Andrea Sironi Strauβald, Mario Sironi’s nephew suceeded Claudia Gian Ferrari, ex President of the Association Mario Sironi in Milan.
Open every afternoon, on appointment, to researchers and amateurs and also for artwork’s owners looking for authentication, the New President affirms the Institution’s activity: “Our main activity is to examine, study, authenticate and provide documentary evidence to Mario Sironi’s work; to group, catalogue and archive all documentation linked to his artworks and his person. We take care and promote each kind of publication, organize conferences and seminars, promote exhibitions and protect his creativity from counterfeiting and fakes”.
In spite of the authentication service guaranteed by the Association, the President cares to underline that this institution is not active in the art market: “ Our activity concerns exclusively the historical-artistic field. This is the reason why no art dealers have been invited to take part in the association. We really appreciate gallery owners who make an honorable job, and we wish with them a profitable collaboration”.
“This association is a real archive, where historical research is valorized according to the document, which has a main role, as the smallest proof can reveal a new truth:” The archive’s role is to give heritage the possibility to survive; this is why the archive is not less important than the artworks. Without the archive, the artwork is like a body not fed. That is why we firmly think that everything should be conserved. Materials who are not conserved today are those who will lack tomorrow, and this will be an obstacle to knowledge”.
About the cataloguing of this material, we ask Andrea Sironi Strauβald his opinion on politics of online sharing of these precious sources of knowledge: “Technology helps, but projects grow in people’s brains. Personally I feel skeptic about both the idea of an incessant progress and the idea “Burn the candle at both ends”. Internet played an incisive role in relationships with other institutions or museums who hold Sironi’s artworks, the communication and collaboration with them necessary. On the website, in the Museums section, we can find a detailed list of institutions owing artworks by the artist: “This list is constantly uploaded. It is a good form of collaboration, museums give us lists and information about the artworks they own and we direct to them visitors interested in Sironi’s art. Furthemore we organize exhibitions with these museums, mostly scientific, with the aim to discover unknown aspects of Sironi’s work. An emblematic example is “Sironi. Lo Studio dell’Antico” organized last Autumn at Musei Civici in Padova. An exhibition far from the examples of superficiality that is unfortunately quite common these days”.
The same scientific precision is the basis of a remarkable work of authentication led by the Association, both to fight the market of Sironi’s fakes and to be an example in the expertise practice: “Authentication certificates are issued only after an attentive and accurate live examination of the artwork. I decided to completely assume the responsibility of authentication verdicts. I can assume this important role because of the great experience I have had with my grandfather’s artworks: the familiarity of the paintings since I was a child and the application of strict and precise scientific, historical and artistic methods. I waited a long time before releasing certifications: for the Association I started in 2010, after Claudia Gian Ferrari passed away. We cannot act as experts, we still need several years of work and practice”.
The main future project of the Association is the cataloguing of the whole artist’s work, a complex and long work, as Sironi himself had a very extended production, and there is still a lot of material non catalogued yet: “We are now scanning all pictures of published artworks: to group, digitalize, organize in periods, subject matters and destination will be a first indispensable step towards an exhaustive and complete documentation on Mario Sironi”.
Alice Ensabella
This post is also available in: Italian
