Nancy Olnick would possibly by no means have devoted herself to Italian artwork with out assembly Giorgio Spanu and Spanu would possibly by no means have entered the world of artwork amassing—or reconnected along with his homeland—if it weren’t for Olnick. Had the 2 not come collectively round this shared ardour for artwork and tradition, Magazzino Italian Artwork would possible not exist. Since its founding in 2017, the establishment has turn into the main U.S. platform for Italian artwork and a catalyst for its research and appreciation worldwide.
To be taught extra about their amassing journey and the establishment’s historical past, we met the 2 collectors and patrons on a late-autumn day in Chilly Spring, the place Magazzino rises from the luxuriant Hudson Valley panorama. The clear, geometric volumes of Miguel Quismondo’s redesigned warehouse and the Robert Olnick Pavilion, created by Quismondo with Alberto Campo Baeza, stand in putting distinction to the encircling greenery.
Since they met 32 years in the past, Olnick and Spanu have shared a passionate journey in amassing—one which has accompanied their relationship and in the end led to the creation of Magazzino. Olnick describes this journey as “very natural for his or her life.”
From the beginning, amassing for Olnick and Spanu was about greater than merely shopping for and possessing. It has been a course of—one which started with studying and naturally developed into sharing their ardour with others. “For us, it’s a lot much less about possessing than it’s about partaking and educating—that’s what motivates us,” Olnick tells Observer.
From day one, Olnick and Spanu set a rule by no means to buy something earlier than educating themselves. “We be taught, we accumulate and we’ve been gathering books and analysis supplies for so long as we’ve been amassing artwork,” Olnick explains. “That’s what made it fascinating: it wasn’t nearly buying, it was about studying. In any other case, what’s the purpose?”
The enlargement of Magazzino Italian Artwork with the brand new Robert Olnick Pavilion was pushed largely by a need to maneuver past merely displaying a part of their assortment—centered totally on Arte Povera—within the present 11,000-square-foot L-shaped warehouse. Their objective was to combine exhibitions with instructional and public programming, simply as that they had at all times envisioned for the museum and to advance their mission of fostering appreciation for Italian artwork and tradition whereas making a tangible impression on the local people.
As Spanu explains whereas guiding us by way of the brand new constructing, earlier than they even started designing it, they made one factor clear to the architect: two devoted areas, one for analysis and one for training, needed to be a part of the mission.
Magazzino now homes a Analysis Heart with a library of greater than 5,000 volumes on Italian artwork and tradition. This hub serves students, college students and curators finding out Italian artwork in a global context and is complemented by a fellowship and analysis program devoted to postwar and up to date Italian artwork—significantly Arte Povera, a motion nonetheless largely underappreciated internationally regardless of the relevance of its concepts and practices right now, as evidenced by final 12 months’s exhibition at Pinault Assortment’s Bourse de Commerce.
The native response has been enthusiastic, significantly amongst colleges that lack such alternatives throughout the river and in close by communities. What Magazzino affords is solely free, pushed by Olnick and Spanu’s dedication to increasing cultural entry and creating alternatives for the group—particularly for underserved colleges within the surrounding space.
“We’ve got the city of Philipstown and a few of the surrounding communities coming right here to discover ways to do art-centered object instructing,” explains Spanu, gesturing towards works within the classroom. “These applications have been oversubscribed with waitlists, so we now have two of these arising, in order that our program can turn into a part of the curriculum frequently.”
This concentrate on training and analysis has profoundly reshaped not solely the museum’s mission and native impression but in addition its inside construction. Beforehand, Magazzino had a single director overseeing programming and operations for the warehouse, with solely restricted exterior initiatives past the Arte Povera assortment on view. Final September, nonetheless, Magazzino introduced a brand new management group to information its development, naming Adam Sheffer as director, Paola Mura as creative director, Monica Eisner as chief working officer and Nicola Lucchi as director of training on the Germano Celant Analysis Heart.
The creation of the training heart additionally made room for a brand new lower-floor design gallery. “From the start, I wished to develop our mission to incorporate Italian design,” Spanu explains, introducing us to the work of Japanese-born, Venice-based glass artist Yoichi Ohira, at present on view within the area. Lengthy neglected however collected for years by the couple, Ohira developed a particular aesthetic that merges Japanese ceramic traditions with Venetian Murano glass mastery.
