Giuseppe Bergomi: A Master of Contemporary Figurative Sculpture in Brescia

The city of Brescia pays tribute to one of its most illustrious figures, Giuseppe Bergomi, with an important anthology that looks back over his extraordinary career. He made his public debut in Brescia in 1978 at the Galleria dell’Incisione, where he presented an exhibition of paintings that, according to the artist himself: “allowed me to understand that I was, at the very least, the victim of a misapprehension”. In 1982, again at the Galleria dell’Incisione, he exhibited his first polychromatic works in terracotta. Bergomi returns to his native city with an exhibition set up in the evocative spaces of the Museum of Santa Giulia and the Castello." diventa "Bergomi returns to his native city with an exhibition set up in the evocative spaces of the Santa Giulia Museum and the Castle

Curated by the Brescia Musei Foundation, the exhibition is set out chronologically, allowing visitors to appreciate the artistic evolution of Bergomi, from his polychrome terracotta works to his more recent monumental bronze sculptures. The opening section provides an opportunity to admire Bergomi’s earliest works, which even at the time were an expression of technical mastery and his characteristic eye for realistic detail. However, it was with the series of polychrome terracotta works from 1982 that the artist established himself as one of the leading exponents of contemporary figurative sculpture. With these works, Bergomi embraces millennia of sculptural tradition, in particular drawing inspiration from ancient sculpture, first and foremost Etruscan. The dawn of the Twenty-First Century saw Bergomi move to bronze, a new material that allowed him to create more complex, monumental works. The most important works from this period include “Interno di bagno con figura femminile” (2001), busts of Ilaria with hair in a range of styles and the self-portrait from 2004.

In more recent years, Bergomi has also begun to take on public sculpture, creating works of grand visual impact such as “Uomini, delfini, parallelepipedi” for the Nagoya Aquarium in Japan, and the monument to Cristina Trivulzio di Belgiojoso in Milan. The exhibition ends with two recent works: “Africa con violoncello”, exhibited at the 2011 International Art Exhibition, and the never-before-exhibited "Colazione a letto” (2024), a tribute to three generations of the artist’s family. The exhibition “Giuseppe Bergomi: Sculture 1982/2024”, from 12 July to 1 December 2024, will offer a comprehensive panorama of the work of one of the most important living Italian sculptors. Bergomi’s work, characterised by great technical skill and profound artistic sensitivity, will undoubtedly move and amaze the public.