30/01/2019 - 03/03/2019

Opened to the public in 1910, the Johannesburg Art Gallery boasts a collection of the highest quality from the point of view of the artistic heritage. Palazzo Ducale has the privilege of hosting an important nucleus of masterpieces from one of the most significant art museums of the African continent, offering the public a unique opportunity to discover and get to know a collection of works hardly visible in other locations. The exhibition presents over sixty works, including oils, watercolors and graphics, which bear the signature of some of the main protagonists of the international art scene of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: from Edgar Degas to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Jean Baptiste Corot to Alma Tadema, from Vincent Van Gogh to Paul Cezanne, from Pablo Picasso to Francis Bacon, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. Without forgetting the contemporary African art, to which an entire section of the exhibition is dedicated, and which constitutes a real discovery to our eyes, the opportunity to meet a pictorial reality that is not well known to the European public.So divided into chronological sections and themes, the exhibition is a journey through the history of art from the mid-nineteenth century to the late twentieth century, ranging from Europe to the United States to South Africa in a story that moves between historical moments, places and different artistic languages. The exhibition, in addition to presenting an excellent selection of works by great masters, also allows you to discover the fascinating history of the Johannesburg Art Gallery. The main protagonist of the birth and formation of the museum collection was Lady Florence Phillips, wife of mining magnate Sir Lionel Phillips. A woman of great charm, in turn a collector, convinced that her city should have an art museum, persuaded her husband and some industry magnates to invest in the project. Already at its opening, the museum presents a selection of works of extraordinary quality and modernity, a nucleus enriched then over the years, thanks to new acquisitions and donations. Curated by Simona Bartolena, created by ViDi in collaboration with the Johannesburg Art Gallery