THE COLLECTION
Masterpieces of 20th century
Creating a museum of excellence
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.
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 experiments of Kinetic and Programmed Art, beginning with the sculpture by Bruno Munari entitled “AconaBicombì”. The last halls exhibit artwork by the T Group and large format paintings from Italian Pop Art and Analytical Painting.
The exhibition concludes with a hall devoted to some of the major exponents of Italian Arte Povera (literally poor, basic art), from Luciano Fabro to Mario Merz, and from Gilberto Zorio to Giuseppe Penone. In this same wing of the palace, a ‘museum within the Museum’ is set up in three dedicated halls, with a core of sculptural works by master Marino Marini.
THE TEN MASTERPIECES
Ten masterpieces from the Museo del Novecento Collections that truly embody the 20th century artistic scenario. Here is a glimpse of the exhibit experience that awaits you. A voyage that begins in 1902, with the Quarto Stato (The Fourth Estate) and that ends in the early 1970’s, toward the discovery of artists that played a fundamental role in 20th century artistic history.
Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo
Il Quarto Stato (The Fourth Estate) (1898-1902)
Quarto Stato Room
This grand canvas is the final outcome of a creative process that lasted ten years, ending after its first exhibit at the Quadriennale in Turin in 1902. Acquired by the City of Milan in 1922 via a public petition, this masterpiece represents the passage from the late 19th century Divisionism to modern times.
Vasilij Kandinskij
Composizione (Composition) (1916)
Avanguardie Internazionali Room
This painting became part of the City of Milan’s collections in 1922 thanks to the important acquisition of the Jucker Collection, which endowed the Museum with a rich selection of artwork from the 20th century international avant-gardes.
Paul Klee
Wald Bau (Forest-Construction) (1919)
Avanguardie Internazionali Room
This work embodies Paul Klee’s artistic vision leaning towards the research of balance between signs and colours, embracing Expressionism and Abstract Art. The artist depicts a landscape through signs overlapping with structures, figures and bird’s-eye view perspective.
Amedeo Modigliani
Béatrice Hastings (Portrait of Béatrice Hastings) (1915)
Avanguardie Internazionali Room
The portrait of Béatrice Hastings represents the artist’s return to painting after the period devoted to sculpture and the so-called ‘Cubist’ phase. Cézanne’s influence is now overcome to leave space to wholly personal pictorial expression.
Amedeo Modigliani
Ritratto di Paul Guillaume (Portrait of Paul Guillaume) (1916)
Avanguardie Internazionali Room
Paul Guillaume, collector and philanthropist, is portrayed in a pose recalling a series of photographs taken in 1915 in Modigliani’s studio. The special focus on physiognomy, the almost sculptural plastic painting, and the Cubist language in the sharp lines of the features place this work among the major creations by Modigliani.
Piet Mondrian
Faro a Westkapelle (Lighthouse in Westkapelle) (1909-1910)
Avanguardie Internazionali Room
In the spotlight in this painting, isolated from the background and framed in a dizzying perspective from below, is the Lighthouse in Westkapelle, near Domburg. This work belongs to the artist’s neo-impressionist period on the wake of Munch.
Umberto Boccioni
La Signora Virginia (The Signora Virginia) (1905)
Boccioni Room
The portrait of Virginia Procida is the first work by Boccioni acquired from a public collection. The painting exudes the influence of Master Giacomo Balla’s teachings on the wake of Divisionism. The colour is laid with short, quick brushstrokes.
Umberto Boccioni
Forme uniche della continuità nello spazio (Unique Forms of Continuity in Space) (1913)
Boccioni Room
The symbol of the artist’s Futurist sculptural production aimed at reproducing speed and the power of dynamism in art. The original work is in gypsum. The bronze copy was only produced after the artist passed away on the will of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, the founder of the Futurist movement.
Umberto Boccioni
Elasticità (Elasticity) (1912)
Boccioni Room
One of Boccioni’s most meaningful creations. Elasticity embodies all of the figurative elements of Futurist painting: the galloping horse in the foreground and the representation of progress through a snapshot of factories in the background.
Piero Marussig
Donne al caffè (Women at the Café) (1924)
Il Novecento Room
The artist portrays a sort of freeze-frame of an interior, with a middle-class scene from the early 1900’s. Women at the Café is considered one of Marussig’s major works from the period when the artist adhered to the Novecento movement, championed by Margherita Sarfatti.
