The exhibition will be curated by Prof. Lidia Reghini di Pontremoli, historian and art critic and the catalogue will be curated by Simona Gentile and AUR student Nicole Dal Porto. The exhibition management team will also include Nicole and Valentina Castellani.

The Irish Ambassador to Italy, H.E. Patrick Hennessy, will be present at the inauguration, with the Cultural Attache Amal Kaoua and Dr. Andrew Thompson, AUR’s President ad Interim.

The works in the exhibition will include oil paintings, prints and mixed media realized between 2004 and 2012. The basic theme is trees and nature in general with an introspective analysis of reality. Prof. Ennis will show around 22 pieces covering the latest period of her research.

Opening hours: Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to l p.m. (closed sundays)

For further information contact Prof. Ennis b.ennis@aur.edu or Lidia Reghini di Pontremoli.

• Download the exhibition poster in PDF format.

The two works exhibited by Prof. Ennis are as follows: ‘Alberi nel Vento d’Umbria n.1′ (pastelli Morbidi, Acrilico) on Fabriano paper (measuring 70 cm x 50 cm) and ‘La Madonna della Roccia’ (Acrilico, pastelli morbidi, pastelli ad olio, carboncino) on Fabriano paper (measuring 30 cm x 36 cm). The exhibition comes under the patronage of the City of Gubbio, The Province of Perugia and the Marche Region and is organized by the Associazione Culturale Gubbio ‘Nautartis’ and is curated by Matilde Orsini.

Gubbio is a magnificent Mediaeval city with a great cultural tradition.

"Introspezione" by Prof. Breda Ennis

An art work by Prof. Breda Ennis is presently being shown in an international mixed exhibition being held in Candelara di Pesaro.    The exhibition, curated by Dott. Lorenzo Fattori, was organized to celebrate ‘Woman as a hero in society’ and coincides with Women’s Day, the 8^th of March.    The show will be visible from the 2^nd to the 25^th of March in the Sala del Capitano of Candelara.

Each artist had to present a new work, done in 2012, using Fabriano Paper in order to celebrate the Region of Marche where the city of Fabriano produces their world famous brand of quality art paper for drawings, paintings and printmaking.  The work presented by Prof. Ennis is entitled ‘Introspezione’ (soft pastels on paper – measuring 31cm by 41 cm).

A commission of experts chose the works to be put on show.  The participating artists come from Italy, Ireland, Russia, Cuba etc.

The exhibition was inaugurated on the 2^nd of March by Matteo Ricci, Presidente della Provincia di Pesaro e Urbino.  This is the first exhibition of its kind organized by the Pro Loco Association of Candelara and is linked to a new Museum of Candelara which will be opened shortly in the Candelara/Urbino/Pesaro area and works by the participating artists will be considered for inclusion in the permanent collection of this museum.

Patronage for the exhibition comes from the Pro Loco Candelara, the Regione Marche, the Provincia di Urbino e Pesaro and the Comune di Pesaro.

Links

• Catalog Candelara 2012

Professor Ennis also speaks about the Franciscan inspired Dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

Listen to the interview on Vatican Radio.

The Musical is co produced by Stage Entertainment/Disney and the American Comedic Star Whoopy Goldberg.

For more information, please visit the Sister Act website.

