On the centenary of the founding of the Mosaic School at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ravenna, this exhibition aims to explore the reasons behind its establishment and the artistic experiences that have used the unique and deeply rooted language of mosaic to interpret contemporary life and the spirit of the times.
The centennial provides an invaluable opportunity to piece together not only from a historical point of view the successes and downturns of mosaic as an independent art form, but also to map and survey what is happening in the contemporary era.
The mosaic revival began at the end of the 19th century with the recovery of ancient mosaic techniques, initially aimed at restoring Ravenna’s cycles, and later, in the 1920s, at training skilled restorers. In the 1930s, mosaic decoration experienced an extraordinary period, with its use in monumental public art in line with a new modern sensibility.
In the post-war period, the cultural climate became extraordinarily rich with opportunities: from the need to restore ancient mosaics damaged by war, to new chances to engage with modern art. In all these contexts, mosaic revealed its versatility, acting as a vehicle for contemporary messages, embracing new interpretations, and becoming an “autonomous art,” freed from the preparatory drawing.
The 1959 Exhibition of Modern Mosaics, now permanently displayed at MAR – the Art Museum of Ravenna, was a decisive moment that cemented the importance of mosaic for modern artistic culture and renewed Ravenna’s and the Mosaic Group’s central role in the development and research of mosaic art.
From the second half of the 20th century onwards, mosaic gained full autonomy as a language and has been used with complete awareness in other forms of artistic expression, such as architecture and design.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the relationships between mosaicists and artists intensified in a climate of ferment and growing interest, culminating in the 1980s, particularly with the Transavantgarde movement.
Experimentation, the value of materials, and the role of light are just a few aspects of an intense and prolific exploration that led artists to work on large-scale projects for public spaces. Mosaic decoration became not just monumental but also aimed at the masses, with new urban purposes, three-dimensional subjects, and products for design, crossing various artistic trends and new sensibilities.
The multifaceted nature of mosaic has also enabled applications and research in the digital field, abstracting its material essence (the tile), sublimating it into a luminescent and dynamic recomposition, thus opening up new expressive frontiers and opportunities still waiting to be explored.
Throughout these phases, the role of the Ravenna Mosaic School, its teachers, and the artists involved has been crucial: creative freedom, experimentation, and the hybridization of the arts, combined with conceptual, technical, and material reworking, have been the key elements that still today allow the city of Byzantine cycles to remain an international reference point for mosaic culture.
The final room of the exhibition seeks to evoke the great daily excitement, passion, and research carried out today by teachers, students, and renowned artists invited for workshops in the studios of the Academy of Fine Arts of Ravenna, founded in 1827 and now state-run. This is a unique education worldwide, which, starting from the history and vocation of Ravenna, aims to provide artistic knowledge and skills that connect the art of mosaic with new technologies and the plurality of contemporary languages.