From March 26th to July 23rd 2000 | «Cosmos. Da Goya a De Chirico, da Friedrich a Kiefer – L’arte alla scoperta dell’infinito» | Venezia, Palazzo Grassi

The exhibition, located in one of the most impressive constructions facing the Canal Grande, is part of a project made by Jean Clair, the director of the Picasso Museum of Paris, and Pierre Thèberge, director of The Museum of Fine Arts of Canada. In 1999, the Museum of Fine Arts of Montreal housed the exhibition «Cosmos. From Romanticism to Avant Garde».
The Venetian exhibition represents a widening of the Canadian one and has a multidisciplinary character (that’s the reason why there are 200 works more than the ones shown in Montreal).
The exhibition covers 200 years in the history of art: from Romanticism to Avant Garde, from Casper David Friedrech to Anselm Kiefer, from Turner to Fontana, through nature, landscape, views, open spaces…
It’s a journey not only in the history of the art, but also in the development of the modern sensitivity.
The exhibition starts with the section called «The Utopia of the Enlightenment» with a series of paintings, watercolours, regarding architectural works by Boullè, Ledoux, Schinkel, Vaudoyer.
The following section, dedicated to the Nature («Nature and Cosmos»), is divided in two section: the first contains works by Friedrich («Paesaggio serale con due figure»), Turner («Alba con mostro marino», «Tramonto sul lago»), by Carus and John Martin; the second – called «Nascita del panorama» (the birth of the landscape) – contains works by Goya, John Know, Caspar Wolf and Louis Bonnier, and the bizarre lithograph of «L’occhio, come uno strano pallone che si muove verso l’infinito» (1982).
Then the next section, The Promise Land («La terra promessa») is dedicated to the American authors, who, influenced by Humboldt, made great landscapes: Church («Cotopaxi, Ecuador»), Moran, Cole («Croce al tramonto»). In the aesthetic ideal of these painters the Old World is the world of corruption and decadence, while the New World is a new garden of Eden. Besides the thematic of travel and exploration is pointed out in the section «Il viaggio ai Poli» («The journey to the Poles»), with pictures and paintings.
The section «Oltre la luna» («Over the Moon») leads us to our days: from Mèliès to Verne, from Paul Delvaux to Galileo Galilei’s telescope until Nasa and space walks.
The section «Oltre la Luna» ends with the rooms called «Gli anni ’30 – Costellazioni» «The 30’s – Constellations» – Picasso, Brancusi, Mirò – and the room called «Gli anni ’30 – Il cielo surrealista» («The 30’s – The surrealist sky») – Giorgio De Chirico, Alberto Savinio, Renè Magritte.
The works of Fontana (amongst these: «La fine di Dio») are exhibited in the last section «Cosmogonie» («Cosmogonies»), together with the ones by Klein. The exhibition ends on the terrace with the « Barca che trasporta nove pianeti» by Parmiggiani.