Museum of Contemporary Art of Lissone
The Museum of Contemporary Art of Lissone (Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Lissone, MAC) is a public contemporary art museum in Lissone, a town in the Brianza district north of Milan, with roots in one of Italy’s longest-running art prizes established in 1936. The museum’s permanent and temporary collections document the arc of Italian and international contemporary art from the mid-20th century to the present, with particular depth in Italian abstract and figurative painting of the postwar decades. Its annual Premio Lissone prize, revived in the 21st century, continues to attract submissions from emerging artists across Europe.
At a glance
- Type
- Public contemporary art museum
- Period
- Prize established 1936; museum collection formed from mid-20th century onwards
- Style
- Contemporary art; postwar Italian painting; international contemporary
- Location
- Lissone, Province of Monza and Brianza, Lombardy
- Coordinates
- 45.6064° N, 9.2352° E
Overview
MAC Lissone occupies a purpose-designed museum building in the town centre and holds a collection that grew directly out of the Premio Lissone, an art prize founded in 1936 that gained national and international prominence in the postwar decades. Works acquired through prize editions and donations by artists include significant examples of Art Informel, geometric abstraction, and figurative painting from Italy and other European countries. The museum serves both as a civic institution for the Brianza area and as a research centre for postwar Italian art history.
History
The Premio Lissone was established in 1936 during a period when the Brianza furniture industry — centred on towns like Lissone, Cantù, and Seregno — was generating cultural patronage alongside economic prosperity. The prize grew in ambition after the Second World War, attracting submissions from major Italian artists including Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni, and from international participants, making it one of the more progressive art competitions in postwar Italy. Works acquired by the municipality through prize editions accumulated into a significant public collection, which was eventually formalised into the Museum of Contemporary Art. A new museum building was opened in recent decades to give the collection a permanent and purpose-designed home.
What you see
The permanent collection includes paintings, sculptures, and works on paper representing Italian and European contemporary art from the late 1930s through the 1980s, with particular strength in the informal, abstract, and neo-figurative currents that defined Italian art in the postwar decades. Temporary exhibitions in the ground-floor and upper galleries present new commissions, thematic surveys, and retrospectives of both emerging and established artists. The museum’s archive of Premio Lissone documentation — jury reports, catalogues, correspondence — is a valuable resource for researchers studying postwar Italian art institutions.
Cultural significance
The Premio Lissone is one of the few Italian art prizes from the 1930s that survived and evolved through the postwar decades rather than being discontinued, giving the MAC collection a historical depth unusual for a provincial museum of its size. The museum’s holdings include works by artists of major national and international standing acquired at a time when their reputations were still forming, making it a genuine record of taste and critical judgment across nearly a century of Italian art history. Its location in the Brianza furniture district also connects it to the broader story of Italian industrial design and craft culture.
Practical information
- Address
- Piazza Libertà 1, 20851 Lissone MB, Italy
- Opening hours
- Check the official MAC Lissone website for current opening times and exhibition programme
- Admission
- Check official website for current fees; permanent collection often free or reduced
Getting there
Lissone is located approximately 15 km north of Milan in the Brianza district. It is served by the suburban railway line S11 (Chiasso–Milan–Albairate) with a station at Lissone-Muggiò, a short walk from the town centre and the museum. By car, take the A4 motorway and exit at Monza or Desio, then follow signs for Lissone. The museum is in Piazza Libertà at the heart of the town centre.