It is possible that I have mentioned on previous occasions in this blog that I have had difficulty, when in Italy, contacting artists there who are currently active. What is more, it has not been easy to find exhibitions of work by contemporary painters. Only on one occasion (in Rome) have I managed to view a major show of this kind, and otherwise the municipal gallery in Bassano del Grappa has been the most interesting.
The guide books don’t help in this search. They all list museums and churches in which it is possible to view the glories of Italy’s creative past. It is rare, however, for them to point the visitor in the direction of a gallery dealing with work by living artists. Tourist offices are complicit in this. The guide to Italy I have,* for example, in its coverage of Milan, lists the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana and the Pinacoteca di Brera, but doesn’t mention either the Galleria d’Arte Moderna, or the new contemporary gallery. The entry on Rome omits any mention of Italy’s primary showcase for contemporary work. It is called the Maxxi (Museo nazionale delle arte del XXI secolo.) Admittedly it is a bus-ride out of the centre, but I found it well worth the effort to get there.
I suppose this is par for the course, as the same guidebook makes no mention of the Venice Biennale (one of the primary international art events since 1895), although it does have a sentence on the Venice Film Festival. Are all the guidebooks equally bad? I’ll have to check.
During my recent visit to Italy I was delighted to encounter an exhibition by artists currently working in the area of Verona, and on my return I wrote to three of them in order to try to establish a more regular contact. Today I had a reply from one of them, and I really hope that this will open doors for me and allow me to develop at least some idea of what is going on there. His email tells me that there is indeed a great deal happening. I look forward to finding out more.
Incidentally, a few years ago I asked somebody where all the practicing Italian artists were to be found and was told, “In London.”
*The “Eyewitness Travel” volume for Italy.