Blue Thread - Collection of Claudio Dedenaro (Trieste 1952–2017)
Blue Thread - Collection of Claudio Dedenaro (Trieste 1952–2017)
Avgust Černigoj, his companions and students
Biedermeier Living Room of the Coronini Counts
At the Regional Museum Goriški muzej we are presenting the donation of works by Triestine art historian and curator, Laura Safred, who donated nine graphic works and drawings from the Blue Thread collection of the Triestine collector and her friend Claudio Dedenaro, who died in 2017. The works were created by artists who began working in the Central European area from the 1960s onwards and were created between 1977 and 2011.
The Soča river area is represented by Patrizia Devidè (with a diptych) and Giorgio Valvassori (with two works), the Triestine artists are Nino Perizi, Cesare Picotti, and Lucio Saffaro, while the artists from other countries are Dora Kovačević from Croatia, Franz Pichler from Austria, and Viktor Vasarely from Hungary.
The donation significantly contributes to the museum's efforts to establish a dialogue between art from previous centuries with contemporary practices and the artists themselves, who come from different historical dimensions and are marked by diverse cultural and national identities. Laura Safred, who has been active in Austria, Croatia, Italy, and Slovenia for decades, wishes to support this purpose. The donation also stems from her desire for Claudio Dedenaro to be remembered for his intellectual curiosity and ability to empathize with art. His exemplary network of friendly relationships with artists, which is fundamental to the character and development of the shared cultural territory, was also commendable.
Claudio Dedenaro was born in 1952 in Trieste, where he worked as a computer programmer. He combined his knowledge of technology with a love for contemporary art and music in its most experimental forms. With Laura Safred, they befriended artists from Trieste and Gorizia, Dedenaro followed their development and helped them set up exhibitions. In gratitude, they gave him some works, which were connected by his love for the colour blue, experiencing it as warm and emotional. After his sudden death, his collection was inherited by his brother Roberto, a teacher, poet, cultural event organizer in the Repentabor municipality, and founder of Group 85 for international cultural connections in Trieste – mainly between Slovenes and Italians. Roberto donated all the works to Laura Safred.
PATRIZIA DEVIDÈ (Monfalcone, 1955)
Together with Roberto Kusterlet and Giorgio Valvassori, she is one of the most innovative artists of the contemporary art scene in the Soča river area. She studied at the Ljubljana Academy and was a student of Avgust Černigoj. Patrizia Devidè explores existential themes, in parallel to the fields of installation and painting. In pastel technique, she primarily draws free and abstract forms in primary colours. She dedicated some works, including a wall painting, to her maternal family, originating from Miren.
DORA KOVAČEVIĆ (Dubrovnik, 1951)
Dora Kovačević is dedicated to decorative practices and teaching. She belongs to the generation of Croatian artists who revived the relationship between local tradition and international movements in the 1980s. In her works she uses mainly textiles and graphic techniques. She also worked in Trieste, thanks to the cultural mediation of the poet, translator and art critic Tonko Maroević (Split, 1941–Stari Grad, 2020), who re-established relations between Croatian and Italian artists.
NINO PERIZI (Trieste, 1917–1994)
After World War II, Perizi dedicated himself to neo-cubist painting, then focused on abstract metal sculpture, which also intervened in public space. In the 1970s, he joined the Association of Artists for the Renewal of the Art System and also taught at the Art School of the Revoltella City Museum in Trieste. He and Avgust Černigoj were the most important educators of numerous artists from Trieste.
FRANZ PICHLER (Seckau, 1960)
His sculptural activity was marked by a return to free and colourful forms, which gained prominence in the 1980s in the dynamic environment of Graz, within the framework of the Trigon art biennale of Austria, Italy, and the former Yugoslavia. The biennale was organized by the Modern Gallery in Graz and expanded to other Central European countries. After 2000, Pichler mainly dedicated himself to teaching.
CESARE PICOTTI (Trieste, 1940–2024)
Cesare Picotti worked in the field of visual arts in Trieste, organizing multidisciplinary events, and he himself created experimental and ironic works as an artist. He first operated within the Cappella Underground association, which, since 1968, had been dedicated to cinematography, music, and visual arts. In 1988, he was among the founders of the Teatro Miela Reina, an international center for performances, where important meetings between Italian and Slovenian artists took place.
LUCIO SAFFARO (Trieste, 1929–Bologna, 1998)
Born in Trieste, Lucio Saffaro worked in Bologna and was a pioneer in the field of electronic art, which he developed in the 1980s from the study of the structure of Renaissance polyhedrons. His works, dedicated to the relationship between art and science, were presented at the Venice Biennale in 1986. He combined his passion for science with artistic creation, resulting in his unique interpretation of geometric shapes, later printed in silkscreen. The University of Bologna dedicated a foundation to the artist.
GIORGIO VALVASSORI (Gorizia, 1947)
Sculptor Giorgio Valvassori is represented by two creations that encompass his work. Through his graphics, the artist expresses the expressionist side of his character, while he uses project drawing as an independent language to develop environmental installations, establishing a dialogue between the weight of matter and the visual lightness of created forms. Other works by this artist, who establishes dialogue with Italian and Slovenian creators from both sides of the border along the Soča river area, are already present in the museum collection at Kromberk Castle.
VIKTOR VASARELY (Pécs, 1906–Paris, 1997)
Vasarely is among the protagonists of optical art; in 1965, he was awarded at the Ljubljana Graphic Biennale. He created an extensive oeuvre of vibrant colours in silkscreen technique. The graphic titled Battor arises from a series dedicated to the star Vega. In it, the artist delved into surface variations of the sphere as a model for expanding of the universe. In this way, he enhanced the geometric grid, learned during his training at the Hungarian art school inspired by Bauhaus.
Location: Online exhibition
From:
28 Mar 2025
Till:
31 Dec 2025
Donation of Laura Safred to the Regional Museum Goriški muzej