Pinacoteca della Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Tortona

“Divisionism” 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 subsequent targeted acquisitions of works by important artists who, on a national level, became interpreters of “divided painting”.

The paintings trace a path of great level, from the chromatic experimentation of the Scapigliatura, to the more mature application of the divided technique by socially engaged artists of the 1890s to empirical approaches in the Symbolist field and the first essays of Futurists for whom divisionism constituted the language of modernity. The setup, unlike the collection catalog which follows a chronological order, aims to highlight also the affinities between works from different geographical areas, seeking unusual, sometimes even surprising comparisons. An example is 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 their common Tuscan origins, filtered through the maturation of their personal poetics. Among the exponents of different divisionisms, the Tortonese 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.