THE COLLECTION

Established and developed thanks to the generosity of Milanese private collectors and philanthropists, the Collection of the Museo del Novecento is one of the important 20th century Italian art selections. The exhibition gathers approximately 400 works displayed in chronological order. The initial date is 1902, the year of the Quarto Stato (The Fourth Estate) by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, to whom is dedicated an entire hall along the free access helical staircase.

The Collection then begins with a tribute paid to international avant-garde movements, with paintings from the early 1900’s by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Paul Klee, Kandinsky, and Amedeo Modigliani. The exhibition continues with Futurism, represented by a nucleus of artwork unique the world over, displaying Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Fortunato Depero, Gino Severini, Carlo Carrà, and Ardengo Soffici. The Twenties and Thirties, moving between the Novecento movement and Abstract Art, develop through a sequence of solo art show ‘islands’ devoted to Giorgio de Chirico, Giorgio Morandi, Arturo Martini, and Fausto Melotti. To Marino Marini is devoted a proper hall, aimed to describe the artist's rich and nuanced production.

On the third floor is a hall devoted to Alberto Burri and Art Informel by major Italian masters: Emilio Vedova, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Gastone Novelli, Tancredi, Carla Accardi, and Osvaldo Licini. The exhibition devoted to the Fifties and Sixties displays artwork by Piero Manzoni and the artists from the Azimuth group, from Enrico Castellani to Agostino Bonalumi. The top floor of the Palazzo dell’Arengario is devoted entirely to Lucio Fontana. The Fontana Hall was designed as an environmental immersion work. The protagonists are the landmark Ceiling from 1956, initially created for the dining room of the Hotel del Golfo on the Island of Elba and granted by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities; the Neon owned by the Fondazione Fontana; and the Spatial Concepts from the 1950’s.

Walking on the suspended footbridge that connects the Museum to Palazzo Reale, visitors access the final section focusing on the Sixties and the Eighties. Starting from the Kinetic and Programmed Art,  the exhibition follows with the Pop experiences and the Analytical Painting, while the Conceptual art is represented in its Italian and international interpretations.

The exhibition continues with the hall dedicated to Luciano Fabro eventually starting to focus on installation, by the works of artists such as Jannis Kounellis, Eliseo Mattiacci and Amalia Del Ponte. It concludes then at the beginning of the Eighties with Nunzio Di Stefano, Paolo Icaro, Giuseppe Spagnulo and Alighiero Boetti.