Alessandro Poma (1874 - 1960)

The exhibition collects 62 works, most of which have never before been displayed, chosen to include all of the artist’s favourite themes and arranged thematically in the following sections: “Portraits”, “Rome and the Roman countryside”, “Villa Borghese”, “The Sorrento Plain”, “Butterflies”, “Trees and Mountains”.
The path of the exhibition “Alessandro Poma (1874 - 1960). Painter in the Villa Borghese” traces the thematic divisions in the catalogue of the same name (Gangemi Press) – which contains all of the works on display in the Carlo Bilotti Museum – moving slightly away, however, from the subdivision of the paintings into the following sections: “Villa Borghese”, “Rome and the Roman countryside”, “The Sorrento Plain”, “Trees and Mountains”, “Portraits”, “Horses, butterflies and swans”.
In the exhibition, the “horses” have been put in the “Rome and the countryside” section, while the “swans” are in the “Villa Borghese” section.
To create an affinity with the building that hosts the exhibition – the Carlo Bilotti Museum – attention has been concentrated on the 15 views inspired by the Villa Borghese, all unpublished, to give the visitors a rare art historical testimony of a place that is dear to all Romans.
Maurizio Calvesi, in his introduction has written «Alessandro Poma’s painting, measured but dynamic in its composition, sensitive and emotional in its strokes, vibrant in its use of colours, now sober, now rich, has moments of extraordinary intensity which have made Poma a qualified representative of Italian painting before the coming of futurism, yet also in accord in inspiration with his neighbour Giacomo Balla in their fineness of vision and the atmospheric, postimpressionist use of light».
Born in Biella in 1874, Alessandro Poma finished his studies in classics and attended the Faculty of Law in Turin. He then began his vocation as an artist in the Piedmontese environment, dominated by various prominent figures, from Fontanesi a Delleani to Avondo a Reycend. He soon moved to Rome, to the privileged lodging of Casina di Raffaello in the Villa Borghese.
From 1901 he was part of Giulio Aristide Sartorio’s entourage and frequently came into contact with “XXV della Campagna Romana” (a group of artists, created in 1904, with the aim of renewing the artistic tradition of drawing ‘from life’ in the environs of Rome, which continued its activities until 1930.) He particularly painted landscapes, mainly inspired by the Villa Borghese, but also on other themes, including figures, portraits and scenes of animals, particularly swans, butterflies, or animals grazing.
He exhibited in Rome, Turin, Milan and Venice, but he left the exhibition circuit in 1910, although he continued to work in solitude all his life, convinced that in order to express his talent (the extent of which he was profoundly aware) better, he should leave the artistic circles of the era. He shut himself up in almost total isolation until his death, which occurred at Courmayeur in 1960.