141 MAGAZZINO: A STOREHOUSE OF ITALIAN ART

On the banks of the Hudson, an hour from Manhattan, this exhibition space created by art patrons Nancy Onlick and Giorgio Spanu provides a framework for the masterpieces of Arte Povera in their collection

The idea of the House as the origin of everything is a very Renaissance idea. «In fact » says Nancy Olnick who, together with her husband Giorgio Spanu, came up with the idea for this museum, «we were looking for a space that could hold our art collection, and our idea for Magazzino Italian Art was that it should be an extension of our home». But the true nature of this exhibition centre, which nestles in the woods of Cold Spring in the Hudson Valley and has Arte Povera as its main theme, only reveals itself slowly and by going backwards in time. For nearly thirty years since they first met and then got married, Giorgio Spanu and Nancy Olnick have been collecting art. «Our aesthetic tastes were similar: first came Murano glassware, then ceramics, and finally we were bewitched by Arte Povera. But to fully appreciate the works of artists like Michelangelo Pistoletto, Giovanni Anselmo, Gilberto Zorio, Giuseppe Penone, and Jannis Kounellis, which are installations and are often very large, they have to have an appropriate space » says Giorgio. And that was why Magazzino came into existence. The old building, which used to be a warehouse for storing plant products, was stripped back to its supporting structure before being loaded up again with Mediterranean sunniness. Its Spanish architect Miguel Gismondo then integrated the warehouse with a second completely new gallery, which he connected to the earlier one by a simple glazed passageway. « The building had to be a container that would be as discreet and humble as possible» says Gismondo, who gave precedence to the natural light that filters through the windows and skylights. The works of art interact with the changing weather conditions and the varying degrees of external light. Two classical plaster casts by Giulio Paolini, from his work Mimesi of 1976, fluctuate in the natural light coming in from the big window behind; their classical outlines and encountering gazes stand out against the green of the trees outside. In Luciano Fabro’s Two Nudes Descending a Staircase, the light flows over the slabs of Bardiglio marble, arranged on three steps, and smoothes them out before gradually fading into shadow. By pure coincidence Magazzino is just a few miles from Dia:Beacon, which celebrates post-war American art and is one of the largest museums in the United States. Historically its collections coincide with the period of Italy’s Arte Povera. «That parallel with American art is an interesting juxtaposition » says Nancy. Her father was the real estate colossus Robert Olnick, a collector in his own right who spent his life in contact with art. «I collected Pop Art for a long time and I’m still in love with it » continues Nancy, « but Arte Povera manages to explore the human condition with freshness and gravity at the same time. That’s something that always moves me. In a certain sense, Arte Povera is an esoteric art ». Whilst Nancy has a dazzling smile, Giorgio is the resolute type. In their nearby country home at Garrison there’s a work in paper, by Stefano Arienti, that portrays Nancy in soft forms with Giorgio outlined more decisively. « According to Stefano I’m the joyful one; Giorgio is more edgy » says Nancy jokingly. Together they have constructed a unique relationship with art and artists. «Many of them have come to visit us» says Giorgio. «A few months ago, Michelangelo Pistoletto generously agreed to repeat his 1960s performance Scultura da Passeggio: an extraordinary moment». Hurriedly pursued by a large and passionate art crowd who had come up specially from NYC, before the incredulous eyes of the local inhabitants Pistoletto rolled a large ball of newspaper through the streets of the town centre. He hadn’t done this since Turin in 1968, and here he was 50 years later repeating it for Magazzino: an embassy for Italian art in the United States.