Corrado Cagli: Nostoi. Roma New York Taormina

SEPT. 26

Corrado Cagli: Nostoi. Roma New York Taormina stems from the renewed international interest in the work of Cagli (1910–1976), which culminated in the exhibition curated by Raffaele Bedarida at the Center for Italian Modern Art in New York in 2023. The exhibition explored the artist’s journey between Rome and the United States, from exile and war to his return to Italy in 1948. The New York exhibition focused on memory as a strategy of complexity and resistance to dominant narratives, concluding with the artist’s controversial return to Italy in 1948, when he refused to embrace the redemptive rhetoric that prevailed during the postwar reconstruction.

The Taormina exhibition expands on the New York project by also examining the artist’s relationship with Sicily. The title Nostoi evokes the Homeric theme of Odysseus’s return to his homeland—a theme that was fundamental to Cagli, yet ultimately impossible. For him, return was not a nostalgic longing for places from the past, but a continuous redefinition of identity. Rome, New York, and Taormina represent the principal settings of his personal and artistic journey: from Fascist and postwar Rome, to the New York of exile and renewal, and finally to Taormina in the 1960s, an international crossroads for artists and intellectuals. Together, the three cities are geographical, cultural, and identity-defining spaces.

Through the theme of nostos, the exhibition presents the story of an artist who lived through Fascism, exile, war, and renewal, and who found in Taormina a privileged vantage point from which to reconsider his own history and artistic language. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Dario Cimorelli Editore, featuring scholarly contributions by Franco Baldasso, Raffaele Bedarida, John Champagne, and Yasmin Riyahi. The volume explores such themes as Cagli’s relationship with Sicily, the dialogue between his art and the work of writers, queer strategies and homoerotic iconography, and his interest in football, sport, and popular culture. It is further enriched by numerous images and previously unpublished documents.