Tragicomica: Italian Art from the Late 20th Century to Today
They say that laughing to the point of tears reveals life’s mix of comedy and tragedy, and this exhibition explores that same duality in Italian art. On view at MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Arts until September 20, Tragicomica brings together more than 300 works by 130 artists active in the last 70 years. The show highlights how irony, humor, and contradiction run through Italian culture. Rather than following a traditional art history timeline, the exhibition offers a fresh perspective— challenging the established canon and presenting a more layered, unconventional view of Italy’s artistic evolution. You’ll encounter both iconic and lesser-known works by artists such as Gino De Dominicis, Piero Manzoni, Lucio Fontana, Maurizio Cattelan, Alighiero Boetti, Carol Rama, and Monica Bonvicini—all of whom explore the tension between the serious and the absurd. maxxi.art
Dante Ferretti. With My Eyes
The exhibition Dante Ferretti. With My Eyes at the Musei di San Salvatore in Lauro is dedicated to the great set designer Dante Ferretti, a three-time Oscar winner who worked with directors like Fellini and Scorsese. The exhibition (a sketch on opposite page) shows how film sets are created, using original sketches, paintings, and preparatory materials, the very first steps in building a movie. The show highlights Ferretti’s hands-on, artistic approach, based on study and imagination, and lets visitors see how an idea becomes a real set. Through his work in cinema, theater, and opera, the exhibition offers a look inside the creative process of one of today’s most important set designers, showing how crucial set design is in shaping the images and worlds of film. conimieiocchimostra.it
Piero di Cosimo’s Magdalene: Art, History, and Women’s Lives in Renaissance Florence
Until 5 July, the VIVE – Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia will be welcoming visitors with the exhibition Piero di Cosimo’s Magdalene: Art, History, and Women’s Lives in Renaissance Florence. The exhibition features a precious panel painting by Piero di Cosimo (1462–1522), The Magdalene, preserved in the collection of the National Galleries of Ancient Art at Palazzo Barberini and exceptionally loaned to the VIVE. Piero di Cosimo is renowned for a highly personal artistic language, marked by meticulous attention to detail and influenced by masters such as Domenico Ghirlandaio and Leonardo da Vinci. In this work, Piero di Cosimo portrays Mary Magdalene as a young woman of his own time: a fifteenth-century Florentine, absorbed in her book and surrounded by objects drawn from her daily life. It is precisely these everyday items that inspire the exhibition’s concept: painting as a gateway into the lives of women in Renaissance Florence and the world that surrounded them. vive.cultura.gov.it
Pablo Atchugarry. Sculpting Light
This month, the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea will be presenting Pablo Atchugarry. Sculpting Light, an exhibition on Uruguayan-born, Italian-adopted artist Pablo Atchugarry. Featuring around fifty sculptures, the show offers a broad overview of the artist’s research and creative journey, retracing the last thirty years of his career. To mark the occasion, Atchugarry will donate a specially conceived major white marble work, Splendore (2006, pictured), created for the museum, to the collection of the GNAMC. Alongside his celebrated marble sculptures, the exhibition also includes works in wood carved from centuries-old olive tree trunks, enameled bronze, alabaster, and steel. Exceptionally, four sculptures by Atchugarry will be juxtaposed to four masterpieces from the museum’s permanent collection by Jean Arp, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Giacometti, and Henry Moore. gnamc.cultura.gov.it
Katsushika Hokusai: The Great Master of Japanese Art
Few artists have shaped the world’s visual imagination quite like Katsushika Hokusai. A towering figure of Japanese art, his iconic ukiyo-e prints capture nature in motion—roaring waves, serene landscapes, graceful women, and glimpses of everyday life—rendered with a poetic sensibility that still feels strikingly modern today. Until June 29, Palazzo Bonaparte hosts Hokusai: The Great Master of Japanese Art, the most extensive exhibition ever dedicated to the artist in Italy. The show traces his remarkable evolution, from early works grounded in tradition to celebrated masterpieces such as The Great Wave off Kanagawa and the renowned series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. With more than 200 works on loan from the National Museum in Krakow, the experience is further enriched by innovative manga, illustrated albums, rare books and a curated selection of Japanese artifacts. mostrepalazzobonaparte.it
Robert Mapplethorpe. The Forms of Beauty
American artist Robert Mapplethorpe (New York, 1946–1989) did not simply photograph subjects: he sculpted space through the lens of his Hasselblad camera, imbuing each image with an aura of timeless classicism, defined by geometric vision and a relentless pursuit of perfection. Until October 4, the Ara Pacis Museum hosts the exhibition Robert Mapplethorpe. The Forms of Beauty, a selection of around 200 of his photographs, each exploring the concept of beauty as absolute perfection and formal rigor. Distinguished by a series of previously unseen works, the exhibition focuses on the search for pure form, where the human body, faces, and still lifes are treated with the same meticulous attention to light and geometry. arapacis.it
