Garda-Inspired Art: Exhibition Honors Painters Adele Calegari, Jenne Cavazzoni
Adele Calegari and Jenne Cavazzoni, painters, linked much of their artistic experience to the lake and especially to Garda. The former passed away in 1950, the latter in 1996. Now, the lakeside town pays tribute to them with an exhibition opening today at 3:00 PM at the Palazzo dei Congressi.
The exhibition will remain open from December 27 to 31, with hours from 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM and from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM. “It was certainly not easy for women in early 20th-century Italy,” says deputy mayor Fabio Gaggia, curator of the exhibition, “to break into the art world. But in an educated and forward-looking environment like Milan, Adele and Jenne had the opportunity to make their mark and to study, which was quite rare for those times, at the Accademia di Brera.”
Although belonging to two different generations (almost twenty-five years apart), they demonstrated similar sensitivities. Their creativity had moments of glory during the Fascist regime. World War II was tragic for both, but after wandering through various seaside resorts, they found Garda to be the ideal environment to spend the last years of their lives, leaving behind, here and there, not only their pictorial and sculptural works but also a legacy of affection.
Their paintings often reveal an unconditional love for Garda. Adele Calegari was born in Milan in 1884. She always preferred to describe herself as a Milanese. She was part of the Milanese Society of Fine Arts. From an early age, she loved to depict mountain landscapes, marine and lake environments, still lifes, and flowers, most of which were created during her frequent travels.
Many of her works are now owned by the municipal library of Garda. “We can state,” observes Gaggia, “that Adele used her brush to compose a documented travel diary: the journey of her life.” Thus, her artworks show Liguria, Chioggia, the Alps, Prague (before the Nazi occupation), and finally, almost obsessively, Garda, often covered with a soft blanket of snow.
In love with the fishing village, she never had the support of official critics. But many residents of Garda still remember her as a true painter today. Jenne Cavazzoni was born in Venice in 1908. Her family had temporarily moved to the lagoon: her father was tasked with restoring some historic buildings in Piazza San Marco after the collapse of the legendary bell tower.
Culturally raised in Milan, after winning scholarships and awards for young artists (at the end of the 1920s), she fully entered the artistic life. She was primarily a sculptor: she masterfully modeled clay. World War II devastated her studio, destroying many of her works.
Later, painting took over, and with colors, she expressed a rich inner world of sensations and emotions, capturing the poetic and sometimes dramatic aspects of life. In many of her works, from the 1970s onward, one can sense her deep affection for Garda and its landscape, as well as the countless relationships she cultivated during her years by the lake.