Personale di Breda Catherine Ennis

Una pittrice irlandese a Todi

di Antonio Carlo Ponti

Ho visto, nella Sala dell’Arengo del Palazzo del Popolo di Todi,  una bella, piacevole, serena teoria di quadri di una eccellente pittrice irlandese, Breda Catherine Ennis, in Italia, e a Roma dove ha studiato all’Accademia  allieva di Guido Strazza e Antonio Scordia, dagli anni Settanta. La sua mostra intitolata “Reminiscenze, presentata dal Sindaco Antonio Ruggiano e dall’Ambasciatore d’Irlanda Patrick Hennessy, come scrive Massimo Mattioli in catalogo è interessante e di qualità anche perché “elegge l’albero a suo plastico riferimento, facendone il veicolo di una sperimentazione che parte da lontano ma riesce – più che guardare al futuro – ad essere senza tempo”. E il  Leitmotiv dell’opera di Ennis, l’albero smilzo e spoglio, frondoso e imponente, quercia  o gelso s’impone ora come un frammento del mondo ora come un territorio dello spirito, cioè albero solo o foresta, in sintonia con il colore che padroneggia la tela e le cromie assumono modulazioni liriche di vasta e nel contempo sottile  consonanza. Bene analizza Mattioli l’opera dell’artista irlandese, quando rileva l’assonanza e la derivazione acuta da Piet Mondrian e il suo “disgregare” i passaggi stagionali e stilistici e seriali di una pianta, fino a determinarne, a furia di decantazioni e stratificazioni, quasi l’invisibilità figurale, riducendo il soggetto a una continuità e contiguità disegnativa, astratta e astrale. Molto affettuoso e valente l’omaggio alla natura della nostra terra, con  la  notevole serie di “Alberi nel vento d’Umbria”, poetica reminiscenza e invocazione quasi francescana nella purezza delle linee e della tavolozza in pastello e acrilico. Il quadro più completo e complesso “Rumors of Autumn”, perfetto nell’armonia spaziale e tenero nei  blu e verdi e bruni, armoniosi come i tronchi e i rami che germinano un assoluto pittorico in forma e in sostanza.

Antonio Carlo Ponti, Critico D’Arte

Translation in English:

Personal Exhibition of Breda Catherine Ennis

An Irish Painter in Todi

In the Sala dell’Arengo, Palazzo del Popolo, Todi, I recently observed a beautiful, pleasurable and serene collection of paintings by an excellent Irish painter, Breda Catherine Ennis, who lives in Rome where she studied at the Accademia. She was a pupil of Guido Strazza and Antonio Scordia (the latter an artist from the 1970’s).  Her exhibition, entitled ‘Reminiscenza’ presented by the Mayor of Todi, Antonio Ruggiano and the Irish Ambassador to Italy, H.E. Patrick Hennessy. Her work is interesting and of quality because the artist has “has chosen the tree as her tangible reference point – making it a means of experimentation which starts from the past, but succeeds (more than looking at the future) in being timeless (universal)” as pointed out by Massimo Mattioli in his presentation for the catalogue.   This is the leitmotif of the work of Ennis.  The tree – slim and bare, luxuriant, leafy and imposing, whether oak or mulberry – is interpreted in one moment as a fragment of the world, then as a territory of the spirit – whether it be a single tree or a forest – in harmony with the masterful use of color on the canvas  and the tonalities which assume lyrical modulations which are both vast and subtle in their concordance.  Mattioli gives a good analysis of the work of the Irish artist, when he notes the assonance and  subtle derivation from Piet Mondrian in his ‘disintegration’ of the seasonal, stylistic and serial phases of a plant to the point of determining, through a vigorous process of sedimentation and stratifications, an almost figurative invisibility, thus reducing the chosen subject matter to a continuous transformation of gestures which become increasingly abstract and ‘astral’.

Very gifted and ‘affectionate’ is her homage to the countryside of Umbria with the formidable series of ‘Alberi nel vento d’Umbria’ a poetic reminiscence and invocation which is almost Franciscan in the purity of the lines and the palette in pastels and acrylics.

The most complete and complex painting is ‘Rumors of Autumn’, which is perfect in its spacial harmony and tender in its use of blues greens and browns – and combined with the harmony of the tree trunks and branches germinate a ‘painting absolute’ both in form and in substance.

A.C. Ponti, Art Critic

The following is a piece written for the catalogue by Massimo Mattioli, art critic:

È un elemento che entra presto nel bagaglio culturale, ed anche visuale, dell’uomo. Spesso carico di valenze ancestrali e simboliche.È quindi normale che l’albero entri anche da subito nel bagaglio visuale dell’uomo che sceglie di comunicare con la sua creatività.  E la storia dell’arte ne mette davanti di continuo, di realtà nelle quali l’albero si è legato a momenti di speciale forza espressiva,come elemento chiave di un linguaggio che cerca forsennatamente di incrociare le vie della percezione collettiva,le esigenze del “pubblico”.  Basti pensare all’arte orientale, dove l’albero fa da groviglio quando vuole veicolare i turbamenti di una continua ricerca interiore, affidandoli ad un decorativismo solo superficialmente effimero.O – per converso – all’albero nella scultura gotica, granitica presenza spesso sintetizzata in poche forme solide che si fanno carico di trasmettere certezze,in epoche dilaniate da tensioni che gli aspetti spirituali e religiosi portavano fino al popolo. E ancora gli alberi rinascimentali, quegli esili segni grafici dei paesaggi belliniani o leonardeschi, incaricati di predisporre leggiadria in composizioni ammiccanti ma velatamente subliminali.

