Di quadro in quadro

Di quadro in quadro. "The Art of Quotation” explores the role of quotation in art history, understood as the revival and reworking of motifs, themes, and elements from previous works. The exhibition presents art as a system of continuous references, where each image dialogues with other images, generating new interpretations over time.

The exhibition is divided into eight sections: Vis-à-vis, The Copy, Paintings within Paintings, Handwritings, D’après, The Morandi Case, Covers, and Avida Dollars. It features 150 works from the Mart Collections as well as from important public and private collections, involving around 80 artists. The structure of the exhibition follows a progressive development, from the earliest, more conceptual reflections to contemporary and Pop variations of the quotation.

Through works by Giorgio de Chirico, Virgilio Guidi, Felice Casorati, Filippo de Pisis, and Renato Guttuso, the exhibition highlights the dialogue between the masters of the early twentieth century and the preceding artistic tradition, often through copies, explicit references, and the inclusion of the "painting within a painting." With the advent of photography and the culture of reproducibility, the theme of quotation expands further, involving artists such as Giulio Paolini, Luigi Ontani, and Francesco Vezzoli, who work on the appropriation and ironic reinterpretation of historical models.

Finally, the itinerary extends to contemporary art and the languages of mass media, where iconic images such as the Mona Lisa or classical Venuses are reworked through the codes of pop culture and mass production. This context features works ranging from Andy Warhol and Piero Manzoni to the most recent artistic research reflecting on the transformation and circulation of images in the digital age.

The exhibition thus invites visitors to observe art history as a sequence of quotations and transformations, in which the creative act is based on a constant dialogue with the past and the continuous redefinition of the gaze.