The Christmas holidays are the right time to go back to dedicating yourself to art and visit one of the many exhibitions organized in this period in our area. From Milan to Turin with Monet and Warhol, from Genoa to Florence with Escher and Koons to arrive as far as Rome traveling through artists and geniuses such as Klimt and Banksy. Here is a list of the exhibitions not to be missed in some of the most beautiful cities in Italy.
1) MILAN TRIENNALE – SAUL STEINBERG
From 15 October 2021 to 13 March 2022, the Triennale Milano is hosting the "Saul Steinberg Milano New York" exhibition in its exhibition spaces, a tribute to the great world-famous artist and illustrator who dedicated many of his works to the Lombard city where he lived during his training (1933-1941).
An exhibition full of pencil, pen and watercolor drawings, works made with stamps, paper masks, objects/sculptures, fabrics, collages, to document the artistic activity of Steinberg (1914-1999). To accompany the works, a wide selection of documentary and photographic apparatuses that tell his style and the link to the city of Milan, as well as a careful selection of original magazines and books, which - starting from the famous covers of "The New Yorker" – welcomed some of Steinberg's most significant contributions.
The ticket costs 12 euros (reduced 10 euros). Opening hours: every day 11:00-20:00 (last entry at 19:00).
2) PALAZZO REALE MILAN – MONET AND MAGIC REALISM
Until 30 January 2022, the Royal Palace of Milan will host the exhibition "Monet Works from the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris". And until February 27 “Magical Realism”. The first is a study on the theme of light and its changes in the work of the father of impressionism. For a total of 53 works by Monet including his Water Lilies (1916-1919), Parliament. Reflections on the Thames (1905) and Le rose (1925-1926), his last work. A loan from the Musée Marmottan Monet which owns the largest group of works by the artist in the world.
The chronological itinerary traces the entire artistic parable of the Impressionist master, read through his works that Monet never wanted to sell and jealously guarded in his home in Giverny; until his son Michel, donated them after his death to the Parisian museum.
The ticket costs 14 euros (reduced 12) and there are discounts for families. Opening hours: Monday to Sunday 10:00-19:30, Thursday closed at 22:30. During holidays the timetable changes.
The "Magic Realism" exhibition offers a rich and articulated overview of the artistic movements widespread in Europe and the United States between 1920 and 1930. Through 80 masterpieces, Palazzo Reale recounts the characteristics and contradictions of the years between the two wars, marked by a re-evaluation of the past with a look at the present, by the optimism of the reconstruction and by the premonition of the crisis of '29 and of the war conflict.
The ticket costs 14 euros (reduced 12), special prices for families. Opening hours: from Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-19:30; Thursday closing at 22pm; Monday closed. Hours may change on public holidays.
3) ROYAL MUSEUMS OF TURIN – FABIO VIALE
From 14 October 2021 to 9 January 2022, the Royal Museums of Turin are hosting the exhibition In Between by Fabio Viale, curated by Filippo Masino and Roberto Mastroianni. This is the first Turin exhibition dedicated to one of the most influential Italian artists on the international scene.
From 13 December the "Le Tre Grazie" of Viale will take the place of Cupid and Psyche and the Venus Italica in the Hall of the Swiss Guards of the Royal Palace. The sculpture, composed of three female figures with an explicit reference to Canova's masterpiece, has as its object a scene that the sculptor saw a few years ago during one of his frequent trips to the Maghreb, immortalized in the shot of his travel companion Battista Fasano. It concerns three women sitting under a bus shelter in Ghardaia, an Algerian city of Islamic religion, where the traditional female haik is a large white robe that wraps around the whole body, leaving only one eye uncovered.
Admission to the exhibition is included in the usual Royal Museums ticket, free for under 18s and 2 euros for those aged between 18 and 25. Opening hours: from Tuesday to Sunday 9:00-19:00; Monday closed.
4) PALAZZO BAROLO TURIN – ANDY WARHOL
“Andy Warhol Through the Lens of Fred W. McDarrah” is back on show in Turin. A whimsical and colorful journey into the life of the father of Pop Art in the spaces of Palazzo Barolo until 27 February 2022. The Turin exhibition offers a look at America in the 50s, 60s and 70s to discover a cultural icon which has influenced the art and thought of contemporary society.
On display, alongside the most famous icons created by Andy Warhol – including serigraphs of Marilyn, Mao and the famous Campbell's Soup – the unpublished works of the avant-garde series "Ladies & Gentlemen", created between 1974 and 1975. further enrich the itinerary, the reconstructions of some of the most iconic and characteristic environments in which Warhol lived and moved, the Polaroids he used to take his photographs and the graphics he created for the Martini & Rossi company (in collaboration with the Casa Martini Museum).
The cost of the ticket is 16 euros; reductions for over 65s, under 12s and university students (14 euros); free for children up to 6 years. Opening hours: from Tuesday to Friday 10:00-17:30; Saturday and Sunday 10:00-18:30; Monday closed. Extraordinary closures on 24, 25 and 31 December and 1 January 2022.
