Giovanni Battista Bracelli – Bizarrie di varie figure

One of only two editions of its kind worldwide, the fifty etching-engravings in the series ›Bizzarrie di divarie figure‹ (Oddities of various figures) by Giovanni Battista Bracelli from the celebrated Werner Nekes collection will be exhibited at PACT Zollverein during the first half of 2013. Dating from 1624 and dedicated to Don Pietro de Medici, the etchings make use of allegory and Emblem to allude to evident and hidden meaning. The mannerist Bracelli employed metamorphosis (disambiguation) as Arcimboldo had before him in the service of the court of Emperor Rudolph II in Prague and took the capriccio style of Jacques Callot to fantastic and grotesque extremes. Around the 1930s, Tristan Tzara, one of the founders and central figures of the Dada movement, declared Bracelli a forefather of surrealism and today his hidden faces compositions still hold the power to elevate art above being a mere imitation of nature.

Permanent exhibition until June 2013