A museum of contemporary and 20th century art opens in Lecce: the Biscozzi Rimbaud Foundation

A new exhibition space for contemporary art opens today, Tuesday, March 2, in Lecce. It is the Biscozzi Rimbaud Foundation, which will house works from the collection of the same name, assembled over the years by Luigi Biscozzi and Dominique Rimbaud, a pair of collectors who, since 1969, have relentlessly collected works by Italian artists of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

Biscozzi, one of the most influential names in tax and fiscal consulting in Italy, who was born in Salice Salentino in 1934 and passed away in 2018, frequented the Milan of the 1960s (the Jamaica bar in Brera with photographers Mulas, Dondero, Alfa Castaldi, but also Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Ettore Sordini, Angelo Verga, Dadamaino, and journalists, writers, and art critics), and with his wife Dominique long traveled to biennials and international exhibitions, taking an interest in the debate, including the political one, between realism, figuration, informal, and abstraction. Over the years, the collection, which documents an important part of 20th-century Italian and international art, has expanded and been greatly enriched to include more than two hundred works of great quality, including paintings, sculptures, and graphics. The collection includes important works by great Italian and international names in twentieth-century art: Filippo de Pisis, Arturo Martini, Enrico Prampolini, Josef Albers, Alberto Magnelli, and Luigi Veronesi, with particular reference to the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s (thus, there are works by artists such as Fausto Melotti, Alberto Burri, Piero Dorazio, Renato Birolli, Tancredi Parmeggiani, Emilio Scanavino, Pietro Consagra, Kengiro Azuma, Dadamaino, Agostino Bonalumi, Angelo Savelli, Mario Schifano, and many others).

For Luigi Biscozzi, sharing the collection by making it available to the public was a dream he had always nurtured, even though, due to his passing, he was unable to see it come true (“I owe a debt of gratitude to my city of Lecce,” he said, “it gave me its beauty and a scholastic base that allowed me to continue my studies in Milan”). The realization of the dream continued thanks to the work of Dominique, who continued the work in preparation for the opening to the public of the collection, housed in a historic building in Piazzetta Baglivi 4, restored in respect of the architectural context that has become the official exhibition venue of the Biscozzi Rimbaud Foundation, established in 2018 and recognized as being of public interest. The goal is to create, within the city of Lecce, a space where a selection of the best pieces of the collection can be permanently exhibited to the public, and also to implant a specialized library, do educational activities and periodically set up temporary exhibitions of 20th and 21st century art. The technical and scientific direction of the Foundation and the curatorship of the collection were entrusted to art historian Paolo Bolpagni, and the task of designing its headquarters to the firm Arrigoni Architetti, which envisioned a headquarters inspired by criteria of functionality and elegance, with the permanent exhibition rooms, the art history library, the teaching laboratory and a space for temporary exhibitions. President of the Foundation is Dominique Rimbaud.

Luigi Biscozzi and Dominique Rimbaud

The Foundation, the works, the exhibitions

“The itinerary of the permanent collection,” says Paolo Bolpagni, “includes for the opening a chronological itinerary and by stylistic-formal types of about seventy works: from the origins of contemporary art to the section on informal art in Italy and Europe, then to the abstract-geometric and kinetic-programmed strand, to analytical painting and, finally, to research that goes beyond the traditional statutes of painting and sculpture.” However, the visit route aims to be very readable and enjoyable, for a wide and heterogeneous audience. In addition, part of the spaces on the ground floor will be used for temporary exhibitions: the first planned is dedicated to Angelo Savelli (Pizzo, 1911 - Dello, 1995), a well-known artist of Calabrian origin who lived in Rome and New York and is famous for his white works. The intention is to hold a temporary exhibition each year on the art of the 20th and 21st centuries, and with this in mind, contacts have already been made with various institutions and collectors, also with a view to exchanges and relationships with other national and European entities.

