A building put up for one purpose and kept at it for a hundred and forty years: showing art. Bombed in 1943, rebuilt by the Castiglioni brothers, still hanging exhibitions on via Turati.
At a glance
La Permanente — properly the Società per le Belle Arti ed Esposizione Permanente — is a Milanese art society and the building it works from, on via Turati. The society was formed in 1883 by the merger of two older bodies; the palace was designed by Luca Beltrami and opened on 25 April 1886, built expressly to hold art events. Since 1992 it has also housed the Museo della Permanente.
Key facts
- What it is: an art society, an exhibition building and, since 1992, a museum
- Society founded: 1883, from the Società per le belle arti (1844) and the Esposizione permanente di belle arti (1870); its non-profit character was confirmed by King Umberto I in 1884
- Building: Luca Beltrami, inaugurated 25 April 1886
- War and after: badly damaged by the bombing of 1943; rebuilt by Pier Giacomo and Achille Castiglioni in 1952–53
- Collection: purchase prizes from the Biennale della Città di Milano, works drawn in the society’s ballots, and private gifts
- Where: via Filippo Turati 34, 20121 Milan
History
Two Milanese institutions merged in 1883: the Società per le belle arti, founded in 1844, and the Esposizione permanente di belle arti, set up in 1870. The new body took the name it still carries, and in 1884 Umberto I confirmed its status as a non-profit dedicated to the increase of the fine arts.
Beltrami’s building followed, inaugurated on 25 April 1886 and designed for exhibitions rather than adapted to them. Among the society’s older customs was a ballot: works of art drawn by lot among the members, which is one of the reasons the collection looks the way it does.
The bombing of 1943 wrecked a large part of the building. Pier Giacomo and Achille Castiglioni rebuilt it in 1952–53 — two of the designers who would define Italian modernism, working on a nineteenth-century exhibition hall. The Museo della Permanente was established in 1992.
What you see
From via Turati the building shows a long stone-coloured front with three tall arched openings at the centre, glazed, standing over a plain base. It sits back from the tram rails, low beside the taller blocks around it: the scale of the 1880s in a street that has been rebuilt twice since.
Practical information
- The programme is made of temporary exhibitions and shows by the society’s member artists; check current dates and tickets.
- Via Turati is a few minutes from the Giardini Indro Montanelli and the Quadrilatero.
Getting there
Metro line 3 to Turati; trams along via Turati stop in front of the building.
Nearby
- The Giardini Pubblici Indro Montanelli and the Museo di Storia Naturale.
- Porta Nuova and the Bosco Verticale, ten minutes north.
- The Quadrilatero della moda, south of via Turati.
Sources
- Italian Wikipedia, La Permanente — the 1883 merger and the two founding bodies, the royal confirmation of 1884, Luca Beltrami’s building inaugurated on 25 April 1886, the damage of 1943 and the reconstruction by Pier Giacomo and Achille Castiglioni in 1952–53, the museum of 1992 and the origin of the collection.
- Wikidata (Q3821046) — coordinates, address and the 1883 date.
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