Collezione Maramotti

The Collezione Maramotti is a private museum of contemporary art in Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna, central Italy, dedicated to the collection assembled by Achille Maramotti, founder of the Max Mara fashion house. Opened to the public in 2007, it holds approximately two hundred works representing major Italian and international artistic movements from 1945 onward. The collection is housed in the company's former premises, converted into exhibition space by British architect Andrew Hapgood. Access is by appointment only, and the institution also organises temporary exhibitions, supports site-specific commissions, and partners with the biennial Max Mara Art Prize for Women.

The Collezione Maramotti was established through Achille Maramotti's initiative to make his private collection publicly accessible. The museum opened in 2007, following the conversion of Max Mara's original headquarters into a dedicated exhibition space. This transformation was completed in 2005 under the design of British architect Andrew Hapgood, after the fashion company relocated to new premises. The institution has since developed beyond static display, engaging in active programming that includes temporary exhibitions and performance events. Since 2019, portions of the permanent collection have been reinstalled, incorporating temporary projects initiated in preceding years. The collection also maintains an Archive and Art Library holding over ten thousand items, including artist books, monographs, essays, catalogues, and documentary materials from the collections of Achille Maramotti and Mario Diacono, a literary figure, gallerist, and art critic. These resources serve researchers and scholars studying the artists and movements represented in the collection.

The permanent collection comprises several hundred works created from 1945 onward, tracing principal Italian and international artistic tendencies of the late twentieth century. Its historical scope begins with European works indicative of expressionist and abstract informal tendencies from the late 1940s and early 1950s, followed by a group of Italian proto-conceptual works. A significant nucleus of Roman Pop Art (Pop Art Romana) is succeeded by Arte Povera pieces. The collection continues with Italian neo-expressionism (Transavanguardia), alongside German and American neo-expressionist examples. New Geometry works from 1980s-1990s America follow, leading to more recent British and American experimental practices. The institution has also supported permanent installations, including Jason Dodge's 'a permanently open window' (2013), created in a disused industrial space, and Eva Jospin's 'Microclima' (2022), a site-specific work displayed in the Max Mara flagship store in Piazza Liberty, Milan.

The collection features works by numerous significant postwar and contemporary artists. Italian representatives include Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, Piero Manzoni, Mario Merz, Alighiero Boetti, Enrico Castellani, Giuseppe Penone, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mario Schifano, and Mimmo Paladino. International figures include Francis Bacon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Tony Cragg, Julian Schnabel, Bill Viola, Georg Baselitz, Anselm Kiefer, Gerhard Richter, Cy Twombly, Sigmar Polke, and Kiki Smith. Additional artists span from proto-conceptual and Arte Povera practitioners such as Giovanni Anselmo, Jannis Kounellis, and Giulio Paolini to contemporary figures including Tom Sachs, Ellen Gallagher, Huma Bhabha, and Matthew Ritchie. The collection also encompasses photographers and multimedia artists, with the full roster extending to over eighty named practitioners across multiple generations.

The Collezione Maramotti occupies the original Max Mara company building in Reggio Emilia, designed by architects Pastorini and Salvarani in 1957. Following the company's relocation, British architect Andrew Hapgood converted the industrial structure into exhibition space, with the transformation completed in 2005. The repurposed premises retain their industrial character while accommodating the display requirements of a contemporary art museum. This adaptive reuse of a former fashion manufacturing site reflects a broader pattern of industrial heritage conversion for cultural purposes in Italy's Emilia-Romagna region.

The Collezione Maramotti is located in Reggio Emilia, in the Emilia-Romagna region of central Italy. The museum is open to visitors by appointment only. As a private collection with public access, it operates under the continued association with the Max Mara Fashion Group. Beyond exhibition viewing, the institution maintains an active public role through its partnership with the biennial Max Mara Art Prize for Women, established in 2005 by Max Mara Fashion Group in collaboration with Whitechapel Gallery through its ninth edition. For the tenth edition, the prize expanded to new geographies, with Max Mara and Collezione Maramotti partnering with Museum MACAN in Jakarta under curator Cecilia Alemani. Prize winners have included Margaret Salmon, Hannah Rickards, Andrea Büttner, Laure Prouvost, Corin Sworn, Emma Hart, Helen Cammock, Emma Talbot, and Dominique White. The collection also participates in Festival Aperto Reggio Emilia, hosting dance performances biennially in collaboration with Fondazione I Teatri di Reggio Emilia, and has supported projects by Fondazione Nazionale della Danza Aterballetto.