Angelo Gaja has organised an exhibition depicting 150 years of the company history through interesting paintings centring around the Gaja label as well as several contemporary pieces of art brought in from different countries. Subhash Arora who had a preview in Barbaresco last week reports.
 This is one of my favourite pictures. The colour of her lips resembles so much like our Barbaresco,’ said Rossana, the younger daughter of Angelo Gaja while Gaia, the elder daughter known better in the wine world was getting ready for us with 14 different labels and vintages including Barbaresco 2005, 1997 and 1996 for a special wine tasting along with her father who had just returned from Montalcino.
The painting showed part of a woman’s face in a sensuous posture, with the lips roundly painted with ruby red lipstick, reminiscent of red wine that could well be Gaja Barbaresco, the label boldly displayed in the background. The picture, entitled ‘Il Cerchio Rosso’ (the red circle) was the work of art by a new generation painter Anna Fracassi. She was one of the nine commissioned by the company to come up with a maximum of two pieces each, using the Gaja label as a prop.
The exhibition shows the history of Gaja wines through the eyes of several artistes, well-established and the younger lot, as well as contemporary art, and is being held at Castello di Barbaresco which is owned by Gaja and is right across the winery.
 Another interesting work is a new take on the body art, also by an Italian woman artist Fabiola Ledda depicting a series of pictures in which the artist plays on the metaphorical associations between wine and breasts, where a series of different ‘cups’ of wine cover the artist’s breasts, symbolic of the connection between milk, blood and wine. ‘The artiste tried the Riedel glasses which the company distributes in Italy, but it did not work well,’ confided the introverted Rossana; a look at the piece explains it more convincingly.
The anthology of colour and silver prints on aluminium, form the major part of the exhibition which traces the history and story of the success and dedication of the Gaja family during the 150 years of its existence since 1859. There are pictures of Angelo’s grand-mother Clotilde Rey with the great-grand daughter Gaia on whose names the well known white wine label Gaia and Rey has been christened.
There is another one which is actually an old advertisement poster in Italian, which translates, ‘Mr. Angelo Gaja, in his cellar of Barbaresco, produces wines from his own grapes grown in the Barbaresco hill.’ It had been one of the defining moments in the history of the iconic Gaja when Angelo took a rather unconventional decision at that time, in 1961 to make wine only from his own grapes.
The appearance of Gaja as a label is contrarian to what many advertising pundits would profess. More like a logo than a label, it is the bold, white four -letter spelling of his family name in a rectangular black band-that is visible from an ophthalmological distance. Angelo has been often accused by his critics for trying to project his short family name more than the wine. He might have benefitted from the unusual family name; it is not a typical Italian name- his forefathers came from Spain and settled in Piemonte about 300 years ago. But in reality, his grand father-also named Angelo Gaja started this practice which was continued by his father Giovanni and this is evident from many of the frames.
The contemporary art has over 60-70 pieces from several well-known artistes in Italy, France, Spain, Russia, England, Germany, Macedonia, Japan and Netherland and even China. ‘With which the company does business,’ says the catalogue which has been designed as a cardboard treasure chest of memories.
But what is lacking is representation of India with which both Angelo and his wife Lucia are quite enamoured. ‘There is so much of elegance and tradition in India,’ is what Angelo told me later at the dinner.’ ‘I cannot wait to come back again to your wonderful country,’ exclaimed Lucia who has been to Delhi, Agra and the Wild flower Hall with Angelo on one of his trips. A work or two from India would have certainly added to the global charm of the exhibition which has borrowed the works of famous artistes like Andy Warhol from the US and could have sourced from India where the wines are being imported by Brindco.
 The exhibition will be officially inaugurated sometime in June, as the family informed me and will continue till November. Part of the works will be selected to go on media tours and will accompany the company at important national and international events.
The exhibition will be on view to the specially invited audience and will be open to the denizens of Barbaresco for a day or so.
This is another area where Angelo should be giving a deeper thought. Gaja has become an institution and a wider publicity and exposure would not only be beneficial for the company in long term, it will also help boost the image of Barbaresco as a wine appellation specifically and Piemonte wines in general.
In a country like the USA, there would have been an entry ticket the proceeds from which, in this case could be donated to charity of Gaja’s choice-perhaps the same one which benefited from the special 150-year celebratory Gaja tasting at Vinitaly last month, where €150 per head was charged.
Subhash Arora
Gallery
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