My Morandi - (Ekphrasis) by Luigi Magnani (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The Italian painter Giorgio Morandi is recounted as a friend and artist in this memoir by Luigi Magnani, an art historian and devoted collector of Morandi's work

One of the most beloved and critically acclaimed artists of the twentieth century, Giorgio Morandi painted serial and permutational arrangements of everyday objects that elevated the quotidian into the sublime. In 1940, he struck up a decades-long friendship with entrepreneur, musicologist, art historian, and collector Luigi Magnani.

My Morandi is the first full-length English translation of Magnani's memoir reflecting on his bond with the artist and his long-standing academic and personal interest in Morandi's paintings. Magnani recounts the artist's aloofness from artistic trends and his dedication to painting for a small, discerning audience. He locates Morandi within the art-historical canon as well as chronicles their artistic and intellectual kinship, which led to a unique, rich collection of Morandi's work at Magnani's villa in Mamiano, now the Magnani Rocca Foundation. Magnani's personal collection of Morandi's work was on view at David Zwirner, New York, in 2025. Originally published in 1982 in Italian, this memoir is accompanied by a new preface by curator and scholar Alice Ensabella and an introduction by Stefano Roffi, director of the Magnani Rocca Foundation.

About the Author

Luigi Magnani (1906-1984) was one of the world's most refined art collectors. In his residence in Mamiano di Traversetolo near Parma--now home to the Magnani-Rocca Foundation--he created a pantheon of great artists from every era, including Dürer, Titian, Goya, Canova, and later Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, and de Chirico. With fifty works by Giorgio Morandi, a collection which Magnani formed in collaboration with the artist, the Magnani-Rocca Foundation holds one of the world's most important collections of the Italian master. Magnani was a music and art critic, and authored many essays of exquisite originality and elegance.

Antony Shugaar is a writer and a translator from the Italian and the French. He has translated numerous articles for the New York Review of Books and nearly forty novels for Europa Editions. He has translated many novels that were awarded Italy's highest literary award, the Strega Prize, and he is the recipient of two National Endowment of the Arts fellowships.

Alice Ensabella is an associate professor in contemporary art history at the University of Grenoble Alpes.

Stefano Roffi is the scientific director of the Magnani-Rocca Foundation. He oversees the foundation's permanent collection and curates and special exhibitions, with a focus on Italian twentieth-century artists and movements.