Oro d’Italia takes a new look at 20th-century Italian art, and particularly that of the second half of the century, in a selection of works by internationally renowned Italian artists who use or have used gold in their art with different poetic intentions. It spans from the master’s representations of sacred stories between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries – such as the stunning Madonna con Bambino (Madonna with child) by Familiare del Boccati, from the second half of the fifteenth century, and the majestic Crocifisso Corsi from the first quarter of the fourteenth century – up to works of some of the most representative contemporary artists in Italian art history. The central section of this exhibition is dedicated to the use of gold in Italian artistic research of the twentieth century, and it opens with a painting on gold paper by Giacomo Balla from 1913. It then develops into a journey including works from some of the major post World War II Italian artists such as Fausto Melotti, Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana, Carla Accardi and Gastone Novelli.
Also on display is a rare Achrome by Piero Manzoni and a large group of works from the Arte Povera movement by artists such as: Michelangelo Pistoletto, Alighiero Boetti, Giulio Paolini, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Giuseppe Penone. This exploration of the theme of gold in Italian painting and sculpture is rounded off with recent works by Maurizio Cattelan, Lara Favaretto, Chiara Fumai, Giovanni Rizzoli and an enamel painting on canvas by Rudolf Stingel.
The last section is a special project dedicated to contemporary jewelry with creations from artists including Lucio Fontana, Enrico Castellani and Jannis Kounellis.