Modarte: a collaboration between fashion and art
 

Temple University Rome is pleased to present the exhibition Modarte: A Collaboration Between Fashion and Art, featuring works by Atelier Sorelle Fontana, Carla Accardi & Antonio Sanfilippo, and Maison Valentino & Alfredo Pirri.

The inauguration will take place on Tuesday, January 14, and the exhibition will officially open to the public the new spaces of the Gallery of Art, Temple University Rome, located at Via di San Sebastianello 16.

With our location adjacent to the Spanish Steps, we are proud to be part of this magical Roman square, rich in history. Piazza di Spagna has long been a meeting point for foreigners and pilgrims entering Rome from Piazza del Popolo: in the Middle Ages, the area was a crossroads for merchants, pilgrims, and artisans who gathered around the ports of the Tiber River.

As a point of convergence for the historic center of Rome, the Piazza di Spagna area became home to the emerging artistic community in the postwar period. Via Margutta, already known as the street of artists —Picasso had his studio here in the early 20th century — and Via del Babuino, home to the studios of Antonio Canova, Carla Accardi, and many others, are just steps away. Here, galleries such as l’Attico, l’Obelisco, Sperone, and Marlborough, and even on our own street, La Salita, introduced American and international contemporary art to the Roman public.

At the same time, various fashion houses were emerging, developed from the vision, courage, and creativity of tailors, designers, and stylists who established their boutiques on the square. The atelier Sorelle Fontana opened in 1949, followed by Valentino in 1959.

This exhibition presents the first in a series of investigations into collaborations between art and fashion, titled “Modarte”. We will showcase the partnership between Atelier Sorelle Fontana, Carla Accardi & Antonio Sanfilippo and Maison Valentino & Alfredo Pirri.

Alfredo Pirri collaborated with Alessandro Michele, Creative Director of Maison Valentino, for the Pavillon des Folies runway show (Paris, September 29, 2024). The runway floor was animated by the artwork Passi, first presented in 2003, and inscribed in a broader study on light. The piece, recreated and adapted by Pirri for this occasion in collaboration with Michele, involves the audience in the process of fragmenting the vision of reality, through the gradual fragmentation of glass as they walk across it.

In 1959, the Sorelle Fontana hosted a painting competition among the most prestigious artists of the time, titled 16 Painters for 16 Dresses, with the theme of Abstract Art. Carla Accardi and her husband Antonio Sanfilippo, key figures in the Forma 1 movement in postwar Rome, participated. Accardi exhibited Integrazione No. 19, a black-and-white canvas, and Sanfilippo presented a tempera painting titled Untitled. We will present works similar to the originals, along with videos, photos, and drawings of the clothing made from the fabric.

We thank the Fondazione Micol Fontana Foundation, the Maison Valentino, and the Archivio Accardi Sanfilippo.

For additional information: Shara Wasserman, Director of Exhibitions shara@temple.edu