Filippo de Pisis: The Illusion of Superficiality

This catalog of the exhibition held in Florence at the Museo Novecento, from 18th March through 7th September 2022, investigates some key themes of the artistic production of one of the most complex personalities of the early twentieth century in Italy. Often accused of pursuing a painting with a "decorative superficiality" of a neo-impressionist matrix - due to the rapid and light brushstrokes and pleasant color combinations - de Pisis has instead built many of his major paintings through a game of references and references, autobiographical and cultural. This complexity is evident in the careful and studied selection of works in which the artist has adopted expedients such as the "picture within a picture", the mise en abyme of visual representation, the evocation of instruments of the trade, the allegorical composition that sometimes functions as a rebus.