The masterpieces of the '900 Avant-garde are the protagonists of the autumn exhibition of Palazzo Blu - from 28 September 2023 to 7 April 2024 - an extraordinary sequence of paintings and sculptures from the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum and exhibition center among the most important and internationally recognized for its art collections.
The exhibition, curated by Matthew Affron, curator of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with scientific advice for the presentation of Pisa art historian Stefano Zuffi, will be a unique opportunity to admire some absolute landmarks of European art of the first decades of the '900; are in fact coming in the halls of Palazzo Blu works of Chagall, Dali, Duchamp, Kandinsky, Mirò and Picasso. To which are also works of Matisse, Mondrian, Klee, Ernst and Gris, artists who have never been exhibited in the art palace overlooking the Lungarno. It will be a unique opportunity to retrace some of the highlights of the "short century"in dialogue with the sensitivity towards international history that has characterized the initiatives of Palazzo Blu Arte e Cultura for several years.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is a national and international reference for art, boasting world-renowned collections and internationally recognized exhibitions where the works of the European Avant-garde have a particularly dense and significant presence. The Philadelphia Museum of Art continued to grow throughout the 20th century, especially during Fiske Kimball’s 30-year tenure. Marcel Duchamp himself, in charge of investigating the main North American museums for the best location for 20th century art, chose the Philadelphia Museum of Art as the most appropriate venue.
To open, in a very significant way, the exhibition at Palazzo Blu, will be a self-portrait of Picasso twenty-five. The young painter takes up the palette and literally rolls up his sleeves: it is the first, conscious step to become the great protagonist of the artistic story of an entire century.
Then the exhibition route will continue as an intense "timeline" in which the works will be accompanied by visual, sound and multimedia installations, to place them in the sequence of historical and cultural events from the end of the "Belle Époque" until the outbreak of World War II.
The exhibition will propose a final part all in crescendo, with a work of strong suggestion and high symbolic value: the Crucifixion painted by Chagall in 1940.
The opening of the exhibition, produced and organized by Fondazione Palazzo Blu e Mondomostre, with the contribution of Fondazione Pisa, also coincides with the conclusion of a redevelopment and renewal of the spaces at Palazzo Blu, intervention that concerned the lighting and the systems of the historic building overlooking the Arno.
