Mood and Observation. Art in Ticino 1850-1950

About this place

The MASI collections reflect the very particular history of the visual arts in Ticino. Since the end of the 19th century, it has been shaped not only by artists from the region, but also by artists, art collectors, art dealers and art historians who have found their chosen home in Ticino. The collections particularly reflect the cultural distinctiveness of the canton of Ticino, with its Italian-influenced cultural identity on the one hand and its political belonging to the Swiss federal state on the other. The collection display, enriched with high-calibre loans, aims to give an idea of how art in Ticino, from the years after the founding of the Swiss federal state until the end of the Second World War, moved and developed dynamically within its unique cultural field of tension, and which influences from the south and from the north made themselves felt here. A selection curated by Tobia Bezzola We thank the Stiftung für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, Winterthur, and the Fondazione Matasci per l’Arte, Tenero, for the loan of some works