Ca’ Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art, Venice

The Ca’ Pesaro in Venice is a monumental palace that houses museums of fine art and decorative arts, mostly known as the seat of the Galleria Internazionale di Arte Moderna (International Gallery of Modern Art).

Overlooking the Grand Canal, the Ca’ Pesaro palace, once belonging to the Pesaro noble family from which it takes its name, was built from 1659 to 1710 after a design by Baldassarre Longhena, one of the most renowned Venetian architects of the Baroque period.
The architectural style of the building is actually mid-way between Renaissance and Baroque and combines an architectural structure inspired by the works of Renaissance architect Jacopo Sansovino with a rich Baroque-like decorative apparatus.
In 1902, the palace’s owner, Duchess Felicita Bevilacqua La Masa, donated the building to the City of Venice, which converted it into a museum to display the civic collection of modern art to the public.

One of the most important in Italy, the permanent collection of the International Gallery of Modern Art at Ca’ Pesaro, comprising a large number of artworks – paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, and installations – by Italian and international artists, has been built over more than 120 years through both acquisitions by the Venice city council and donations from private collectors. Initially focused on Italian artists of the 19th and 20th centuries, the collection was subsequently opened to works by international artists

Today, the collection includes works by renowned Italian artists of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries – such as Medardo Rosso, Adolfo Wildt, Umberto Boccioni, Gino Severini, Felice Casorati, Arturo Marini, Giorgio Morandi, Giorgio De Chirico, Carlo Carrà, Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana, and Jannis Kounellis – together with pieces by celebrated international artists including Auguste Rodin, Pierre Bonnard, Gustav Klimt, Wassily Kandinsky, Joan Mirò, Roberto Matta, Alexander Calder, Henri Moore, Richard Nonas, Lawrence Carroll, Stuart Arends, Gregory Mahoney, and Bruce Nauman.

Works from the collection and pieces on long-time loans from other institutions are displayed in a semi-permanent exhibition, usually completely renovated every 2 or 3 years.

The semi-permanent exhibition occupies the whole first floor of the Ca’ Pesaro building, while on the second floor, both contemporary works from the museum’s collection and pieces on long-term loan from the Sonnabend Foundation in New York are currently on display; the second floor is also used for temporary exhibitions.
The third floor of the palace accommodates the Oriental Art Museum, renowned for its collection of Japanese art of the Edo period, as well as for its Japanese, Chinese, and Indonesian pieces of applied arts.

The museum hosts major special exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, educational programs – particularly aimed at children, families, and schools-, learning courses, and special events.

Completely accessible to physically impaired persons, the Ca’ Pesaro building also accommodates a bookshop and a cafe. The museum can be reached in a few minutes from the San Stae water bus stop.

The main entrance of the Ca’ Pesaro; photo © Inexhibit

View of the Campo San Stae (also known as Campo San’Eustachio) square, in which the water bus stop for the Ca’ Pesaro museum is located; photo © Inexhibit

Main courtyard of the Ca’ Pesaro palace in Venice; photo © Inexhibit

View of one of the semi-permanent exhibition rooms of the International Gallery of Modern Art at Ca’ Pesaro; in the background: Gustav Klimt, Judith II (Salome), 1909, oil on canvas; photo © Inexhibit

Views of the semi-permanent exhibition of the International Gallery of Modern Art at Ca’ Pesaro; photo © Inexhibit

Cover image: room on the second floor of the Gallery of Modern Art at Ca’ Pesaro; photo © Inexhibit