BMW Art Guide by Independent Collectors

Magazzino Italian Art

Contemporary Italian Art on the Hudson River – New York

Exterior of Magazzino Italian Art Foundation in Cold Spring, NY. Photo: Marco Anelli
Exterior of Magazzino Italian Art Foundation in Cold Spring, NY. Photo: Marco Anelli

It takes just over an hour’s train ride from Grand Central Station, New York up the Hudson River to reach Cold Spring. It is here that Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu have transformed the warehouse—magazzino in Italian—of a former computer manufacturing plant into an elegant space for exhibiting contemporary Italian art from the 1960s to the present. Assembled over decades by the Italian-American couple, the collection focuses on Arte Povera. The philosophy of an art form that typically combines natural and industrial materials is perfectly suited to the austere minimalism of the concrete buildings, which blend harmoniously into the landscape. Thematically curated shows are presented on over 1 600 square meters of exhibition space and feature works by artists such as Giulio Paolini, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Giuseppe Penone, and Luciano Fabro.

Gallery view at Magazzino Italian Art Foundation. Photo: Marco Anelli
Gallery view at Magazzino Italian Art Foundation. Photo: Marco Anelli
Gallery view at Magazzino Italian Art Foundation. Photo: Alexa Hoyer.
Gallery view at Magazzino Italian Art Foundation. Photo: Alexa Hoyer.

Anne Reimers is a London-based art historian and journalist, reporting since 2006 on art auctions, fairs, and exhibitions in the British capital. She is also Senior Lecturer for Visual Culture and Fashion Theory at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) in Rochester, England.

All images courtesy Magazzino Italian Art, New York

Foyer of Magazzino Italian Art Foundation. Photo: Javier Callas
Foyer of Magazzino Italian Art Foundation. Photo: Javier Callas

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