Pistoia: new exhibition dedicated to artists active in the city from the 20th century to today

Starting Saturday, May 14, Pistoia Musei presents a new exhibition at its headquarters in Palazzo de’ Rossi dedicated to artists active in Pistoia from the early 20th century to the present day. Collections of the Twentieth Century is in fact the new exhibition with which Pistoia Musei intends to focus attention on the cultural production of the territory. Thanks to a loan agreement signed in 2018, the display includes works from Fondazione Caript ’s collection and from Intesa Sanpaolo’s 20th-century Pistoia collection. The renewed exhibition aims to narrate the events of an entire century up to contemporary times and the vibrancy of 20th- and 21st-century artists by tracing a representative overview of the era. Among the artists on display are Galileo Chini, Andrea Lippi, Eloisa Pacini, Pietro Bugiani, Egle Marini and Marino Marini, Fernando Melani, Gualtiero Nativi, Mario Nigro, Umberto Buscioni and Roberto Barni: artists moved by an authentic inspiration and the political instances of their time, in line with the artistic researches contemporary to them.

The selection curated by Annamaria Iacuzzi, curator of the twentieth-century collections for Pistoia Musei, is extremely significant in terms of the quality and quantity of the works on display. A representation of the creativity and social fabric of the near past that reaches into the contemporary with the works of Federico Gori and Zoè Gruni. The current layout also features some important new features. Pistoia Musei has drawn up a loan agreement with the Policarpo Petrocchi High School of Art in Pistoia to exhibit Andrea Lippi’s sculptural group Scioperanti, in which the central theme is the social struggle for labor, offering insights into current events.

Pomona, the large stone work by Marino Marini, which had been in the atrium of the Antico Palazzo dei Vescovi since 1981, is now set up in the center of the Palazzo de’ Rossi exhibition itinerary, in order to emphasize the sculptor’s role as a reference point for the various artistic generations.

Also acquired were a composition by Eloisa Pacini Michelucci, two paintings by Alfiero Cappellini (a rare testimony from the 1930s and one from 1954), a nucleus of works by Giorgio Ulivi, an artist not previously in the collection, and some sculptures by Valerio Gelli. Soon other acquisitions and donations will enrich the Collections of the Twentieth Century.

Also added to the exhibition itinerary is the Expansion Chamber, carved out of the palace’s underground stairwell and intended to house documentary and multimedia materials or small in-depth exhibition sections, such as the works of In visita. The latter is a six-monthly project, scheduled to begin this fall, which will feature temporary exhibitions of one or more works of the twentieth century, of national and international scope, with a view to relating them to works or artists in the Permanent Collection. The Grandonio Terrace also becomes part of the visitor itinerary by becoming accessible and habitable with redesigned green furnishings. A change of perspective that opens Fondazione Caript’s headquarters to the public more and more and creates new urban routes, uniting contiguous spaces for a free circulation among the historic buildings of the district: from Palazzo de’ Rossi, passing through the Terrazza Grandonio, towards the Piazzetta delle Scuole Normali circumscribed by San Jacopo in Castellare, the State Archives and the Forteguerriana Library.

Collections of the Twentieth Century is a project of Pistoia Musei - Pistoia Musei & Cultura scrl.

For more info: www.pistoiamusei.it

Hours: Daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tickets: Full 6 euros, reduced 4 euros.

Image: a room of the new exhibit. Photo by Ela Bialkowska.

Pistoia: new exhibition dedicated to artists active in the city from the 20th century to today

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