On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Giancarlo Sangregorio (1925-2013), MUSEC pays tribute to the dual identity of the Italian artist: a sculptor with great sensitivity to materials and a refined collector. In the Tesoro Space of Villa Malpensata, a canvas by the artist is displayed alongside two masks from New Guinea, acquired on one of his many travels. Sangregorio's interest in ethnic art was in fact an integral part of a profound dialogue with matter and its energies, a confrontation that is directly reflected in his work.

A significant key to understanding his relationship with ethnic art is offered by the two kavat masks of the Baining people of New Britain, an island off the coast of New Guinea, from his collection. The masks, depicting the spirit of the tree's fork, were used both in rituals held at night around a large fire and in the context of initiation ceremonies; they are characterised by the use of light and perishable materials such as beaten bark and natural pigments. Their function is deeply linked to the supernatural context they evoke: these are not objects intended for aesthetic contemplation, but performative tools that give substance to a spiritual dimension that is embodied in movement and fire. The mixed media work Figure-archetipi (Figure-archetypes), created by the artist in the eighties, is a synthesis that best transposes his research. The title itself suggests a desire to reflect on the original forms and universal structures of the human imagination. The term ‘archetypes’ refers to the Jungian theory of the collective unconscious, according to which there are ancestral images common to all cultures. In all probability, Sangregorio saw in ethnic art a concrete manifestation of these archetypes, which he then translated into his own sculptural synthesis.

A publication, with texts by Nora Segreto, a researcher at MUSEC, accompanies the reading of the works of art on display.

Giancarlo Sangregorio was born on 20th April 1925 in Milan. Towards the end of the 1940s he attended courses at the Brera Academy: his first works in wood, recognisable for their figurative character, blend archetypal and sacred images with personifications of everyday life. We can already see the artist's attraction to archaic and non-European cultures and civilisations, whose works he would become a fine collector of.

In the years immediately following, during a stay in the Apuan Alps and a period of work spent in Viareggio, Sangregorio encountered the richness and variety of stone. An increasingly expressionistic sculptural approach revealed a marked contemporary sensibility reminiscent of Constantin Brâncuși, but also of the works of the young Henry Moore and Fritz Wotruba. Very soon critics became interested in his work, fully recognising him as one of the leading figures in the young sculpture scene of the time: after a decade of successful solo and group exhibitions, in Italy and abroad, he took part in the 22nd Venice Biennale in 1964.

Towards the end of the sixties he imposed on everyone the style that would make him forever recognisable: symbiosis. Sangregorio's works are born from the interlocking of stones and wood, of the mineral and plant worlds; they emerge from the dialogue with nature and from the contemplation of both its great harmonious lines and its intrinsic forces of attraction and repulsion.

The artist lived and worked in Sesto Calende (Varese) from 1959 until his death. His home-cum-studio is now the headquarters of the Foundation of the same name, which he set up to support and promote his work. His sculptures, kept in private and public collections in Italy and abroad, have been exhibited in France, Yugoslavia, Israel, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, the United States, Mexico, Argentina and in the major art cities in Italy. There are also numerous monuments in various European cities.