Well, today we are over in the Raclin Murphy Museum and things are bigger than life here.

As soon as I walked in, my eyes popped and I hope yours will too.

I have my friend Joe with me.

Hello!

Thank you so much for joining me.

You guys have a very special expedition that's happening right now, but it really brings back to kind of your beginnings here too.

But I just want to point out, because we can't not talk about this.

When you walk in, your eyes are drawn to the art that is in here.

Great, great, great.

That's what we're hoping.

Okay, good.

Okay, good.

We got that right.

Yeah, exactly.

Okay.

So Mimmo Paladino, he's the artist at your featuring in this particular exhibit, but he's not new to this museum.

No he's not.

A lot of individuals that have been to the museum know and love the chapel, which is both a sacred space, but it's also a complete work of art.

And we commissioned Mimo to do the chapel, the mosaic, the stained glass, the wall drawings to complement the historical pieces that were in the collection, but also to help people understand how does an artist that deals in part with religious subject matter work in today's world?

And that is not necessarily his specialty either, is it?

It's just one aspect of who he is.

You know, he's a major contemporary artist.

Most of these pieces have never been shown in the United States, and I think that it's important for people to understand that, you know, that's one aspect of who he is.

But if you look at the whole of what he's doing, all the pieces begin to make sense.

Now, I know we're looking at some of the paintings here too, but he's also a sculptor.

So talk about a little bit more of of his full realm of what kind of artist he is.

Sure.

So he started out as a painter and he's still very much an active painter, but he's also a sculptor, a designer and illustrator.

We've got several different books that are here that he did the original illustrations for, including the Roman Missal that he did for Pope Francis.

He does films, he does set designs and so on and so forth.

So his repertoire is quite vast.

But there are a lot of things that link all these different media together.

The scale of the color, the texture, the inclusion of human elements, the inclusion of symbols, those run very constant regardless of what he's doing.

And that was kind of what he would say is really were his draw point is absolutely between all of his art.

Let's talk about some of these pieces that are around.

I love that I kind of match in the.

Exactly, exactly.

Very complimentary.

So this piece in particular, what is this phone call?

It's untitled.

And one of the things that's oftentimes very significant about his work and many artists work, is that they allow us to participate in the mystery of the subject matter.

They don't give all the clues away.

This is something that I love to do with you, too.

We always like to look at things and think, how do you envision it?

Because art is different to every person who sees it is.

It is.

And we all bring our own experiences.

We all bring our own sensibilities to it.

Sometimes the artist gives you clues, sometimes they give you the whole story, but other times they just want you to live in the mystery.

They want you to explore the scale.

They want you to relish the color.

I mean, color is really important here.

They want you to experience the textures, the surfaces.

None of this.

You can get through even the best reproduction.

Yes.

And as a reminder, don't touch exactly that.

Okay, so when I look at this piece, I feel like I mean, there's almost like a lioness component to that.

And I see maybe like a trophy wall or something.

What do you see when you look at them?

You know, when I look at this, I look at a very bold visual statement color.

Certainly a significant scale is certainly significant.

And then if you look at any one area for a while, you realize it's layer upon, layer upon layer of paint.

You know, the paint has a life, it's got texture, it's got surface.

And if you look at the sculptures, the sculptures have texture, they have surfaces.

If you look at the altar pieces, it's the same kind of things.

And for Mimmo, remember, he also makes films.

There's almost something cinematic to these pieces.

It's almost telling a story.

Exactly.

And one of the reasons we call this president to past is you have to remember the great history of Italian art, where there's massive fresco cycles, you know, where there's huge altarpieces.

So that idea of scale is something that he didn't necessarily event, but he made it his own.

And I can't believe that you guys got all these pieces.

How how lucky in a long summer.

It's been a long summer.

Yeah.

I'm sure.

Well, I know we were talking a bit about what he's done in the chapel, but I think something is really cool here that you guys have.

So can we go check out a little bit more?

Certainly.

Let's go do that.

Now.

Joe, as we continue to walk through the exhibit, it expands.

There's different kind of areas or sections within this exhibit.

You want to talk about each of those pieces?

Absolutely.

We really wanted this to be a kind of journey.

So there is a definite entrance and there's a definite exit.

And there are really four sections.

That first section that we were just in hopefully introduces people to who he is on a broad scale.

Then the second section is all about his engagement with the book.

So his illustrations for Dante, his illustrations for the Old Testament, they're all featured in this area.

Okay.

The third area where we're standing right now is really about his ecclesiastical or his religious works.

And then the fourth commission area is about the chapel.

So all the original illustrations.

Yeah.

Can we talk about that?

That's really cool.

How do you get stuff like that?

Obviously, you connected with him to actually have his pieces of part of the museum, and then to be able to have that additional.

We've been working with Mimo for a long time.

I knew him long before I came to South Bend.

You know, I worked with him on several different projects, including a botanical calendar, which was great fun.

But, you know, I knew early on when we were thinking about the chapel that these kind of religious works were apart.

Not at all, but a part of what he does, and that if anybody was going to be able to do a chapel for Notre Dame, he would.

But he was the he's he's done projects for Three Popes.

He's got pieces in the Vatican Museum, you know, you know, he's got good credentials and he's over in Italy.

He's in Italy.

He is in Italy.

Yes.

But he has all of these beautiful pieces here.

Absolutely.

I have to ask, I mean, what kind of studio do you have to make these kinds of things massive?

You know, he has different studios where he does different kinds of things.

His studio in Milan, he does a lot of smaller things.

So the prints, the drawings, those kind of things are easier for him to do there in his hometown down in south Italy, he can work on an enormous scale.

So these large altarpieces make sense.

Very interesting.

It is it is an actual altarpiece, and it has wings that could open and close, just like in the historical tradition.

There's paintings on the back.

We have an illustration of what it looks like on the back, so that literally those what we call wings can open and close.

Sometimes he does projects in collaboration with other artisans.

So all of these are original vestments he made those, gave those to the university and to the museum.

The priests wear these during mass.

They've never been able to wear these.

Yes.

We've never shown them together as a group.

And I think that when you see those first parts of the exhibition, we see the paintings and you talk about the color and the scale and how things kind of float.

Well, this is the painting.

This is absolutely this is moving to a wearable kind of art.

So he did all the drawings and they were made by a design house in Milan.

Now, I know he's not local to here, but you guys do have talks that are going to be happening as well.

Do we do?

When does this exhibit go through?

When can people.

So the exhibition goes through December 13th and I would highly encourage people to look at our website.

We have gallery walks.

We have some very focused speaker events.

We're screening both of his films over in DPAC.

The first one is his take on The Divine Comedy, and then in November is his take on Don Quixote, which are just wonderful visual experiences.

So a lot for people to see, to take in.

And, you know, the greatest pieces that we end with the designs for the chapel, and you can see the chapel from in that space.

And hopefully everybody that comes and understands Mimmo through this exhibition will have a deeper appreciation for what the chapel really is.

And then they can head to the chapel towards an experience of two.

I have to tell you, I know we're showing some of this on camera, but it really is a different experience actually being in this space.

It is beautiful, it is big, it is exciting and it has a lot of emotion, I think, with it.

So I do encourage you to come on out and visit the Murphy Museum.

There's so much to see here.

Where can people get more information about your hours?

I know it's free to come.

Always want to mention that.

Yeah, you can go right to our Raclin and Murphy website.

We've got a section on exhibitions, we've got a section on events.

And then just a few weeks ago, we started a series of online tours.

So you can scan that in.

There's some elements of this that you can scan in as well.

Very good.

Thank you so much.

Good to see you back.

Thanks.