Exhibitions, studies and catalogues of twentieth-century art in Treviso and the Veneto
The first exhibition curated by Goldin (Il segno, l’immagine. Esperienze grafiche nella Marca Trevigiana) was held at Asolo (Treviso) in October 1984 and was dedicated to the history of drawing in Treviso, starting from the years between the two wars. This was his first contact with the specialised study of engraving, which was to occupy him for several years, and was partly based on his experience of living in a region that boasted some leading twentieth-century Italian engravers, such as Alberto Martini, Arturo Martini, Barbisan and Bianchi Barriviera.
This initial exhibition marked the beginning of in-depth studies which were to give rise to over a decade of exhibitions, mainly historical surveys and reconstructions dedicated to the art of Treviso in the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. These exhibitions were mostly held at the Palazzo Sarcinelli, Conegliano, the Casa dei Carraresi, Treviso and the Casa di Giorgione and Galleria del Teatro Accademico, Castelfranco Veneto. The dozens of exhibitions were accompanied by catalogues which today are still often the only published versions of the works of some overlooked and little-studied artists.
Two of these fundamental rare editions are now impossible to find: Incisori trevigiani del Novecento (1987) and Pittura a Treviso tra le due guerre (1990). Both books gave rise to large exhibitions at the Palazzo Sarcinelli, Conegliano. The first was a reconstruction of a century of engraving in Treviso, from Alberto Martini, Gino Rossi and Arturo Martini to the younger generation. The second, a volume of over 400 pages of essays, also by other experts, was the result of long research that had cast light on previously overlooked artists, who then featured in the exhibition. This had involved tracking down works in almost inaccessible private collections, which were published for the first time. Pittura a Treviso tra le due guerre today is still the only overall reference work for the complex history of Treviso painting in the first half of the twentieth century.
Goldin also curated vast solo exhibitions of the work of Treviso artists active in both the first and second half of the twentieth century, always accompanied by catalogues and essays. The exhibitions were held at the Casa dei Carraresi, Treviso, from 1990 to 1994 and featured artists such as Sante Cancian, Juti Ravenna, Nando Coletti, Lino Bianchi Barriviera, Carlo de Roberto, Bruno Darzino, Renato de Giorgis and Renato Nesi. In Conegliano the solo exhibitions were devoted again to De Giorgis and then Giuseppe Basso, while at Castelfranco Veneto, there was a large exhibition on the landscapes of Nino Springolo.
Goldin’s work on the Treviso artist Giovanni Barbisan, one of the greatest twentieth-century Italian engravers, deserves a separate mention. There had already been a large retrospective exhibition and catalogue in 1986, in the headquarters of the Amministrazione Provinciale di Treviso, with, for the first time, a focus his very fine early works, some of which were published. Then in 1991-1993, at the behest of the family, some fundamental critical reference tools were published on the work of the painter and engraver. In 1991 a large monograph was published by Electa, with new essays exploring Barbisan’s whole career, illustrated with examples starting from the 1920s. Then in 1993 Goldin curated the general catalogue of the engravings. Lastly, in late 1991 what is still the largest exhibition ever dedicated to Giovanni Barbisan (150 paintings and engravings) was held at the Casa dei Carraresi, Treviso.
In 1985 a long essay on Veneto landscape painting – Bellini, Giorgione and Titian up to Gino Rossi and other Ca’ Pesaro painters – appeared in the catalogue to his exhibition Pittori nel paesaggio. Dipinti veneti 1910-1950, at the Casa di Giorgione, Castelfranco Veneto. The theme of the landscape, previously studied in Treviso and Veneto art, then in Italian art as a whole, and lastly in Europe and America, has been a leitmotif in all his critical research and in the attendant large-scale exhibitions, essays or books.
In addition to Treviso and Veneto art, he also began to study some key figures in the twentieth-century art history of the neighbouring region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. This led to some large retrospective exhibitions organised in the Villa Manin at Passariano, accompanied by extensive catalogues or monographic studies on artists such as Anzil and Celiberti. But the Villa Manin exhibitions also featured Italian and international art: Zigaina (2009), and Afro and the Basaldella brothers (2010). Goldin had enjoyed a very close relationship with Zigaina since 1990 and the artist asked him to write a vast monograph in two volumes, which was published by Electa in 1995; the second volume consisted of a general catalogue of the artist’s engravings.
Then in 1996, the Villa Manin hosted the largest exhibition ever on Armando Pizzinato, a protagonist of the Fronte Nuovo delle Arti. In this case, too, Electa published a monograph entirely written by Goldin, the outcome of long archive research, studies of the correspondence and documents preserved by Pizzinato, and conversations with him.
In 2004, at the Museo di Santa Giulia, Brescia, Goldin presented over thirty remarkable works by Gino Rossi, twenty years after his previous exhibition. The Venetian artist, who spent a long time in Treviso, was one of the greatest Italian painters in the first two decades of the twentieth century.