5) DUCAL PALACE GENOA - ESCHER
Until 20 February 2022, Genoa will host the anthological exhibition of the Dutch genius Maurits Cornelis Escher, one of the most appreciated exponents of modern art globally. A journey into the artist's mind through over 200 works with an artistic, mathematical, scientific, physical and naturalistic theme, which also includes his most representative works. Masterpieces such as Hand with a Reflecting Sphere (1935), Bond of Union (1956), Metamorphosis II (1939), Day and Night (1938) and the Emblemata series.
Full ticket 14 euros (reduced 12). Opening hours: Monday 14:00-19:00; from Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-19:00; Friday 10am–00pm.
6) NATIONAL PINOTECA OF BOLOGNA – ANTONIO CANOVA
Until 20 February 2022, the Salone degli Incamminati of the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna will host Antonio Canova and Bologna. At the origins of the Pinacoteca, curated by Alessio Costarelli.
The exhibition aims to explore the theme of the relationship between the great sculptor and the city of Bologna, also highlighting the role of the master of Italian neoclassicism in the history of the Pinacoteca collection. The museum's works are flanked by paintings, sculptures, manuscripts and documents from various museum institutions, libraries and archives.
The cost of the ticket is 10 euros (reduced 2 euros). Opening hours: Tuesday and Wednesday 09:00-14:00; from Thursday to Sunday from 10:00 to 19:00; Monday closed.
7) PALAZZO STROZZI FLORENCE – JEFF KOONS
From 2 October 2021 to 30 January 2022 Palazzo Strozzi hosts an exhibition dedicated to Jeff Koons, one of the most important and controversial figures in contemporary art worldwide. Curated by Arturo Galansino and Joachim Pissarro, the exhibition brings to Florence a selection of the most famous works by the artist who revolutionized the international art system from the XNUMXs to today.
The Jeff Koons exhibit. Shine hosts loans from the most important collections and major international museums, proposing the concept of "shine" (gloss), key for the artist, understood as a game of ambiguity between splendor and glow, being and appearing that aim to question our relationship with reality but also the very concept of a work of art.
The ticket costs 16 euros; for under 30 and over 65 it costs 13 euros while for minors 6 euros. Opening hours: every day 10:00-20:00; Thursday until 23pm.
8) BRASCHI PALACE OF ROME - KLIMT
Until March 27, 2022 Klimt returns to Rome (Palazzo Braschi), where 110 years ago he was awarded a prize at the 1911 International Art Exhibition. “Klimt. The Secession and Italy” retraces the stages of the entire parable of the Austrian artist, underlines his role as co-founder of the Viennese Secession and – for the first time – investigates his relationship with Italy, narrating his travels and his exhibition successes. Over 200 works by Klimt and his circle including paintings, drawings, period posters and sculptures, such as the very famous Judith I, Lady in White, Friends I (The Sisters) (1907) and Amalie Zuckerkandl (1917-18). Quite exceptional loans have also been granted, such as The Bride (1917-18), which leaves the Klimt Foundation for the first time, and Portrait of a Lady (1916-17), stolen from the Ricci Oddi Modern Art Gallery in Piacenza in 1997 and recovered only in 2019.
Entrance ticket 13 euros (reduced 11), special for schools and families. Opening hours: Monday to Friday 10:00-20:00; Saturday, Sunday 10:00-22:00. They change on holidays.
9) SCUDERIE DEL QUIRINALE ROME – DANTE
The Porta dell'Inferno by Auguste Rodin arrived directly from Paris at the Scuderie del Quirinale: the work is among the absolute masterpieces of the Inferno exhibition, curated by Jean Clair, scheduled from 15 October 2021 to 9 January 2022. On loan from the Musée Rodin in Paris, the sculpture constitutes the apex of all-time artistic reflections on Dante's poem and is found at the beginning of the exhibition itinerary. 700 years after Dante Alighieri's death, the Roman exhibition pays tribute to the great poet through the display of over 200 works of art on loan from over 80 major museums, public collections and prestigious private collections. Masterpieces by Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Bosch, Bruegel, Goya, Manet, Delacroix, Rodin, Cezanne, von Stuck, Balla, Dix, Taslitzky, Richter, Kiefer.
The exhibition recounts the iconography of the world of the damned and the various transliterations of Hell on earth – suffering, madness, alienation, war and extermination – finding its conclusion with the evocation of the idea of salvation and rebirth entrusted by Dante to the last verse of the song: "and therefore we went out to see the stars again".
Full ticket for 15 euros (reduced 13), over 65s for 10 euros, under 17s for 2 euros and free for under 6s. Opening hours: every day from 10:00 to 20:00. Hours change on holidays
10) BRAMANTE CLOISTER ROME – BANKSY
It is not the first Roman exhibition for Banksy. Until 22 January 2022 it is possible to view the works of the most famous street artist in the world. The Chiostro del Bramante had already hosted them and, for this reason, the current one presents itself as an "exhibition 2: same place, same artist, new exhibition!". The new layout includes around 250 new works from private collections.
Ticket: from Monday to Friday the cost of the ticket is 15 euros (it drops to 13 from 13:15 to 15:00), while on weekends and holidays it costs 18 euros. The junior ticket (5-10 years) costs 10 euros, while for under 4s it is free. Hours: Monday to Friday 10:00-20:00, Saturday and Sunday 10:00-21:00. On public holidays the timetable changes.
