From January 2018 the doors of the most refined and important residences in Brescia will open exceptionally to show the fruit of a silent and reserved art collecting, which has flourished in the city and in its province over the last two centuries.
Palazzo Martinengo, historic residence in the heart of Brescia, is in fact preparing to welcome, from 20 January to 10 June 2018, the exhibition "PICASSO, DE CHIRICO, MORANDI. 100 masterpieces of the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries from private collections in Brescia".
The review, curated by Davide Dotti, organized by the Friends of Palazzo Martinengo Association, with the patronage of the Province of Brescia and the Municipality of Brescia, continues the investigation into Brescian private collecting started in 2014 with the exhibition that featured a selection of ancient paintings Renaissance and Baroque, among which the works of Moretto, Savoldo, Romanino and Ceruti stood out.
For this new appointment, the focus will instead be on the art that flourished between the 900th and XNUMXth centuries, starting with the works of the masters of neoclassicism (Appiani, Basiletti, Gigola and Vantini) up to the informal ones of Burri, Manzoni, Vedova and Fontana of the fifties and sixties of the XNUMXth century, passing through artistic currents and movements such as romanticism, futurism, metaphysics and the "Return to order".
Within the exhibition itinerary, an unpublished masterpiece by Pablo Picasso will be presented to the public for the first time, rediscovered by the curator Davide Dotti, and recently authenticated by the Picasso Foundation in Paris.
It is still life with a bull's head, an oil on canvas, painted by the Spanish genius in 1942. The work was executed in a tragic moment in Picasso's existence - due to the war and personal mourning - and it must be understood as the introduction of a precise iconographic motif, to be read as a memento mori. Overall, the expressive power and quality of the painting are very high: it is a fundamental work for re-reading the series of bulls' heads and Picasso's production during the war years.
For almost five months, Palazzo Martinengo will become an "ideal museum" where a precious selection of sought-after masterpieces will come together, purchased and loved by the most illustrious Brescian families who, painting after painting, have given life to unique collections in terms of quality, variety and vastness.
Brescian collecting can be divided into two distinct categories: that of aristocratic-noble extraction - which mainly concerns 800th century painting - and that which is the result of the intuition and passion for the art of industrialists, professionals but also simple enthusiasts.
The exhibition itinerary will open with works by authors – from Luigi Basiletti to Angelo Inganni, from Faustino Joli to Francesco Filippini, from Giovanni Renica to Achille Glisenti, from Arnaldo Soldini to Cesare Bertolotti up to Emilio Rizzi – who represented the glory of the pictorial school Bresciana dell'800, to then leave room for the masterpieces of the great masters of the '900 of international caliber who have represented the pillars of the various movements and currents that have followed one another over the decades: Balla, Boccioni, Depero, De Chirico, Savinio, Severini , Morandi, Carrà, De Pisis, Sironi, Burri, Manzoni, Vedova and Fontana.