The couple has adopted Ohira’s work since 1996 and he was among the many first artists they collected as a part of their in depth Murano glass holdings, which started round 1992. Over time, they’ve assembled some of the complete collections of works by Murano-based artists and designers, specializing in up to date reinterpretations of glass somewhat than conventional Murano manufacturing.
The couple started significantly amassing Murano glass after visiting a significant exhibition devoted to it in Venice throughout certainly one of their journeys to Italy. Olnick had simply began to take an curiosity, sometimes shopping postwar Murano glass in New York—significantly items from the Nineteen Fifties that had made their method to the U.S. after the conflict. Then a serendipitous second modified the course of their amassing: on a flight to Milan in 1992, they noticed a small discover in an in-flight journal a couple of present in Venice at Fondazione Cini Stampalia. They determined to make a detour, and the expertise opened their eyes to the creative depth and variety of Murano glass.
They started amassing in earnest between 1993 and 1994, once they gained entry to an essential trove that will turn into the center of their assortment. “I used to be pregnant. I nonetheless bear in mind—it was February 1994, and we immediately had entry to an present assortment of glass that had been put collectively by an American,” Olnick remembers. By means of an opportunity cellphone name with a pal, she realized {that a} warehouse within the Hamptons held a complete assortment of Murano glass that had simply turn into out there. She and Spanu, guided by pals from the Barovier household, visited and located themselves “like youngsters in a sweet retailer,” discovering what turned out to be the gathering of Muriel Karasick. Together with her New York gallery, Karasick had launched Murano glass to American collectors and artists alike. “Warhol used to go to her retailer. She was additionally a photographer and had began an awesome assortment of Mapplethorpe. The truth is, Mapplethorpe began amassing Murano glass due to Muriel, who confirmed it to him for the primary time,” Olnick explains. Buying that group of works marked the true starting of their deep engagement with glass.
In 2003, their glass assortment was offered on the Museum of Arts and Design—then nonetheless the American Craft Museum—in New York. “The present occurred simply organically,” recounts Olnick. A pal from highschool known as her after a long time, saying she had seen some glass that they had loaned to Montreal and wished to arrange an exhibition of their assortment. “We had by no means even considered it as a set—you recognize, it was simply issues we appreciated. We by no means had that mentality of being ‘collectors,’” Olnick admits. She remembers how, on opening evening, she turned to Giorgio and requested, “Who do you assume goes to return see this?” “It was packed,” she says. “It jogs my memory of after we first opened in Chilly Spring. That first day, I assumed, ‘Who’s going to return all the way in which to Chilly Spring to see Arte Povera?’ Properly, at first it was sluggish, however now folks from throughout come to go to.”
Most significantly, the present resulted in a catalog—now in its second version—that is still one of many few publications to map and study this very important facet of Italian design, exploring its connections with worldwide creators and the dialogue between custom and up to date innovation. “That guide turned the start—not solely of amassing collectively, however of realizing that as a lot as we have been exhibiting this work to show others, we have been additionally instructing ourselves,” Olnick displays. Publishing catalogs alongside every exhibition has since turn into a core a part of Magazzino’s mission.
The story of how the couple assembled some of the important collections of Italian artwork unfolded in a lot the identical natural manner—not from a hard and fast plan, however from curiosity, likelihood encounters and a shared willingness to comply with their ardour wherever it led.
Earlier than Olnick met Giorgio, she was amassing American Pop Artwork. “I used to be born and raised in New York, so Pop Artwork was my period, my setting,” she displays. But as an avid reader and lifelong artwork lover, she was additionally, as she places it, an Italophile. “That was at all times a part of me—simply as you requested how I began. However Italy pulled me in. I went as typically as I may, immersing myself within the music, the meals and the tradition,” she explains.
After marrying, the couple moved with their daughter to Rome for just a few years, desirous to be taught extra about Italian tradition and its up to date artists. By means of pals, Spanu and Olnick met Sauro Bocchi, a gallerist deeply related to Rome’s creative circles, who launched them to postwar Italian artwork and, particularly, Arte Povera. Because the couple recalled in a publish on Magazzino’s web site asserting his passing, “Bocchi didn’t wish to comply with traits and gave a possibility to many ladies artists comparable to Giosetta Fioroni, Cloti Ricciardi, Lisa Montessori and Maria Lai, which was not straightforward on the time.” After they requested him the place to start studying about Arte Povera, he suggested, “Go to Torino, go to Castello di Rivoli after which come again and we’ll discuss.”
