Overview

Mart of Trento and Rovereto

One of the most important modern and contemporary art museums in Italy include around 20,000 works of art ranging from the nineteenth century to contemporary art, including Futurism, the Novecento Italiano, Abstractionism, Informal Art, Arte Povera, and Transavanguardia up to the most recent artistic research.

The Museum of Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto (MART), located in Rovereto in the fascinating Trentino, is a place of excellence for contemporary art and a special place where you can admire beautiful masterpieces by Italian artists such as De Chirico, Carrà, Burri, and by foreign artists such as Kandinsky and Beuys.

Founded in 1987 as an institution of the Autonomous Province of Trento and was initially headquartered in the Palazzo delle Albere in Trento. However the arrival of some works by Fortunato Depero and those coming from the Provincial Art Museum of Trento pushed the administration to enlarge the Museum and finally the Mart opened to the public in the new and current exhibition space in Rovereto in 2002. Today the Futurist art Casa Depero is also part of the Museum in Rovereto, and exhibits some of the most important works of the futurist artist Fortunato Depero.

Mart's permanent collection includes approximately 20,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures and engravings, masterpieces selected from productions ranging from the late nineteenth century to contemporary art. Considerable space is devoted to twentieth century avant-garde, in particular to Futurism with paintings by Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Alberto Savinio. Many works from the so-called Scuola di Piazza del Popolo, also known as the Scuola del pop romano, are also part of the permanent collection with important works by Mario Schifano and Tano Festa. Giorgio Morandi, Carla Accardi, Giorgio de Chirico, Carlo Carrà, Josef Albers and, indeed, Rovereto’s Fortunato Depero, are among the authors present with numerous masterpieces. It is important to emphasise that the Mart Permanent Collection changes its staging about every six months.

Mart often hosts temporary exhibitions with themes ranging from architecture to avant-garde movements of the twentieth century and applied arts. Often Mart is also home to more than ten exhibitions a year that attract a large public. Among the authors on display in recent years: Álvaro Siza, Tullio Pericoli, Luigi Senesi, Mario Radice.

The modern building that houses the museum was designed by architect Mario Botta and engineer Giulio Andreolli who mixed technical solutions with classic models, such as the large dome inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. The square under the dome in the centre of which there is a fountain should certainly be admired. The wall covering is also a link with tradition with its yellow stone of Vicenza, which recalls the one used by the great Venetian architect Andrea Palladio.