Between the 1960s and 1990s, Ferrara emerged as a propulsive center for avant-garde art thanks to the activities of Franco Farina, memorable director of the Civic Gallery of Modern Art.
His dynamic exhibition schedule at Palazzo dei Diamanti gave rise to a season studded with international events and personalities, which left a tangible testimony in the collection of artworks he owned.
This heritage was recently donated to the city by Lola Bonora, the historic director of the Ferrara Video Art Center and her life partner, extraordinarily enriching the city’s collections.
A large part of the donation is presented to the public with an exhibition at the Pavilion of Contemporary Art that puts paintings, sculptures, drawings and graphics from the Farina collection in dialogue with works from the Galleries of Modern and Contemporary Art in order to evoke the effervescent cultural landscape of those years.
Proceeding along a path that from the studies and works on paper of the masters Carlo Carrà, Giorgio de Chirico and Filippo de Pisis moves toward the spatialism and informalism of Emilio Vedova, the New Dada of Robert Rauschenberg and the kinetic experiments of Getulio Alviani and Gianni Colombo, and the Nouveau Réalisme and pop art of Mimmo Rotella and Mario Schifano, Franco Farina’s collection becomes an opportunity to reread contemporary art through the eyes of a distinguished Ferrara native.

Edited by.
Maria Luisa Pacelli, Ada Patrizia Fiorillo, Chiara Vorrasi, Lorenza Roversi, Massimo Marchetti

Organizers
Ferrara Art Foundation and Galleries of Modern and Contemporary Art in collaboration with the University of Ferrara

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