Worlds Cultural Celebrities Flock to Venice for Pinault Museum Opening

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The posters, plastered on walls everywhere around the city, announced the reopening of the Palazzo Grassi and the exhibition “Where Are We Going?”—a selection from the Francois Pinault collection.

Koons’ actual dog sculpture is there to welcome visitors to the museum, floating on the Grand Canal at the entrance of the last important palazzo to be built before the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797.

Paris’ Loss Is Venice’s Gain
Palazzo Grassi enjoyed the sponsorship of the Fiat Corp. from 1983-2005, under the watchful eye of the company’s founder, the late Gianni Agnelli. Under his leadership, the institution mounted a series of very successful exhibitions, but with the untimely death of Agnelli, Fiat chose to play a less active role and sold its stake in the enterprise.

In May of 2005, Pinault, the luxury-goods billionaire and Christie’s owner—who is also the wealthiest art collector in France and is one of the major collectors in the world today—stepped up to claim the palazzo as a showcase for his own world-class collection, which he has been assembling over the past 30 years.

Venice, of course, was a late contender to house this amazing collection. Pinault, 69, became disillusioned with the slowness of the realization of his previous plans for a purpose-built museum to house his 2,000-work art collection at a former Renault car factory on the Ile Seguin, an island in the Seine, not far from Paris.

The project in France was five years behind schedule, so when the Palazzo Grassi come on the market, Pinault, who has no patience with bureaucracy, seized the opportunity to buy it.

“Human life is not limitless. I had to take a difficult decision and I suffered, but I have made my great dream come true," Pinault said of the switch from Paris to Venice.

Palazzo Grassi’s new general director, Jean-Jacque Aillagon, who has an impressive resume (he is a former French minister for culture), added, “We must be pleased that the French don’t stay in France, but go into the world. There is nothing better than Venice, n’est pas?”

Of the same opinion was the Japanese ambassador to Italy, Yuji Nakamura, who was at the opening preview to support his fellow countryman and renowned architect Tadao Ando, hired with the restructuring of the Palazzo Grassi.

“I am very proud that an architect from the Land of the Rising Sun was asked to restore one of the best European cultural heritages," the ambassador said.

Ando himself added, “I am astonished at how quickly, in less than a year, the restoration was done, which is unheard of in Venice. Standing here, I am moved by the contrast between the 18th century and contemporary art in this environment; it is something very new.”

Curator’s Comments
The fantastic exhibition “Where Are We Going?” marks the first public unveiling of a one of the most significant art collections of our time. It is curated by Alison M. Gingeras, adjunct curator for the Guggenheim Museums; she was chosen by Pinault for their shared disposition towards certain artists, such as Koons.

The title of the exhibition re-poses the question famously asked by Paul Gauguin—and ironically adapted by Damien Hirst in Where are we going? Where do we come from? Is there a reason? (2004), an artwork that appears in the exhibition.

The show presents 200 works by 49 artists, organized into thematic chapters that unfold on the three floors of the palazzo. Eschewing a strict historical chronology, the exhibition includes works of the past 60 years (and includes master works from such movements as Art Informel, Arte Povera, Minimalism, Post-Minimalism and Pop Art) and takes us up to the present moment with significant offerings from today’s most challenging artists.

Gingeras, who has been in Venice since September preparing for the exhibition, said she was given carte blanche about what to select.

“I chose what was singular and also strong pieces from the collection, as well as the works of the 20 artists Pinault collects in depth,” Gingeras said. “I wanted to create a dichotomy between Pop and Post Pop Art—between European and American Art.”