at the Governor’s Palace Masterpieces from the collections of Parma –

Saturday 20 April the Culture Department of the Municipality of Parma will open the exhibition to the public CONTEMPORARY. Masterpieces from the collections of Parma, in the rooms of Governor’s Palacein the heart of the historic center of the city of Parma. Curated by Simona Tosini Pizzettiorganized and produced by Solares Foundation of the Arts with the support of Emilia Tourist Destinationmain sponsor IREN, and with the media partnership of Exibartwill remain open until July 21, 2024.

On display 115 works Of 93 artists of international importance, selected from the heritage of the most prestigious private collections in Parmato tell stories through paintings, sculptures and rare performance photographs one hundred years of Italian and European contemporary artistic expression. These are works from private collections that will be exhibited to the public for the first time, the exhibition will therefore be an unmissable opportunity to see them grouped together in an exceptional exhibition itinerary. The unprecedented and unrepeatable exhibition project will be inserted among the beauties that Parma offers from the Romanesque age, to the Renaissance to the Baroque era and the experiences that it makes available as a UNESCO Creative City for Gastronomy.

Structured in twenty-two sections that follow a chronological progression with alternating focuses on different movements and artists, Contemporary crosses a century of twentieth-century art history, representing the different trends thanks to a rich journey expertly constructed through the works. From Duchamp to Picasso, from Morandi to Casorati passing through De Chirico, Sironi, Burri, Pistoletto and many other great artists, the exhibition is at the same time an exceptional look at the twentieth century and a precious observatory on collecting and the immense cultural heritage that these works represent for the city of Parma and for the entire national culture.

At the Governor’s Palace the exhibition itinerary starts with The antecedents which presents some Futurist works and then moves on to the Dadaism where the absolute protagonist is Marcel Duchampwith Fountain, the porcelain urinal with the signature “R. Mutt”, which shows his desire to burn ties with artistic conventions and traditional aesthetic judgment criteria. We then move on to Surrealism with two rare masterpieces, Le Consolateur Of Giorgio de Chiricorecognized among the fathers of the movement, and Sans Title Of Victor Brauner from 1931.

We then find the section The great international masters which boasts, among others, a Pablo Picasso Femme sur un fauteuil of 1962, a portrait of his second wife, and Marc Chagall with a late work from 1980 The couple in front of the painter. The American artist was also present Edward Hopper with his design Near Eastham of 1946. The exhibition continues with the important space dedicated to The masters of the Italian twentieth century among which it stands out Giorgio Morandi with Still life of 1948 and, again, Felice Casorati And Filippo De Pisis, Mario Sironi and the Parmesan artist Atanasio Soldati (1896-1953) who was the leader of Italian geometric abstractionism, and Antonio Ligabuean interpreter of art very present in Parma collecting.

We then move on to the section The European informal and CoBrA with Pierre Alechinsky among others until we come across the room dedicated to The informal in Italy with Alberto Burri And Giuseppe Capogrossi. A specific section is the in-depth analysis Between informal and abstract expressionism with works by Conrad Marca-Relli And Georg Baseliz; there is no lack of a look at theGeometric abstractionism of concretist origin and kinetic art come on Lucio Fontana and spatialism: the artist is represented in the exhibition by Space concept And Waiting. Then follow the works of Programmed Kinetic Art until Beyond spatialism to get to Abstractionism with Fausto Melotti, Piero D’Orazio and Ettore Colla. A separate section is dedicated to Fabio Mauri and Pietro Cascella and then to Conceptual with Emilio Isgrò.

The exhibition itinerary continues with Boetti, Mondino and the east towards Poor artamong which we find Janis Kounellis And Michelangelo Pistoletto with the installation Hunger of 2007, created and produced by Solares Fondazione delle Arti. Room that precedes those dedicated to Pop art and to Body Artto continue with the Transavantgarde with works by two of the protagonists Mimmo Paladino And Nicola De Mariaand then, again, The new new onesand a focus on the artists of The Cerere pasta factory and the San Lorenzo group which concludes the overview of twentieth-century art preserved by the major collectors of Parma.

Alongside the works, the exhibition is completed by screenings of two performances by Fabio Mauri What is fascism. Party in honor of General Ernst Von Hussel passing through Rome, 1971 and Jewish, 1971.

