In Faenza, the city of ceramics, this exhibition is coming, displaying about three hundred pieces including ceramics (including several unpublished ones) and preparatory drawings to document the various phases of the activity of one of the most important Italian protagonists of the Liberty era.
Chini was a versatile artist, among the pioneers of Art Nouveau in Italy of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but also a refiner of the Deco taste developed during the twenties. He devoted himself passionately to the art of ceramics, with a varied, original and highly personal production, as well as to painting and fresco painting.
His experience is also linked to architecture: famous is his intervention at the Terme Berzieri spa in Salsomaggiore (1923) one of the most interesting examples of eclectic Deco buildings. This was a colossal task for the Chini factory, so much that, for this commitment, the factory had to be enlarged and they had to expand the kilns.
The Chini workshop created the ceramic decoration of the Castrocaro Baths.
It should also be noted that Chini decorated the rooms devoted to the arts at the Torricelliana Exposition in Faenza in 1908.
Chini also worked for the theater: among his best-known works are the sets for the first Turandot performed in 1926 by Arturo Toscanini.
Chini’s ceramic work is recounted through a rich ceramic itinerary consisting of five sections, with scenic insights recreating the historical and cultural environment in which the artist worked.
Other important realities that preserve architecture created by the Bottega Chini such as Salsomaggiore, Castrocaro, Borgo San Lorenzo, and Montecatini Terme are involved in a network project aimed at enhancing the complex and articulated work of this extraordinary craftsman. The idea is to suggest a map of “Chini” routes that can encourage tourist-cultural flows.
