giving life in Arpino to a Foundation
named after Umberto Mastroianni, one of the most eclectic and
ingenious artists of the 20th century, arose around the beginning
of the 1970s from an encounter between the ‘ciociaro’
artist and Senator Massimo Struffi, at the time administrator
of the town of Arpino, and later become President of the Province
of Frosinone. It was supposed to give birth to a series of important
artistic activities on an international level for the promotion
of monumental sculpture, amongst which the most suggestive was
that of the Sacred Mountain of Sculpture, and of a territorial
museum of moving beauty that from the Acropolis of Civitavecchia
was supposed to invest all the communal territory and extend
itself to the whole province.
In 1985 the Provincial Administration of Frosinone bought the
Castle of Ladislaus of Arpino, at the moment being restructured,
destined to be the seat of the Umberto Mastroianni Foundation,
International Centre of Visual Arts.
The exhibition of the works of the Maestro, held in 1986 at
the Palazzo della Provincia of Frosinone, and his donation in
1992 of 81 works, signed the definite birth of a cultural-artistic
initiative of great importance. The Foundation, which today
rightly carries the name of Umberto Mastroianni, will become
the centre of the entire project. Active since 1993 in the temporary
seat of the Palazzo Boncompagni in Arpino (of municipal property),
with the name of ‘Centro Internazionale Umberto Mastroianni’,
it definitely becomes Foundation on 15th January 1999.
Today the Umberto Mastroianni Foundation proposes national and
international initiatives of a high cultural level, such as
to make it the propulsive and centrifugal element of significant
artistic proposals in the land of Ciociaria and in all the centre-south
of Italy.
It is with this wide perspective that new public bodies like
the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Small Industry and Agriculture
of Frosinone, the Tourism Promotion Company (APT) and the cities
of Veroli, Arpino, Sora, Cassino, Frosinone and Alatri have
been admitted as Founder Members into the Administration Council
of the Foundation.
Other towns amongst which Anagni, Ferentino and Isola del Liri
are about to join.
In this context therefore, the Foundation proposes
a museum section in which it is possible to admire The Mastroianni
Donation, composed of more than one-hundred works of the Maestro.
Furthermore, other nineteen monumental works are placed in various
sites of the town of Arpino, creating a sort of permanent exhibition
inserted in the town context.
New sections dedicated to Domenico and Alberto Mastroianni;
The Mastroiannis and Cinema: Marcello and Ruggero, and their
respective daughters Barbara, Chiara and Federica; and finally
The Mastroianni Ceramists: Arcangelo, Felice, Vincenzo and Emilio
are being prepared through a specific articulation. Besides
these, the collection of the works destined to give life to
the section of Modern Arts has begun. At the moment the works
of the artists to whom the Foundation has dedicated personal
exhibitions (see Art Exhibitions) are exposed, along with those
of the most representative artists of the province of Frosinone:
V. Balsamo, A. Bragaglia, G. Carboni, E. Carmi, G. Colacicchi,
L. Dall’Olio, E. Floridia, F. Gismondi, V. Grinberg, F.
Ippoliti, S. Lancioni, A. Lombardi, A. Loreti, G. Martinelli,V.
Miele, A. Mirò, R. Missaglia, F. Rea, G. Riccardi, M.
Romani and I. Scelza.
Amongst the statutory targets of the Foundation, is the valorisation
of the artists from Ciociaria, in particular the young generations
for whom specific initiatives will be organized. These, along
with those of the Mastroianni Museum of San Salvatore in Lauro
in Rome, will allow the Foundation not only the duty of safeguarding
the historic image of a great Maestro of Contemporary Art, but
will promote a deeper knowledge of the extraordinary Mastroianni
family. This, in fact, is the most recent and original example
of the genius of the inhabitants of Ciociaria, proved by the
ultra millenary history of the town of Arpino glorified by Cicero
and Caius Marius up to that extraordinary artist of the 17th
Century: Giuseppe Cesari, Il Cavalier d’Arpino.
Periodically, the Foundation organizes exhibitions of contemporary
artists to promote the knowledge of Modern Art in particular,
and it will create a Provincial Gallery of Modern Art in Frosinone,
the Woman Art Museum in Veroli, the International Architecture
Museum dedicated to Antonio Valente in Sora, the Biennial Museum
in Alatri, the Museum of Peace in Cassino and other initiatives
in the towns that will adhere.
Finally, the Foundation will promote the organization of post-graduate
international study courses held by the most famous sculptors
of the world, for the realization of a “Provincial Territorial
Museum”, according to the project and the desire of Umberto
Mastroianni.
Dottoressa Ida Perlo Mastroianni, the Maestro’s widow,
has been the Honorary President of the Foundation since its
constitution, and has followed all the initiatives with great
interest up till her recent death.
At the moment a web site of the Foundation has been activated:
www.fondazioneumbertomastroianni.it in order to supply information
regarding the life and the works of Umberto and the activities
of the Foundation and of the artists that have been invited
to compose the Contemporary Art section.
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