It’s always a good idea to go to an exhibition and we have a few to recommend, both ones that are closing and ones that have recently opened, in Venice, Milan and Mantua. From Julian Lennon to Pablo Picasso, from Ugo Mulas to Helmut Newton, don't miss these opportunities

HELMUT NEWTON AND JULIAN LENNON AT THE STANZE DELLA PHOTOGRAFIA
We start in Venice, where, at the Stanze della Fotografia, you can admire (for a few more weeks) the works of Helmut Newton and Julian Lennon, protagonists of two exhibitions focused on the art of photography. Helmut Newton. Legacy, curated by Matthias Harder, director of the Helmut Newton Foundation, and by Denis Curti, artistic director of the Stanze della Fotografia, retraces Newton’s career in six chronological chapters, from his debut in the 1940s to his global fame in the 1990s. Whispers – A Julian Lennon Retrospective, curated by Julian Lennon and Sandrina Bonetti Rubelli, lays out the creative evolution of an author whose work spans from music to photography. The never-before-seen collection of photographs highlights Lennon’s profound interest in the connection that ties human beings to the natural world through responsibility.

INFO
Helmut Newton. Legacy
Whispers – A Julian Lennon Retrospective
until 24 November 2024
LE STANZE DELLA FOTOGRAFIA
Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice
https://www.lestanzedellafotografia.it

 

JANUS AT PALAZZO DIEDO
The reopening of Palazzo Diedo (Berggruen Arts & Culture’s new Venetian cultural centre) was accompanied by the exhibition Janus, which brings together the works of eleven contemporary artists, displayed in the historical building: Urs Fischer, Piero Golia, Carsten Höller, Ibrahim Mahama, Mariko Mori, Sterling Ruby, Jim Shaw, Hiroshi Sugimoto, AYA TAKANO, Lee Ufan and Liu Wei. Curated by Mario Codognato, director of Berggruen Arts & Culture, and Adriana Rispoli, curator of Berggruen Arts & Culture, the exhibition also includes two special projects, the result of the dialogue with The Kitchen in New York and the Polaroid Foundation.

INFO
Janus
until 24 November 2024
PALAZZO DIEDO
Cannaregio 2386, Venice
https://berggruenarts.org/

THE HOLY SEE PAVILION ON THE ISLAND OF GIUDECCA
Through November 24, the women’s prison on the island of Giudecca in Venice hosts With My Eyes, the exhibition of the the Holy See Pavilion as part of the 2024 Biennale Arte. Curated by Bruno Racine, director of Palazzo Grassi ‒ Punta della Dogana, and Chiara Parisi, it features the works of eight artists ‒ Maurizio Cattelan, Bintou Dembélé, Simone Fattal, Claire Fontaine, Sonia Gomes, Corita Kent, Marco Perego & Zoe Saldana, Claire Tabouret ‒, explained to visitors by the inmates. An experience that leaves its mark and invites us to question any form of (pre)judgement.

INFO
With My Eyes
until 24 November 2024
THE HOLY SEE PAVILION
Venice-Giudecca Women’s Prison

CONVITO DI VETRO AT THE GALLERIE DELL’ACCADEMIA IN VENICE
Until 3 November, it’s possible to admire the monumental and site-specific installation staged at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in correspondence with one of the masterpieces of the permanent collection, the painting The Feast in the House of Levi by Paolo Veronese (1573). And it is precisely the theme of the feast that unites the sixteenth-century painting and Convito di vetro, the exhibition created in collaboration with Pentagram Stiftung and curated by Sung Moon Cho, an art historian specialized in twentieth-century tableware. On display are over two hundred artifacts designed by twenty-seven artists and made in Murano during the last century. The thirty-two service sets, arranged on the table in chronological order, offer the public a visual history of the evolution of Murano glass tableware.

INFO
Convito di vetro
until 3 November 2024
GALLERIE DELL’ACCADEMIA
Campo della Carità 1050, Venice
https://gallerieaccademia.it/

PABLO PICASSO IN MILAN AND MANTUA
We move to Milan (and Mantua) to visit two exhibitions, inaugurated a few weeks ago, dedicated to Pablo Picasso. While the more than ninety works gathered at Palazzo Reale under the curatorship of Annie Cohen-Solal and Cécile Debray showcase the complex bond that united Picasso to France and his status as a “foreigner”, at Palazzo Te the fifty works by the Spanish artist dialogue with the frescoes of Giulio Romano. In this exhibition, curated once again by Annie Cohen-Solal, what emerges is the role of poetry, adopted by Picasso as a tool to overcome the challenges of his condition as a “foreigner”.

INFO
Picasso the Foreigner
until 2 February 2025
PALAZZO REALE
Piazza del Duomo 12, Milan
https://www.palazzorealemilano.it/en/mostre/foreigner

Picasso at Palazzo Te. Poetry and Salvation
until 6 January 2025
PALAZZO TE
Viale Te 13, Mantua
https://www.centropalazzote.it/en/fondazione-palazzo-te/

UGO MULAS’ PHOTOGRAPHY IN MILAN
Our itinerary ends in Milan, where Palazzo Reale recently inaugurated the exhibition curated by Denis Curti and Alberto Salvadori, director of the Ugo Mulas Archive, and dedicated to a great master of photography. Over two hundred and fifty images explore themes and subjects chosen by Ugo Mulas during his career: from theatre to fashion to the protagonists of the cultural scene of the time. Also striking is the relationship between Mulas and Milan, the many nuances of which are contained in numerous images exhibited for the occasion.

INFO
Ugo Mulas. The process of photography
until 2 February 2025
PALAZZO REALE
Piazza del Duomo 12, Milan
https://www.palazzorealemilano.it/