Marinella Senatore: Memory and Celebration at the Estorick Collection

This autumn, the Estorick Collection presents a special display of works by the multidisciplinary artist Marinella Senatore, co-organised with the Consulate General of Italy in London.

The display forms part of the museum’s continuing programme of ‘interventions’, whereby a contemporary artist responds to the Estorick’s permanent collection, initiating a dialogue between their own imagery and the museum’s masterpieces of twentieth century Italian art.

Senatore’s concerns with the social role of art will be represented in several works from her series It’s Time to Go Back to the Street, which depict scenes of protest in the urban environment. These drawings connect different eras, containing visual references to both the campaigns of the Suffragettes during the Edwardian period and modern-day pro-choice rallies. These will be shown alongside paintings by artists including Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà and Gino Severini – the Futurist movement to which they belonged having frequently captured scenes of revolt and rebellion, revealing a similar fascination with what they termed “the multicoloured, polyphonic tides of revolution in the modern capitals”.

The intervention will highlight Senatore’s ability to fuse traditional techniques with contemporary media. Her drawings – expressive, raw, and charged with symbolic imagery – will be presented alongside banners and vibrant, celebratory neon installations containing the slogans and affirmative messages typical of her work; other pieces on show will include a series of drawings inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy.