THE GOLDEN WAY | LA VIA DELL’ORO

Golden masterpieces from the National Gallery of Umbria dialogue with Contemporary Art

17 APRIL – 30 JUNE 2024

curated by Alessandra Mammì, Veruska Picchiarelli and Carla Scagliosi

From 17 April to 16 June 2024, the Giorgio Franchetti Gallery in the Ca’ d’Oro, benefitting from an exceptional synergy between the National Museums of Perugia – Umbria Regional Museums Directorate and the Veneto Regional Museums Directorate, will host an exhibition of masterpieces from the National Gallery of Umbria in a dialogue with important works by Italian masters from the second half of the twentieth century.

The works of Duccio di Boninsegna, of Gentile da Fabriano, of the Master of the Perugia Madonna, of Giovanni Baronzio, of Cataluccio da Todi and of Bartolomeo Caporali on show alongside those of artist closer to our own times, such as Alberto Burri, Gino De Dominicis, Lucio Fontana, Marisa Merz, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Carol Rama, will constitute am absolutely unique itinerary of six dialogues between antique and modern to illustrate their common denominator use of gold, bringing together works whose technical, aesthetic and conceptual harmonies propose new comparisons, suggestions and perspectives, throwing open some unprecedented fields of interpretation.

Employing descriptions based on the types of work, tools and methods used to make them in their continuity or discontinuity in the course of time, or on the symbolic significance of a material that has left its mark on thousands of years of the history of human thought in figuring, each of these dialogues will investigate the hidden meaning of one of art’s most profound and mysterious idioms.

By proposing this encounter to bridge the gaps of space and time, the exhibitions sets out to furnish the interpretation of the contemporary works with the same force that has come down to us from tradition and memory, while at the same time inviting visitors to take a fresh look at the masterpieces that survive from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, so as to reinterpret the undying contemporary relevance that has enabled art, of both past and present, to occupy the borderlands between the visible condition of the image and the invisible status of its power as a symbol.

Set up on the second floor of the Giorgio Franchetti Gallery in the Ca’ d’Oro to coincide with the 60th Venice International Art Exhibition, this exhibition in Venice is the forerunner of a project that will culminate in Perugia from 5 October 2024 to 19 January 2025 at the National Gallery of Umbria, with an exhibition of another set of works that will enable visitors to extend their investigations, also employing the formula of installations and the declensions that the use of gold has undergone in the research conducted by artists from both Italy and abroad.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue published by Silvana Editoriale, with essays by Costantino D’Orazio, Alessandra Mammì, Veruska Picchiarelli, Carla Scagliosi and Alessandro Vanoli.

Giorgio Franchetti Gallery in the Ca’ d’Oro, Cannaregio N° 3932 (Calle Ca’ d’Oro) – 30121 Venice

Tuesday – Sunday: 10.00 a.m.-7.00 p.m.(ticket office closes at 6.30 p.m.)

T | +39 041 522 23 49

Mail | dmr-ven.franchetti@cultura.gov.it

Website | https://polomusealeveneto.beniculturali.it/musei/galleria-giorgio-franch…

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