London
Over 200 works from the collection of Achille Maramotti, the late founder of the Italian fashion firm Max Mara, were set to go on show in the company’s former factory in Reggio Emilia, in northern Italy, as we went to press.
Mr Maramotti started collecting in the 1960s initially buying Arte Povera artists such as Burri and Fontana, fellow Italian artists Manzoni, Morandi and De Chirico, as well as Cy Twombly. He had a lifelong passion for the work of Francis Bacon and in his later years also began acquiring the work of emerging artists. By the time of his death in 2005, his collection included important holdings of work by Anselm Kiefer, Georg Baselitz and Jean-Michel Basquiat among many others.
A selection goes on show this month in a new three-storey, 836 sq. ft gallery. This is on the top two floors of a 1957 building, converted by British architect Andrew Hapgood. Shows of work by contemporary artists will be held on the ground floor.
The critic Mario Diacono, who advised Maramotti on art, told our sister paper Il Giornale dell’Arte that: “Maramotti was different from all of his contemporaries, except Charles Saatchi, in that he focused on the development of painting which he saw as a continuum from the 15th century to today.” Maramotti’s children, Luigi, Ignazio and Maria, continue to buy art for the collection.
Work by Margaret Salmon, the first winner of the biennial Max Mara prize for emerging female British artists, organised in collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery in London, will also go on show.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as ‘Max Mara founder’s art to go on show'