10 masterpieces

This grand canvas is the final outcome of a creative process that lasted ten years, ending after its first exhibit at the Quadriennale in Turin in 1902. Acquired by the City of Milan in 1922 via a public petition, this masterpiece represents the passage from the late 19th century Divisionism to modern times.

The watercolour is the study for "Bild mit zwei roten Flecken", the first canvas painted by Wassily Kandinsky after July of 1914, which is now lost and only recorded in photographic reproductions. 

This work was amongst the works requisitioned by the Nazis as "degenerate arte".

The focal point of this watercolour are two red patches, a colour to which Kandinsky assigned an expansive force.

Free of associative references to reality Composition is structured according to a recurrent, dynamic diagonal principal.

A series of marks, lines and combinations of form and colour produced visual effect, at times retreating, in other approaching, yet always relative to the viewer's gaze.

This work embodies Paul Klee’s artistic vision leaning towards the research of balance between signs and colours, embracing Expressionism and Abstract Art. The artist depicts a landscape through signs overlapping with structures, figures and bird’s-eye view perspective.

The portrait of Béatrice Hastings represents the artist’s return to painting after the period devoted to sculpture and the so-called ‘Cubist’ phase. Cézanne’s influence is now overcome to leave space to wholly personal pictorial expression.

Paul Guillaume, collector and philanthropist, is portrayed in a pose recalling a series of photographs taken in 1915 in Modigliani’s studio. The special focus on physiognomy, the almost sculptural plastic painting, and the Cubist language in the sharp lines of the features place this work among the major creations by Modigliani.

In the spotlight in this painting, isolated from the background and framed in a dizzying perspective from below, is the Lighthouse in Westkapelle, near Domburg. This work belongs to the artist’s neo-impressionist period on the wake of Munch.

The portrait of Virginia Procida is the first work by Boccioni acquired from a public collection. The painting exudes the influence of Master Giacomo Balla’s teachings on the wake of Divisionism. The colour is laid with short, quick brushstrokes.

One of Boccioni’s most meaningful creations. Elasticity embodies all of the figurative elements of Futurist painting: the galloping horse in the foreground and the representation of progress through a snapshot of factories in the background.

The artist portrays a sort of freeze-frame of an interior, with a middle-class scene from the early 1900’s. Women at the Café is considered one of Marussig’s major works from the period when the artist adhered to the Novecento movement, championed by Margherita Sarfatti.