Pinacoteca della Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Tortona

“Il Divisionismo” is a permanent exhibition inaugurated on May 26, 2012. The collection documents a fundamental moment of Italian artistic culture between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in all its historical and social context through the dialogue of the original core of canvases by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo with the subsequent targeted acquisitions of works by important artists who, at the national level, interpreted “divisionist painting”. 

The paintings trace a path of great quality, from the chromatic experimentation of the Scapigliatura, to the more mature application of the divisionist technique by socially engaged artists of the 1890s, to empirical approaches in the Symbolist context and the first experiments of the Futurists for whom divisionism constituted the language of modernity. The layout, unlike the collection catalog which follows a chronological order, also aims to highlight the affinities between works from different geographical areas, seeking unusual, sometimes even surprising comparisons. Examples include the relationship between Serafino Macchiati and Giacomo Balla during a brief Parisian partnership in 1900 or between Guglielmo Amedeo Lori, Plinio Nomellini and Benvenuto Benvenuti, united by the common Tuscan origin, filtered through the maturation of their personal poetics. Among the proponents of the different divisionisms, the Tortona-born Angelo Barabino should not be forgotten, to whom a deserved tribute has been attributed with a dedicated exhibition room representing his most intense and creative production.