1947 - 1958
The Commission for Figurative Art, from left: Pio Semeghini, Nino Barbantini, Felice Casorati, Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, Carlo Carrà, Rodolfo Pallucchini, Lionello Venturi, Giorgio Morandi, Roberto Longhi, and Marino Marini
1948
Photo: Ferruzzi
The Secretary General of the Exhibition Rodolfo Pallucchini and Elio Zorzi meet Pablo Picasso in Antibes
1948
Photo: Interfoto
“Painter De Chirico sues the Biennale”, from Il Mattino del Popolo, Venice
6 July 1948
Photo: ASAC Raccolta Documentaria
Letter from Giorgio Morandi to Rodolfo Pallucchini
2 December 1947
Photo: ASAC Fondo Storico
Peggy Guggenheim with the works of her collection displayed in the Greek Pavilion
1948
Photo: Ferruzzi
Palma Bucarelli in the Fronte nuovo delle arti room
1948
Photo: Interfoto
Marc Chagall with his wife Bella and Giorgio Morandi during the award ceremony
1948
Photo: Interfoto
Official notice for the participation in the Exhibition of the work Marine by Georges Braque
1950
Photo: ASAC Raccolta documentaria
Official notice for the participation in the Exhibition of the work Le passage à niveau by Fernand Léger
1950
Photo: ASAC Raccolta Documentaria
Jean Fautrier, Untitled, pencil on yellow paper, 500x320 mm
1950
Photo: ASAC Fondo Artistico
Letter from Alberto Giacometti to Rodolfo Pallucchini, Paris
3 March 1950
Photo: ASAC Fondo Storico
Letter from Nina Kandinsky to Roberto Longhi about the choice of works to display in the spaces of the Der Blaue Reiter exhibition
1950
Photo: ASAC Fondo Storico
Osvaldo Licini, Angelo ribelle, pencil on paper, 248x345 mm
1950
Photo: ASAC Fondo Artistico
Official notice for the participation in the Exhibition of the work by Max Ernst, Pierre animée
1952
Photo: ASAC Raccolta Documentaria
Alberto Viani, Nudo seduto I, ink on paper, 386x324 mm
1954
Photo: ASAC Fondo Artistico
Letter from Joan Miró to Rodolfo Pallucchini
1 May 1954
Photo: ASAC Fondo Storico
The Piet Mondrian room
1954
Photo: Giacomelli
Fashion show at the Biennale
1956
Photo: A.F.I.
Jacques Villon, Design for the cover of the magazine La Biennale di Venezia, pencil, ink and tempera on paper, 492x357 mm
1956
Photo: ASAC Fondo Artistico
The Sculpture Garden, designed by Carlo Scarpa in 1952, with works by Luciano Minguzzi on exhibit
1958
Photo: Giacomelli
Carlo Scarpa, Design for the poster and the cover of the catalogue of the 29th Biennale, tempera and collage on paper, 1050x690 mm
1958
Photo: ASAC Fondo Artistico
La Biennale went back to work in 1946 under the leadership of its new commissioner Giovanni Ponti. The International Art Exhibition reopened in 1948 with an edition focusing on reconstruction; this was Europe’s first major international exhibition after World War Two and came seven years before Documenta, the famous German contemporary art exhibition in Kassel. Secretary General Rodolfo Pallucchini grasped the need to bring the Biennale up-to-date with a series of earlier artistic languages and experiments which had been forgotten or censored under Fascism. 1948 was the year of the first solo exhibition by then 67-year-old Pablo Picasso, an artist who had never previously exhibited at the Biennale. For this same edition Peggy Guggenheim came to Venice and brought her collection to the Greek pavilion, showing not only exceptional modern art from Europe but also new American abstract artists.
In 1948 De Chirico sued La Biennale for exhibiting a “tremendous fake” and did not take part in the editions of subsequent years, instead bringing solo exhibitions from 1950 to 1954 as a sort of anti-Biennale in the Giardinetti Reali Kaffeehaus.
New pavilions were built in those years, expanding participation to include South American countries such as Venezuela in 1954 (Uruguay in 1960 and Brazil in 1964), Japan in 1956 and Canada in 1958.
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