The curator Simona Tosini Pizzetti underlines the cultural value of collecting necessarily associated with this exhibition project: «In recent decades epochal changes have fatally increased the relationship of contemporary art with the world of economics and finance and the figure of the international collector has increasingly established itself, often in close contact with the directors of the most important museums, which even manages to influence the processes of valorization of the artists”. Already in 1982 Attilio Bertolucci wrote on the occasion of the exhibition Painting and Sculpture of the 20th century 1910-1980 at the Galleria D’Arte Consigli, a cultural project from which Tosini Pizzetti starts to outline a path linked to collecting in the city: «The ideal, that paintings or sculptures purchased for personal, selfish pleasure (sacred egoism), may not disperse, and, when possible, be offered to the pleasure of the eyes of all, inhabitants or foreigners, in the city on a human, civil scale, which is still Parma, despite the wind of consumerism, necessarily vulgar, which invades almost everything and everyone”.

As part of the exhibition at the Governor’s Palace, and in the rooms where Gina Pane’s ‘Observations’ will be exhibited, a performative iconostasis is planned by the Lenz Foundation entitled Over Gina Pane_4 Sentimental Actions: eight appointments with four new creations by Maria Federica Maestri dedicated to the most extreme figure of the performance-body art movement (info and opening times www.lenzfondazione.it).

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog published by Dario Cimorelli Publisher (24×28 cm, 304 pp., 150 images, 34 Euro).

List of exhibited artists

Achille Perilli, Afro Basaldella, Agostino Bonalumi, Alberto Burri, Lorenzo Guerrini, Agostino Ferrari, Francesco Clemente, Aldo Mondino, Alessandro Algardi, Alighiero Boetti, Amos Nattini, Antonio Ligabue, Antonio Scaccabarozzi, Atanasio Soldati, Bruno Ceccobelli, Carlo Mattioli, Cesare Tacchi , Claudio Parmiggiani, Conrad Marca-Relli, Dadamaino, Gabriele De Vecchi, Edward Hopper, Emilio Isgrò, Emilio Vedova, Ennio Morlotti, Enrico Castellani, Ettore Colla, Fabio Mauri, Fausto Melotti, Felice Casorati, Felice Levini, Filippo de Pisis, Franco Angeli, Giuseppe Gallo, Gastone Novelli, Georg Baselitz, Georges Mathieu, Gianni Caravaggio, Gilberto Zorio, Gina Pane, Gino De Dominicis, Gino Marotta, Gino Severini, Giorgio Morandi, Giuliano Vangi, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Giuseppe Maraniello, Giuseppe Santomaso, Grazia Varisco , Virgilio Guidi, Hans Hartung, Jannis Kounellis, Joseph Kosuth, Lucio Fontana, Luigi Filippo De Pisis, Man Ray, Marc Chagall, Marcel Duchamp, Marino Marini, Mario Schifano, Mario Sironi, Mattia Moreni, Max Bill, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mimmo Paladino , Mirko Basaldella, Nicola De Maria, Otto Dix, Ottone Rosai, Paolo Icaro, Pablo Picasso, Piero Dorazio, Piero Gilardi, Piero Ruggeri, Pierre Alechinsky, Pietro Cascella, Pietro Consagra, Renato Mambor, Renzo Vespignani, Roberto Crippa, Roberto Iras Baldessari , Roberto Sebàstian Matta, Salvatore Mangione (aka Salvo), Sergio Lombardo, Sol LeWitt, Davide Boriani, Mauro Staccioli, Toti Scialoja, Victor Brauner, Victor Vasarely, Vincenzo Agnetti, Vito Acconci, Zoran Music.

DATA SHEET – CONTEMPORARY. Masterpieces from the Parma collections

At your place: from 20 April to 21 July 2024

Place: Governor’s Palace, Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi, Parma

Production and organization: Municipality of Parma and Solares Foundation of the Arts

Opening times and days:

From Wednesday to Sunday and holidays from 10.00am to 7.00pm (last entry 6.30pm).

Early closing at 3pm on April 25th (last entry at 2.30pm).

Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Exhibition website: www.contemporanea-parma.it

Catalog: Dario Cimorelli Publisher

Production Solares Foundation of the Arts

With the contribution of Municipality of Parma
With the support of Emilia Tourist Destination

Main sponsors: IREN
Sponsors: Synergetic
Technical sponsor: CFC – Dual Italy

Media Partners: Exibart

Technical partner: Made In Tomorrow