The Diocesan Museum is hosting the Collezzione Paolo VI for the first time in our country, after months of cooperation and collaboration with the Italian art gallery exhibiting the works. Thus, for the first time since its creation, a selection from the Colezzione Paolo VI can be visited outside the museum of origin (Concesio, Italy).
This collection reflects Paul VI’s interest in contemporary art and his legacy in the relationship between spirituality and art. The exhibition, which brings together 20 of the best works in the collection, signed by artists such as Matisse, de Chirico, David Hockney, Henry Moore, among others, represents a milestone in the integration of modern art with the spiritual narrative of the Church, thus highlighting Paul VI’s openness to new forms of artistic expression.
The origins of the collection are based on the deep connection that Giovanni Battista Montini (Paul VI) developed as a young man with contemporary art and his conviction that art is an essential means of expressing the invisible and the transcendental. From the beginning of his pontificate, Paul VI intensified his aim to strengthen the link between the Church and contemporary artists by promoting the creation of a contemporary art section in the Vatican Museums. After the death of Pope Paul VI, Monsignor Macchi donated the works given to the pontiff to the Obra Foundation for Christian Education, which established the museum in his hometown of Concesio (Brescia, Italy) under the name of Museo Collezione Paolo VI (Paul VI Collection Museum). The museum has continued to increase its artistic collection until the present day.