As Olnick remembers, it was an Arte Povera exhibition curated by Rudi Fuchs, the celebrated curator from the Stedelijk. “We walked round like folks stroll round Magazzino now—utterly shocked. We went again to Rome and sat down with Sauro. He requested us what we appreciated and we stated, ‘We appreciated the whole lot.’”
Spanu admits that with out Nancy, he would possibly by no means have embraced Italian artwork. Having spent greater than a decade in Paris working in communications and advertising and marketing, he was steeped within the artwork of the nice Parisian avant-garde and pioneering postwar actions. “She’s the one who introduced me again to Italy,” Spanu says. “I used to be very a lot a Francophile. My love was for Klee, Dubuffet, Picasso, Matisse. I actually didn’t know a lot about up to date Italian artwork—most likely lower than Nancy.”
Collectively, the couple started to check, go to galleries, ask questions and be taught. One other of their earliest mentors was gallerist Mario Pieroni, who performed a elementary position in shaping their style and assortment. From him, they acquired their first six Arte Povera works—one every from the important thing members of the motion nonetheless alive on the time. They quickly developed shut relationships with a number of of the artists however have just lately watched with disappointment as a lot of them have handed away, typically with out receiving the worldwide recognition they deserve. This has made their mission really feel much more pressing, deepening their dedication to preserving and honoring these legacies.
Nonetheless, Spanu and Olnick stay intent on broadening their mission past a singular concentrate on Arte Povera, dedicating themselves to the reassessment and correct presentation of different figures in Italian postwar and up to date artwork—as seen most just lately of their considerate surveys of Maria Lai and Lucio Pozzi. On the identical time, they’re desirous to revive their program for on-site commissions by youthful Italian artists.
The couple admits they got here late to buying works by different postwar Italian masters comparable to Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni, whose items they collected when attainable, although they typically couldn’t afford essentially the most important ones.
The couple was just lately acknowledged for his or her dedication with a significant reward of two important works by Piero Manzoni, donated below a joint resolution by the artist’s basis and Hauser & Wirth. The works are two room-size immersive environments conceived however by no means realized by Manzoni in 1961, shortly earlier than his demise at age 29. Far forward of his time, Manzoni envisioned immersive installations a long time earlier than the concept of “immersive artwork” entered mainstream discourse. These environments symbolize the fruits of his radical exploration of the “dematerialization of artwork,” paired with an emphasis on the viewer’s expertise and co-creation, serving as a pointy critique of authorship and the commodification of artwork.
These visionary initiatives by Manzoni first moved from idea to actuality for his 2019 museum-quality exhibition at Hauser & Wirth’s New York and Los Angeles galleries. Afterward, they went into storage—till now, once they discovered their ideally suited everlasting dwelling at Magazzino Italian Artwork. “She felt Magazzino was the right place to obtain these works, to maintain them alive and to make sure they may at some point be shared once more,” says Magazzino’s director, Adam Sheffer. “She didn’t anticipate us to maneuver so rapidly.” The truth is, Magazzino responded that they supposed to stage a present in September. The inspiration initially assumed she meant 2026, however Sheffer clarified it will be September 2025—simply six weeks away. Regardless of the bold timeline, there was a shared dedication to make it occur.
To honor and have a good time this main donation, Magazzino Italian Artwork is presenting “Piero Manzoni: Whole Area,” on view by way of March 23. The exhibition reintroduces these visionary installations to the general public, alongside distinctive examples of his Achromes from the late Nineteen Fifties on mortgage from American collections. As Manzoni conceived them, one room is crammed with mild, immersing the viewer in an expertise of pure dematerialization, transience and disorientation; the opposite is totally darkish, its partitions coated in fur, heightening the viewer’s bodily consciousness and sensory engagement. To up to date audiences, each installations appear to anticipate—a long time forward of their time—the complexities of our relationship with the digital and the tangible.
