“Mario Cavaglieri:
The Glittering Years 1912–1922”
at the Jewish Museum, New York.
October 2, 1994–January 29, 1995
To say that Mario Cavaglieri (1887–1969) is one of the
lesser-known figures in twentieth-century art is to risk an
understatement of sizable proportions. Although he is an artist of
some note in his native Italy, Cavaglieri is virtually unknown
throughout the rest of the world. “The Glittering Years” is the first
one-man exhibition of his work to be seen in the United States.
(Three of his paintings were included in the Jewish Museum’s 1989
show “Gardens and Ghettos: The Art of Jewish Life in Italy.”) In her
preface to the catalogue, Joan Rosenbaum, the director of the Jewish
Museum, writes that “The Glittering Years” will “undoubtedly
contribute to the ongoing revision of the history of Modernism.”
Given the work on view, this statement says more about the
institution’s optimism than it does about the quality of Cavaglieri’s
paintings.
The exhibition title takes as its conceit the “glitter” of both the
social milieu depicted in Cavaglieri’s work and the manner in which
it was painted. Born to wealthy parents, Cavaglieri filled his
paintings with members of the upper class and their trappings:
fashionable young women (and, though they appear less frequently,
men) strike poses in opulent interiors laden with exotica. It is said that
Cavaglieri wore a tuxedo while he painted. Whether this is true or
not is beside the point: it’s a memorable image that captures this
aspect of his