Non di rado poi l’albero è divenuto proprio il fulcro di un evento creativo,il medium a cui si è affidata una “rivelazione”:e qui il riferimento forse più scontato – ma di certo il più pregnante – va alla serie dei Trees di Piet Mondrian,con il grande olandese che affida alla sequenza di nove alberi la sua lezione di sintesi astrattiva del linguaggio,una visione mai così autorevole e decisa su quello che era il passato (realistico) equello che era il futuro (astratto dal reale).

È inquesta temperie che si iscrive l’opera di Breda Catherine Ennis. Enon diciamo “le opere”che vediamo in questa mostra.Ma l’opera nel suo complesso,visto che l’artista elegge l’albero a suo plastico riferimento, facendone il veicolo di una sperimentazione che parte da lontano ma riesce – più che guardare al futuro – ad essere senza tempo.Eallora serve a poco rinvenire uno sguardo dato al Blaue Reiter nell’adottare un’opzione cromatica che si fa ambiente e temperatura materica. O la gestualità ed il segno deciso che sembrano evocare influssi giapponesi, per dare alle composizioni la traccia di un’umanità che si mette in gioco…

–Massimo Mattioli

Translation in English:

The tree is an element which enters easily into the cultural and visual heritage of man. Often it carries with it ancestral and symbolic values.Consequently,it immediately becomes an intrinsic cultural element when the artist chooses to use it as a means of creative communication. The history of art puts this before us continually – with realities where the tree is linked to moments of special expressive forces – as a key element of a language which tries to speak to collective perceptions and the needs of ‘people’. It is sufficient to think of Oriental Art, where the tree becomes a kind of ‘entanglement’ when it wants to create ways to guide the pathways of a continuous interior research, using a kind of decoration which only ‘seems’ ephemeral. Conversely, the tree in Gothic sculpture, a ‘granite presence’ often synthesized in a few solid forms which bear the weight of transmitting certainty, in epochs lanced with tensions, which the spiritual and religious aspects brought to the populations.

Again one looks at Renaissance trees, those slender graphic gestures in the landscapes of Bellini or Leonardo,entrusted with orchestrating harmony in alluring compositions in a veiled and subliminal way. It is not surprising that the tree has become the focal point of a creative event, the ‘medium’ through which a ‘revelation’ has been assigned. The most notable example of this can be seen in the series of Trees by Piet Mondrian where this great Dutch artist uses a sequence of nine trees to impart his ‘lesson’ of the abstract synthesis of ‘language’,a never more influential and decisive ‘vision’ of what was the past (realistic) and what was the future (abstraction of realism).

The work of Breda Catherine Ennis can be read in this current of expression and atmosphere. One does not term the ‘works’ which are seen specifically in this exhibition,but her work in its entirety,seeing that the artist has chosen the tree as her tangible reference point – making it a means of experimentation which starts from the past, but succeeds (more than looking at the future) in being timeless (universal)! There is no need to rediscover the Blaue Reiter, in the adoption of chromatic options which create a material ambient and atmosphere. The gestures and decisive lines, which seem to evoke Japanese influences, give to the compositions traces of a ‘humanity’ which opens itself up to scrutiny…

–Massimo Mattioli

• Listen to the discussion.

Professor Ennis speaks regularly on the artistic aspects of Roman Churches and in particular the Sistine Chapel.

in the magnificent Sala dell’Arengo of the Palazzi Comunali. The show will be inaugurated by the Irish Ambassador to Italy, H.E. Pat Hennessy and the Mayor (Avv. Antonio Ruggiano) has contributed a written welcome for the Catalogue. Patronage has been given by The City of Todi, The Embassy of Ireland, and The American University of Rome. A direct collaboration has been given by the Associazione Culturale TODIVIVA and it’s President, Maurizio Giannini.

Todi is one of Italy’s most famous centres of culture and a large number of American and English diaspora live in the area. The exhibition will include thirteen new works by Breda Ennis (completed over the past three years).

Opening hours:

• Inauguration: 18.00 11th of June
• Monday to Friday 16.00-20.00 Saturdays & Sundays 10.30-19.00 Tel: 333 966 9689

Resources:

• View the Exhibition Poster