10.18.05
The museums of contemporary art. Italian Lakes
The museums of contemporary art. Italian Lakes
In Busto Arsizio the Museo delle Arti of Palazzo Bandera houses visual art dating from the close of the 1980’s (Via Andrea Costa, 29 - tel. +39 0331 629893. Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday from 9.30-12.00 and 15.00-18.30; and Sunday from 10.00-12.30 and 15.00-19.00). The museum is directed by Carlo Occhipinti and Manuela Boscolo who in this way have continued their activity as gallery owners. With a preference for figurative art, they propose retrospective exhibitions and young artists. In nearby Castellanza we find the Fondazione Pagani (Via Gerenzano, 70 - tel. +39 0331 503113, open Saturdays and Sundays from 10.00-12.00 and 15.00-18.00, during the week by appointment). Founded at the end of the 1950’s by the artist and gallery owner Enzo Pagani (1920-1993), the Foundation houses a collection of works by sculptors and painters who invited to work in loco left a testimony of their artistic production. The Foundation possesses an important patrimony, made up especially of sculpture.
In Gallarate we can visit the Civica Galleria d’Arte Moderna (Viale Milano, 21 - tel. +39 0331 791233. Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 10.00-12.00 and 15.00-18.00, and on Tuesdays from 19.00-22.30). Besides its own collection, the museum houses and exhibits the works left by the artists on the occasion of the National Prize for Visual Arts of the City of Gallarate which since 1950 has been organized every two years thanks to the tenacious perseverance on the part of Silvio Zanella.
Today the gallery possesses over 2.600 works which range from the avant-gardes of the first decades of this century to design and multimedial art. As well as the collection housed in Villa Panza, in Varese we can visit the Castle of Masnago which is the seat of the Galleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea (Via Monguelfo - tel. +39 0332 820409. Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday from 10.30-12.30 and 14.30-18.30). Inaugurated in 1996 in Villa Marliani, it mainly houses works by local artists.
Along Lake Maggiore contemporary art is to be found in the Museo Civico, of Sesto Calende, housing a collection of works donated by the artists who exhibit in the Spazio Cesare da Sesto, and in the Museo Parisi Valle at Maccagno (Via Valsecchi, 21 - tel. +39 0332 560658. Open in July, August and September from Tuesday to Sunday, 10.00-12.00 and 15.00-20.00; during the other months it is open on Saturdays and Sundays, 10.00-12.00 and 14.00-18.00). Inaugurated in 1998 in a building literally bridging the Giona Torrent, planned by Maurizio Sacripanti (1916-1996), on a rotation basis it exhibits the works of the collection of the artist Giuseppe Vittorio Parisi (Maccagno 1915) and of his wife Wanda Valle.
Italian Lakes Tourist Information Guides – Tourism in Varese.
