Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia

The Collezione Maramotti is a privately-owned contemporary art space in Reggio Emilia, Italy, based on the personal collection of Achille Maramotti (1927-2005), founder of the fashion brand Max Mara.

Location and architecture
Opened to the public in 2007, the collection is housed in the former Max Mara headquarters, built in the 1950s on the outskirts of Reggio Emilia after a design by architects Antonio Pastorini and Eugenio Salvarani.
In 2003, the company moved to a new home; therefore, it was decided to convert the old building into a public exhibition venue for the founder’s collection of art. The new museum, named Collezione Maramotti, reopened in 2007 after a major renovation project designed by British architect Andrew Hapgood.
The renovation retained the industrial character of the original building, while it introduced a completely new array of naturally-lit exhibition galleries for both permanent and temporary exhibitions, as well as a reception, a reference library, and administration offices. The project also included a complete redesign of the garden surrounding the building, developed by landscape architect Lucy Jenkins.

Collezione Maramotti, interior view with artwork by Mark Manders.
Photo © Cesare Di Liborio

Collezione Maramotti, permanent exhibition, open space on the 2nd floor with artworks by Tom Sachs, Barry X Ball, and Erick Swenson. Photo © Dario Lasagni

Collezione Maramotti, permanent exhibition, open space on the 1st floor, installation view with artworks by Anselm Kiefer, and Ettore Colla. Photo © Dario Lasagni

Collection and exhibitions
The Maramotti collection – which comprises paintings, sculptures, and installations by more than 120 Italian and international artists – spans over seventy years, from the end of World War Two to the present.
Artists represented in the collection include, among others, Vito Acconci, Francis Bacon, Georg Baselitz, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alighiero Boetti, Alberto Burri, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Francesco Clemente, Tony Cragg, Lucio Fontana, Günther Förg, Ellen Gallagher, Peter Halley, Alex Katz, Anselm Kiefer, Jannis Kounellis, Piero Manzoni, Mario Merz, Henry Moore, Cady Noland, Mimmo Paladino, Claudio Parmiggiani, Richard Patterson, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Julian Schnabel, Sean Scully, Cy Twombly, Bill Viola, Dan Walsh, and Terry Winters.

The collection also comprises artworks selected through the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, a biennial award, established by Max Mara in collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery in 2005, aimed to recognize emerging women artists who live and work in the United Kingdom.

About 200 pieces from the collection are on display in the permanent exhibition, which thematically covers various art movements, including abstract-expressionism of the late 1940s and early 1950s; Pop Art; Arte Povera; Italian, German, and American neo-expressionism; and New Geometry on the ’80s and ’90s.

While the permanent exhibition features 20th-century artworks, twenty-first-century art is presented through an intense program of thematic temporary exhibitions and special projects, especially focused on the most recent and innovative forms of artistic expression.

Access to permanent and temporary exhibitions at the Collezione Maramotti is free of charge; visits to the permanent collection must be booked in advance.

Collezione Maramotti, permanent exhibition, room with works by Enzo Cucchi, and Mimmo Paladino. Photo © Dario Lasagni

Collezione Maramotti, permanent exhibition, room with works by Christopher Wool, and Rosemarie Trockel. Photo © Dario Lasagni

Collezione Maramotti, permanent exhibition, room with works by Alberto Burri, and Osvaldo Licini. Photo © Dario Lasagni

Collezione Maramotti, permanent exhibition, room with works by Sigmar Polke, and Anselm Kiefer. Photo © Dario Lasagni

Collezione Maramotti, permanent exhibition, room with works by Michael Craig-Martin, and Nicky Hoberman. Photo © Dario Lasagni

Collezione Maramotti, permanent exhibition, room with works by Julian Schnabel, and Alex Katz. Photo © Dario Lasagni

Claudio Parmiggiani, Caspar David Friedrich,1989; photo © Dario Lasagni

Cover image: Collezione Maramotti, north entrance; photo © Claudia Marini.

All photographs courtesy Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia