From 24 March to 23 June 2024 it will be possible to admire, for the first time in Italy , a selection of paintings and drawings from the Berggruen Museum in Berlin : more than 40 extraordinary works by Picasso, Matisse, Klee, Giacometti and Cézanne will dialogue with Giorgione, Sebastiano Ricci, Pietro Longhi, Giambattista Tiepolo and Canova, the masterpieces of the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice .

The exhibition, entitled Affinità Elettive , will be held at the Gallerie dell'Accademia and on Giudecca at the Casa dei Tre Oci , the new headquarters of the Berggruen Institute Europe , reopened to the public for the first time after the restoration . The exhibition is curated by Giulio Manieri Elia and Michele Tavola , director and curator of the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice , and Gabriel Montua and Veronika Rudorfer, director and curator of the Museum Berggruen in Berlin , one of the most important European state institutes of modern art , named after the German collector Heinz Berggruen (1914-2007).

It is no coincidence that the title chosen for the exhibition is Elective Affinities to evoke and underline the potential that arises from the meeting of these two important collections. The title is inspired by the famous novel by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, a writer who spent a few months in Venice during his journey from Germany to Italy.

17 works from the Berlin museum will be integrated into the permanent exhibition, inviting visitors to discover the masterpieces in a sort of treasure hunt. The meeting between two very different collections - that of the Galleries' greatest Venetian painting and that of modernist works by Heinz Berggruen - will give life to stimulating spaces for dialogue . Among the most suggestive combinations it is worth mentioning two absolute masterpieces: the portrait of Dora Maar created by Picasso compared to La Vecchia by Giorgione , very different works but both concerning an intimate relationship with the portraitist. Furthermore, two studies by Picasso for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon displayed alongside a series of sketches by Tiepolo : if from a formal point of view the differences are enormous, there are many stimuli and interpretations offered to the visitor. Or again, in dialogue with each other, the two great sculptors Giacometti and Canova .