Thesis title: Mostre storiche e retrospettive della Biennale di Venezia tra il 1948 e il 1960: lo sviluppo di una narrazione critico-museologica sull’arte moderna europea
This dissertation analyses the historical and retrospective exhibitions of the postwar Venice Biennale from an original and unexplored perspective. The study focuses specifically on the exhibitions dedicated to European modern art, directly promoted by the Ente.
A diachronic and analytical approach has been adopted to conduct a rigorous survey and a critical-philological analysis of the extensive archival and photographic documentation – mostly unpublished - collected over the three-year research period. This methodology enables the reconstruction of the museological discourse shaped by the Venice Biennale between 1948 and 1960. It also allows for the identification of the strategies employed by the institution in developing a model for the exhibition of modern art phenomena while simultaneously providing new Italian generations with a deeper understanding of international artistic trends from the past century. In this context, MoMA has emerged, though not always directly, as both a model and an interlocutor for the Venetian institution through its exhibitions.
The core themes of this research align with the main historical-critical trends that characterised the period under examination: the debate on the criteria to be prioritized in the formulation of a historical-artistic and museological canon (the relationship between “-isms” and individual artistic expression); the epicentres of modernity; the role of art historians in transforming museology into critical thought; the respective contributions of curators and architects in shaping exhibition displays; and the educational complementarity between historical exhibitions and the editorial support of "la biennale di venezia" journal.