Opening in Madrid at theItalian Cultural Institute is the exhibition The Cascella Family. Beyond Time, which for the first time brings the works of five generations of artists from Abruzzo to Spain. The exhibition, open to the public from Sept. 26 to Nov. 8, 2025, is organized under the aegis of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and is promoted by the Italian Embassy in Madrid, the Italian Cultural Institute and the Abruzzo Regional Council, with the coordination of the association Casa Abruzzo, The House of Abruzzi in Spain.
Curated by Guicciardo Sassoli de’ Bianchi Strozzi of the Nuova Artemarea association, with the scientific supervision of the Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani, the exhibition aims to tell the story of the Cascella family, from the roots of Basilio (born in Pescara in 1860) to the contemporary experiments of Matteo Basilè and Davide Sebastian.
“This exhibition is not just a retrospective,” says Italian Ambassador Giuseppe Buccino Grimaldi. “It is a meditation on time, on art as permanence, on forms that lead us back to the origin.”
As in the ancient Renaissance workshops, where tradition and innovation coexisted, the Cascellas have been able to constantly renew themselves, exploring different languages: painting, illustration, publishing, ceramics, sculpture, up to photography and the most advanced research of the 21st century, also with the support of new AI technologies. Alongside famous works will be exhibited historical documents that make possible a philological reconstruction of their journey.
The artistic story of the Cascella family represents an emblematic example of creative continuity transmitted from generation to generation. The Madrid exhibition will be the starting point of a traveling exhibition project aimed at recounting an Italy that has been transformed over time without ever losing its founding values of culture and innovation. After Madrid, the exhibition will be hosted in other Italian Cultural Institutes around the world and in institutional venues.
“The Cascella Family is a quantum agent that crosses time with the universal language of art, where memory and becoming are intertwined in an aesthetic of visions and emotions,” stressed the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute of Madrid, Elena Fontanella.
On display will be the pictorial works of Basilio Cascella (1860-1950), along with the magazines he directed, such as La Grande Illustrazione and l’Illustrazione Abruzzese, in which, during World War I, the drawings of Umberto Boccioni, Gino Severini and the early exponents of Futurism appeared. To the same period date the paintings of his sons Tommaso (1890-1968) and Michele (1892-1988), who bore ’live’ witness to the conflict. Both, already known to the international public, had exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in Paris in 1909 and frequented Futurist circles in Milan. Tommaso, who was rescued during the war by Gabriele D’Annunzio’s intervention, together with his brother participated in several editions of the Venice Biennale starting in 1920, inaugurating a family tradition that has continued to the present day. Alongside them was the third brother, Gioacchino Cascella (1903-1987), who devoted himself to ceramics and was Basilio’s last son.
The next generation, in the postwar period, is represented by the large sculptures and monument projects of Pietro Cascella (1921-2008) and his brother Andrea (1919-1990), sons of Tommaso. Both were protagonists of the international art scene; Pietro’s works include the creation of the false ceiling of the International Conference Hall and the monumental Flag Holders placed at the entrance to the Farnesina, the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome, restored in 2025 to accommodate the flags of Italy and the European Union in a symbolic place of Italian diplomacy in the world.
The fourth generation features Marco Cascella (1949), Andrea’s son, and Pietro’s children: writer Benedetta (1946), Tommaso (1951) - namesake of his painter grandfather - who freely explores painting, sculpture, drawing and publishing, Susanna (1956) with her works on paper and fabric, and Jacopo (1972) with his creations of a dreamlike, surrealist nature. The fifth generation picks up the family legacy by renewing it in a contemporary key. This is witnessed by Tommaso’s sons: Matteo Cascella (Matteo Basilé, 1974), who through photography and artificial intelligence investigates the human and the transcendental creating a new visual epic, and Davide Cascella (Davide Sebastian, 1981), engaged in sound research with photographs and video portraits capable of restoring moods and emotions.
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. Closed on holidays.
|
|
| Madrid, for the first time in Spain the works of five generations of Abruzzo artists |
Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.
