Florence for contemporary art lovers

How to organize your visit in Florence if you are a contemporary art lover?

Florence is a cradle of the Renaissance, but don’t think that if you are a contemporary art lover, you will be bored here! If during your stay in the city you want to learn more about the 20th-century artistic production, these are the three museums you have to see!

The Casamonti Collection

The Collezione Casamonti is a private collection gathered by an art dealer Roberto Casamonti. It is displayed at Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni in Piazza Santa Trinita in Florence.

The collection is divided in two parts that are showed to the public in two different exhibitions. The first exhibition features the early twentieth-century art while the second part is dedicated to the post-War art production.

In the collection of the museum depending on which exhibition you will see, you can see works by Picasso, Braque or Giacomo Balla. If you visit the second part, you can admire instead the works by Yves Klein, Marina Abramovic or Bill Viola.

It is definitely a must for all contemporary art lovers in Florence.

The Museo Marino Marini

The Marino Marini Museum is hidden in a deconsecrated church dedicated to Saint Pancras. It features the art produced by a Tuscan sculptor Marino Marini.

Marino Marini was born in 1917 and he studied art at the Fine Arts Academy in Florence under the guidance of a famous painter and decorator Galileo Chini.

Chini was the most important representant of the art nouveau movement in Italy, yet, his pupil Marini did not follow his master’s footsteps and developed a completely different artistic language.

Since the very early years of his career Marini became interested in the archetypes and developed two artistic figures: a form of a knight and the one of goddess of fertility Pomona. They represented for him the virtues, the deeply rooted characteristics shared by all human beings.

Because the collection of the museum is so vast, during your visit you can observe how these two figures evolved and changed during the artist’s long life.

The Museo del Novecento

The Museo del Novecento is a very lively cultural institution in Florence. Its permanent collection features the artworks that belonged to a gallerist and art dealer Alberto della Ragione. This collection is a good introduction to the Italian avant-garde paiting.

Yet, the museum organizes very often very interesting temporary exhibitions. In 2021, for example, we enjoyed the art of a British artist Jenny Saville.

These shows are really well done. They feature 20th-century art and the most recent artistic production of European artists. So it is definitely worth checking what is actually on display while you’re in Florence.

Have you heard about these three museums before?