Thaddaeus Ropac gallery focuses on Leoncillo "The primary goal is to consolidate the artist's international standing."
By Lavinia Trivulzio
There's one element that unites many of the most important reinterpretations of twentieth-century Italian art in recent years: the desire to bring back to the forefront figures who have profoundly impacted the history of art but have yet to achieve full international recognition. This is the context for the announcement of the collaboration between the Thaddaeus Ropac gallery and the newly formed Leoncillo Foundation, which is set to represent one of the most significant steps in the process of rediscovering the great Umbrian sculptor.
The first stage of the project will be an exhibition scheduled for September 2026 at the gallery's Milan location, inaugurating a collaboration designed to broaden the research, visibility, and international presence of the work of Leoncillo Leonardi (1915–1968), a central figure in postwar Italian sculpture. The initiative comes at a particularly favorable time for the reinterpretation of 20th-century Italian masters. In recent years, artists such as Leonor Fini, Carol Rama, Salvo, Carla Accardi, Dadamaino, and Fabio Mauri have attracted growing attention from international institutions, galleries, and collectors. Now it seems to be Leoncillo's turn, an artist who radically transformed the language of ceramics, taking it far beyond the decorative and artisanal tradition.
His research develops around a radical reflection on matter. Clay is not conceived as a simple material to be modeled, but as a living organism, capable of registering tensions, wounds, and transformations. This conception brings his work closer to the great existential explorations of post-World War II Europe. Beginning with a figurative style influenced by the Baroque tradition and the Roman School, Leoncillo made a decisive shift after the Second World War. His works became progressively freer, more dramatic, and experimental. The surface is torn, opened, and shattered. The gesture takes on a physical, almost performative dimension. "Cutting clay with a metal wire means making a decisive, cruel, and liberating gesture," the artist stated. This statement effectively summarizes the nature of his research, built around the idea of a material in constant transformation. Over the course of his career, Leoncillo participated in six editions of the Venice Biennale between 1948 and 1968, garnering critical acclaim that placed him among the protagonists of post-war Italian artistic reconstruction. His works have subsequently been exhibited at institutions such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome, and Palazzo Strozzi. Despite this institutional presence, his figure remained less visible than other protagonists of 20th-century Italian sculpture for a long time. Hence the importance of the agreement with Ropac, one of the most influential galleries in the international system, with locations in London, Paris, Salzburg, Seoul, and Milan.
