Press & Media

Milan, 06 dicembre 2010

Great art of the "short century"

Inaugurated in December in the heart of Milan, the Museo del Novecento (museum of twentieth-century art) is home to around 400 works that tell the story of a century of innovation. Marina Pugliese, the museum’s curator, talks about a place that can “encourage the development of multiple perspectives and critical capabilities”. Finmeccanica, one of the main sponsors, has mounted an exhibition in a dedicated area outside the museum of some of the key players in the history of flying.

On 6 December, the Museo del Novecento celebrated its opening in Milan. The building, located between the Piazza Duomo and the Palazzo Reale, is a landmark on the cultural landscape not only of Milan but of Italy. According to the official presentation on the website, “The transformation of the Palazzo dell’Arengario into the Museo del Novecento, directed by Italo Rota and Fabio Fornasari, has the fundamental objective of creating a simple and linear museum system within a historical building, so as to optimise the use of available space and evoke a powerful and appealing image of the building and the new museum, thereby transforming it into one of Milan’s leading cultural centres”. Clearly this venue is vying to play a leading role in the artistic and cultural landscape.

Finmeccanica, as one of the main sponsors, is also contributing to this glimpse of the twentieth century. An area of 850 sq. m. has been set up outside the front of the museum with a 1929Macchi M.67 seaplane, an Agusta AB47 helicopter and the celebrated SVA biplane used by Gabriele D’Annunzio to complete his crossing to Vienna, on display. The museum itself has around 400 works on display to the public, selected from the nearly 4,000 dedicated to twentieth-century Italian art in Milan’s civic art collections. “To encourage the development of multiple perspectives and critical capabilities through the dissemination of knowledge about twentieth- century art. To conserve, study and promote public heritage and the artistic culture of the twentieth century through research and educational activities. To encourage, through work on various levels, an intercultural approach and involve a public that ranges from specialists to children and passing visitors”.

This is the mission not only of the Municipality of Milan but also, and more importantly, of those responsible for carrying out this wonderful artistic project.

The museum is therefore a pearl in the heart of Milan, and an event to which FinmeccanicaMagazine is devoting a special page thanks to the valuable contribution of Marina Pugliese, director of the museum project. In the words of Ms Pugliese, “The Museo del Novecento looks out over the city. 

The Torre dell’Arengario was designed as a meeting place with a restaurant and book shop, where Pellizza da Volpedo’s Fourth Estate will always be accessible during opening hours. Lucio Fontana’s great neon work on the top floor of the tower is visible from Piazza Duomo as a luminous sign, the rotating displays on the ground floor are visible on Via Marconi through large glass windows, and in the display area of 3,500 sq.m. between these two sections, there are numerous large windows that look out onto the city.

The exhibition route has been arranged chronologically and opens with a section on the international Avant-garde movement with early twentieth-century paintings by Picasso, Braque, Klee, Kandinsky, Laurens and Modigliani. From the first room devoted to Futurism, the order is broken up by sections containing monographs, including one relating to Umberto Boccioni, with a completely unique collection of works. This is followed by the art of the 1920s and 1930s, encompassing twentieth- century and Abstract art with monographs by De Chirico, Morandi, Martini and Melotti, while the large room in the Torre dell’Arengario is dedicated to Lucio Fontana. 

The Fontana Room has been designed as a huge environmental work that sets off the large ceiling dating from 1956 (originally in the Hotel del Golfo on the island of Elba and granted to the museum for storage by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities), the wonderful neon arabesque belonging to the Fontana Foundation, and the ‘space concepts’ of the 1950s. This is followed by a room devoted to Burri and the informal works of the great Italian masters (Vedova, Capogrossi, Novelli, Tancredi and Accardi). 

The final section, an area of over 1,500 sq. m. situated in the long gallery on the second floor of the Palazzo Reale and connected to the Torre dell’Arengario by a suspended walkway, is home to the art of the 1960s and contains environmental works of the ‘Gruppo T’ and large-format paintings belonging to the schools of Italian Pop Art and Analytical Painting. The final section of the museum is devoted to Arte Povera and Luciano Fabro, the Milan-born great master of the movement. The Museo Marino Marini will be moved to the same wing and housed in three dedicated sections. 

The Museo del Novecento has thus restored twentieth-century art collections to the city and become the new driving force behind cultural activities”. Finmeccanica’s presence can also be felt within the museum’s walls. A video installation portrays a journey through art, research, innovation and breaking through boundaries, which goes beyond the history of the art of the last century to become the history of a company, an industrial Group and a culture: just one testament, among hundreds of others, to that innovative drive that marked the 20th century in every field.

 Taken from Finmeccanica Magazine n. 18

Photogallery "Museo del Novecento"