After dedicating much of their life to fulfil their passion for Surrealism, Futurism and Abstract Art, Giovanni and Anna Pia Mazzoleni created a collection that would represent some of the most important artistic trends in Italy.

Spending two decades growing their collection of postwar Italian art, the Mazzoleni’s turned their attention to art dealing and opened the gallery, Mazzoleni. Founded in Turin in 1986, Giovanni and Anna Pia Mazzoleni opened the Mayfair-based London space, Mazzoleni Art, in October 2014, under the direction of their son Luigi Mazzoleni. In celebration of the exhibition “Mazzoleni 1986 – 2016: 30 Years of Art. 30 Italian Artists.” at the Turin gallery, we speak to Luigi Mazzoleni about the gallery spaces, how art caught Giovanni and Anna Pia’s eye and what it was like growing up with collector parents.

IC
Giovanni and Anna Pia Mazzoleni were great lovers of Surrealism, Futurism and Abstract Art, and amassed a collection over twenty years that showcased the most important artistic trends in Italy. Could you give us a little bit of a background story to how your parents became interested in art and how they became collectors?

LUIGI MAZZOLENI
As a young man my father was always intensely curious about art and in his 20s he began voraciously visiting galleries and museums across Italy. Our family business was in the textile and tailoring industry, and as art and fashion have so many affinities, delving into a passion for art came very naturally to him. However, it wasn’t until he met my mother Anna Pia, who was also from a family of art lovers, that he began collecting. The 50’s and 60’s were an exciting time for Italian art and through collecting my parents were able to be a part of this revolution. Some of the first works they collected were by the Italian Futurist Giacomo Balla and the painter and sculptor Felice Casorati.

IC
In 1986 in Turin, your parents decided to open the gallery Mazzoleni Art. What was the reason for their decision to move away from collecting and into the gallery scene?

LUIGI MAZZOLENI
Collecting was such a significant part of my family life that my father naturally became a dealer himself. He worked independently for over twenty years, when in 1986, with my mother and his sister, took over a gallery space in Turin. Now the Turin gallery takes up three floors of the Palazzo Panizza and is accompanied by the London gallery, which we opened in October 2014. I am director of the London space and my brother Davide now heads up our Turin space. We participate in fairs in London, Hong Kong, New York and Miami. In sum, the gallery was the natural progression for my parent’s collection and over the past thirty years Mazzoleni has exhibited works by over 150 Italian and international artists from the 20th century.

IC
Did opening the gallery have an impact on their private collection? I could imagine that owning a gallery as collectors only fuels the fire to collect more works of art!

LUIGI MAZZOLENI
It did indeed! As gallerists, my parents were driven by the same passion they had as collectors and the business naturally grew in the same areas they were interested in as collectors.

IC
When your father started the gallery he already had a great interest in postwar Italian Art and Arte Povera, and as a result they became two of the main focus points of the gallery. Was this something that was important to your parents as gallerists, to feature works that they as collectors would have been interested in purchasing?

LUIGI MAZZOLENI
I think it would be impossible to separate my father, the collector, from my father, the dealer. The latter role may have followed the first one but it never replaced his original passion. My father was very fond of Alberto Burri, for example, and over time he has collected numerous works by the artist. After the London gallery opened, we presented a major solo show of the artist to coincide with the 2015 retrospective held at The Guggenheim in New York.

IC
What was it like growing up with parents that were so interested and a part of the art world?

LUIGI MAZZOLENI
It was all very natural for Davide and me and reflecting upon it now I realise how fortunate we were to have grown up in such a fascinating and inspiring environment. The love and passion my parents put into their work and into their lives as collectors are what also shaped me as a collector and they are what still drives us as a family business.

IC
Are yourself and Davide collectors? If so, what do you collect? Do you both live with your collections?

LUIGI MAZZOLENI
Yes, we cannot live without art. We both surround ourselves with the works we love.

IC
2016, Mazzoleni celebrated its 30th anniversary with the exhibition “Mazzoleni 1986-2016: 30 years of art. 30 Italian artists.” – can you tell us about the exhibition in more detail?

LUIGI MAZZOLENI
The aim of the 30th anniversary exhibition is to highlight the evolution of 20th century Italian art and how the most salient movements are represented in the gallery’s own history and collection. It all began with the Futurists and Metaphysicals, who were fundamental in inspiring the generation of postwar artists who came after them, including Burri and Fontana. They in turn became a bridge for other younger mid-20th-century-artists like Manzoni, Castellani and Bonalumi, all of which are well represented in our collection.

IC
The gallery has two spaces, one in Turin and one in London, and are very different in appearance and program. Why was it important for you to have two galleries with such different focuses?

LUIGI MAZZOLENI
The two galleries appear very different in style and presentation but the core values are the same. The gallery in Turin, with its thirty years of history, embodies the essence of our family collection and responds to the Italian market, whereas the London gallery operates internationally. Jointly we participate in art fairs around the world including Art Basel Miami and FIAC in Paris.

Since opening the London gallery we have presented important retrospective exhibitions with an international resonance of Alberto Burri and Piero Manzoni. Where possible we work in symmetry with Turin. For example, the London gallery launched an exhibition of the Pittura Analitica group earlier this year at the same time as a solo show of one of the greatest protagonists of the movement, Gianfranco Zappettini, was held in Turin.

I think it would be impossible to separate my father, the collector, from my father, the dealer. The latter role may have followed the first but it never replaced his original passion.

LUIGI MAZZOLENI