CA' PESARO - INTERNATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART IN VENICE

Commissioned by the noble Pesaro family in the second half of the 16th  century, the building bears the signature of the famous Venetian architect Baldassarre Longhena and is inspired by the style of Sansovino having been reworked into new harmonies. The decorations within Ca' Pesaro are also extraordinary, among which there are the ceiling with Flora and Zephyr by Gian Battista Tiepolo, now on display at Ca' Rezzonico. The Ca' Pesaro palace was donated to the City of Venice by the Bevilacqua family and has since become the new Ca' Pesaro Museum of Modern Art. It has also welcomed the newly formed municipal modern art collection - which began in the late 18th century in conjunction with the 2nd Biennial and has continued to enrich itself throughout the course of the 20th century through new purchases and donations.

Among the museums in Venice, Ca' Pesaro is the only one that accommodates two very different permanent collections: the first floor boasts the Ca' Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art in Venice and houses important artistis of the 19th and 20th centuries - including Chagall, Kandinsky, Moore, Klimt and Klee, without forgetting the rooms dedicated to Italian artists and the Cabinet of graphics; while the third floor of the Musei Arte Orientale at Ca' Pesaro has one of the most important European collections of Japanese art in the Edo period (1600-1868), flanked by important testimonies from China and Indonesia.

Ca' Pesaro Museum of Modern Art in Venice

The Ca’ Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art in Venice, as part of the Civic Museums pass in Venice, offers a guided tour that winds through the ten rooms linked by a common thread: the original and careful Venetian taste for the art of the 20th century. The itinerary describes the evolution of a complex and artistic historical period by presenting various relations, comparisons and similarities between the different artists on display. During the tour of the first floor of Ca' Pesaro – the collection of modern art will find artists side by side such as: Auguste Rodin, Medardo Rosso and Adolfo Wildt (Room 1), De Chirico , Morandi and Sironi (Room 8), Emil Nolde, Pierre Bonnard, André Derain De Pisis and Virgilio Guidi ( Hall 9), Alberto Burri, Emilio Vedova, Antoni Tàpies and Robert Rauschenberg ( room 15). Among the sumptuous rooms on the first floor of the Venice Ca’ Pesaro modern Art is everywhere! Among the 'greats' on display at Ca' Pesaro: Klimt (Judith II) , Franz von Stuck (Medusa) , Fernand Khnopff (White Mask), Marc Chagall (Rabbi of Vitsbek), Rodin (The Thinker) and still Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Joan Miró, Picasso, Max Ernst, Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni and graphic works by Edvard Munch. The modern art in Venice, at the Ca' Pesaro Museum, houses some of the greatest masterpieces of the 20th century.

Museo d’Arte Orientale - Ca’ Pesaro in Venice

Moving to another area of Ca' Pesaro Venice collection, the permanent exhibition of oriental art has a direct contact with these fascinating and mysterious cultures, focusing in particular on Japan. Throughout the nine rooms on the third floor of Ca' Pesaro, oriental art becomes the star of a singular path to the discovery of some countries as much admired as yet little known. Daring armor, noble Jimbaori (ceremonial cloaks) , cabinets, cases and gloves in black lacquer or with thin slivers of mother-of-pearl, jingasa (hats in lacquered wood), parade saddles and stirrups, kai- oke (boxes of painted shells), sake cups, fine examples of netsuke (valuable collector's items, initially used to attach medicinal herb pouches to the belt), in addition there is the fascinating collection of weapons and blades: tachi and katana swords, which the Japanese considered the most sacred object. The final part of the Oriental Art Museum in Venice is dedicated to Japan with numerous examples of musical instruments and the wonderful collection of kosode (Japanese clothes for ladies of the Edo period). The Ca Pesaro exposition not only preserves testimonies from Japan, but also a large collection of Chinese export porcelain (Min gperiod, 1368 to 1644 and Qing period, 1644 to 1912); figures of shadow theatre, kris with beautiful representations of the naga (a mysterious snake figure), batik and musical instruments from Indonesia round off the collection of the Museum of Oriental Art in the Ca' Pesaro.

Ca’ Pesaro - Tickets: allow one to visit both permanent collections (International Gallery of Modern Art and Museum of Oriental Art in Venice)

Ca’ Pesaro - Opening Hours

From 11 September 2020: from Friday to Sunday 11.00 am - 5.00 pm (entrance until 4.00 pm)

Closed: 25 December, 1 January.