Giotto and the Twentieth Century

Exhibition on display until 4 June 2023

SPRING 2023 - How have Giotto’s paintings influenced twentieth-century art? This is the question that the “Giotto and the Twentieth Century” exhibition seeks to answer, at the Mart museum in Rovereto until 4 June 2023.

The answer? An exhibition that takes visitors through over 200 artworks by great Italian artists of the last century, including Carlo Carrà, Mario Sironi and Arturo Martini, Giorgio Morandi, Lucio Fontana, as well as international masters such as Henri Matisse, Yves Klein, Mark Rothko, Josef Albers and Tacita Dean.

The exhibition is curated by Alessandra Tiddia and is based on an idea by Vittorio Sgarbi, reaffirming the Mart museum’s focus on the interaction between ancient and contemporary, following investigative approach pursued by museum head Vittorio Sgarbi.

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Over 200 artworks under the Mart’s dome

The “Giotto and the Twentieth Century” exhibition impresses with its rich display of more than 200 artworks by modern and contemporary artists. It is a journey through art history tracing the path of the Tuscan master who revolutionised art in the Middle Ages.

The journey into Giotto’s universe at the Mart begins with an immersive projection of the frescoes of the Cappella degli Scrovegni in Padua – one of humanity’s masterpieces.

After this, visitors are taken through the art of the early twentieth century: from work by artists such as Carlo Carrà, Mario Sironi and Arturo Martini, to pieces by Gino Severini, Massimo Campigli, Achille Funi and Ubaldo Oppi, who saw Giotto as witness to an eternity to be gazed upon.

The journey through twentieth century art continues, moving forward a few decades, with the works of Giorgio Morandi, Fausto Melotti, Mario Radice and Lucio Fontana.

Matisse, Klein and Rothko also on display

There is no shortage of international artists, who regarded Giotto as a true source of inspiration: artists such as Yves Klein, Henri Matisse, Mark Rothko, Josef Albers and Tacita Dean.

Klein also viewed the frescoes attributed to Giotto inside the Basilica of San Francesco of Assisi, his first major encounter with the artist’s famous blue.

Matisse was among the illustrious visitors to the Scrovegni in Padua, while Rothko was struck by Giotto’s daring use of colour on his trip to Italy in 1950, creating space within the composition in a way beyond what any perspective could achieve.

All this is testament to the richness of Giotto’s legacy, immune to the passing of the centuries.

COVER: Carlo Carrà, Le figlie di Loth, 1919, Mart, Collezione VAF-Stiftung