A life-size rhinoceros is among the stars of a new exhibition celebrating the Surrealist genius of 20th-century American artist Man Ray and contemporary Italian sculptor Stefano Bombardieri at the MLB Home Gallery in Ferrara.
Works by the pair are on show to coincide with a major retrospective of early Renaissance painter Cosme' Tura (1430-1495) at Ferrara's nearby Palazzo dei Diamanti.
Art historians have noted strange, surreal details in Tura's own work, such as a squirrel nibbling on a nut while perched on a beam above Mary's head in a painting of the Annunciation.
"Man Ray and Bombardieri are both linked to Tura by an eccentric expressivity," explained curator Maria Livia Brunelli.
"This exhibition is a homage to creativity and fantasy across the centuries and aims to renew our sense of wonder in the face of the mundane".
Some 30 works by Man Ray from private Italian collections are on show, including photographs, sculpture, assemblages and a late series of colourful zigzagging lithographs.
Famous for fronting the Dadaist 'anti-art' movement in New York alongside Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray moved to Paris in 1921 where he became involved with the early Surrealists.
Among the works in the exhibition from this transitional period are a series of photographs illustrating the artist's love of combining different objects to create surprising, and sometimes unsettling, results.
"Coat Stand" (1921) combines the head, neck and arms of a mannequin with the body of a nude female model, merging the materials of wood and flesh, while "The Enigma of Isidore Ducasse" (1920) shows a sewing machine that has been wrapped in thick material and tied up with string but whose lumps and bumps look worryingly human.
The assemblages in the exhibition include "The Pear of Erik Satie" (1969-73), featuring a plastic pear in a wooden box against an oil painting of a storm cloud and a huge black image of the fruit.
The French composer was supposedly very fond of pears, which were also Man Ray's favourites.
"The pear is the only fruit that really has a personality," he said. "No two pears ever taste the same".
RHINOS RECURRING THEME IN SCULPTOR BOMBARDIERI'S WORK.
Brescia-born sculptor Bombardieri, 39, is a rising star on the Italian art scene whose work is currently appearing at the Venice Biennale.
Art critic Alessandro Riva, who curated one of the sculptor's shows last year, describes him as "the puppet master of an extremely strange and breathtaking adventure playground where only he knows the rules".
Rhinoceroses are a recurring theme in Bombardieri's work, and on show here is his rhino armchair, "Black Over-Size", which is half seat, half mammal.
"The rhinoceros is evocative of far-away lands, and it attracts me because it's so close in physical appearance to many animals that are already extinct," explained Bombardieri.
"It seems placid and a bit melancholy, but it has an intrinsic Surrealism: paradoxically, despite its size, it's incredibly agile.
The show is taking place in a new art gallery opened in January this year inside Brunelli's personal apartment, which is situated on the first floor of a 15th-century building that also houses a dentist's surgery and other private homes.
One of Bombardieri's sculptures, "Big Baggage", has been positioned outside in the hall and features a collection of battered cases tied together with string but with a large rhino sandwiched in between them.
The work looks like the lost luggage of a 19th-century explorer back from an African game shoot, and the animal's wrinkled grey skin, two enormous horns and sad black eyes are unnervingly realistic.
"It has quite a disorienting effect on unsuspecting passers-by," Brunelli said.
Man Ray and Stefano Bombardieri: A Homage to the Surrealism of Tura runs at the MLB Home Gallery in Ferrara until 2 November.