The Biscozzi Rimbaud Foundation has, by statute, the purpose of promoting knowledge of contemporary visual arts and the realization of cultural initiatives through high quality proposals, setting itself, in particular, the task of enhancing its collection of works of art as a fundamental instrument of public education; to promote and take care of the organization, also in collaboration with other institutions, of exhibitions and events, conferences, screenings, book presentations, seminars, educational activities, and training courses, for the purpose of popularizing and studying art; to take care of the preservation and updating of the Foundation’s library and archives; and to edit and publish publications related to institutional purposes and activities. The Lecce branch of the Foundation is not only a place for the exhibition of works, but above all a center of ferment and elaboration for all the arts, and of training for school, academy and university students. The place is conceived as a “center of the arts,” dedicated to the collective exploration and sharing of the possibilities that arise from the dialogue between different disciplines: visual arts, architecture, video, cinema, as well as music, literature and theater. There will also be no shortage of initiatives carried out in collaboration with institutions and possible partners: exhibitions, public events, book presentations, screenings of documentaries on art, conferences, educational workshops, and concerts. In other words, the Foundation wants to be “a dynamic place to carry out high-quality programming that is of maximum solicitation, social and intellectual, for local, regional, national and international users.” On the occasion of the opening, the general catalog of the collection, edited by Roberto Lacarbonara and published by Silvana Editoriale, is also being released in three versions, Italian, French and English: it contains an introduction by Dominique Rimbaud, a “Pro-Memoria” by Luigi Biscozzi, essays by Paolo Bolpagni, Antonio Mallardi, Marco Tagliafierro, a tribute by Biscozzi to Salento artist Carlo Barbieri, and a lengthy reconnaissance of the collection written by Roberto Lacarbonara, as well as biographies of all the artists in the collection.

“In 2014,” Dominique Rimbaud recalls in the catalog, “I had the idea of giving my husband Luigi Biscozzi, for his 80th birthday, the illustrated summa of the works in our collection, put together over nearly four decades of research and passion. It was a rather simple cataloging, contained in four large cardboard binders. Luigi liked the initiative very much, and he already had in mind a hypothetical return to his city, Lecce, as he explains in his Pro/memoir. The project then went on, there were plans to create a Foundation, we continued to expand the collection, and what was an inventory became a real catalog. Thus, relying on friends and professionals, facing difficulties and suffering many disappointments, we fi ally succeeded in realizing the dream-utopia of opening an exhibition and educational space in Lecce in which to display our collection. Luigi and I shared in the creation and growth of this collection, an exciting journey that was interrupted on September 12, 2018, when Luigi left us. He made it in time to approve the last draft of the catalog (now dedicated to him), to choose the building in Piazzetta Baglivi in Lecce, to confirm the curator of the catalog and the curator of the collection in their positions, and to give me the impetus and strength to continue on his path, conveying to me and to those who knew him his extraordinary enthusiasm-smoothness. Thank you, Gigi!”

Below are images of some of the works in the collection.

Osvaldo Licini, Notturno (1957; oil on paper applied to canvas, 19 x 28.5 cm; Lecce, Biscozzi Rimbaud Foundation)

Enrico Castellani, Red Surface (1993; acrylic on canvas, 50 x 50 cm; Lecce, Fondazione Biscozzi Rimbaud)

Angelo Savelli, Dallas Crossroad (1981; acrylic on canvas, 81.5 x 120 cm; Lecce, Fondazione Biscozzi Rimbaud)

Renato Birolli, Night Fire (1956; oil on canvas, 97 x 130 cm; Lecce, Fondazione Biscozzi Rimbaud)

Josef Albers, Homage to the square (1958; oil on masonite, 41 x 41 cm; Lecce, Fondazione Biscozzi Rimbaud)

Piero Dorazio, Gemini (1967; oil on canvas, 96 x 170 cm; Lecce, Fondazione Biscozzi Rimbaud)

Giulio Turcato, Untitled (ca. 1959; oil on canvas, 60 x 80 cm; Lecce, Fondazione Biscozzi Rimbaud)

Pietro Consagra, Chelsea Hotel Oracle (1960; bronze, 39.5 x 36 x 2 cm; Lecce, Fondazione Biscozzi Rimbaud)

Tancredi, Composition (1959; oil on canvas, 70 x 100 cm; Lecce, Fondazione Biscozzi Rimbaud)

A museum of contemporary and 20th century art opens in Lecce: the Biscozzi Rimbaud Foundation

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