MdAO - Art Museum

The MdAO, or Museo d'Arte, is an Italian museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art located in Avellino, within the Province of Avellino. The institution serves as a significant cultural venue for the region, presenting a permanent exhibition that spans Italian art from the 19th century to the 21st century. Beyond its exhibition spaces, the museum functions as a broader cultural center, housing a specialized art history library and a documentary film library that screens videos and speeches by art critics.

The museum originated from the private gallery of O. Stefano before transitioning into a public institution. The design for the museum building was completed in September 1993, and construction was finished in December 1994. The MdAO officially opened to the public on 2 January 1995. In January 2006, the museum closed to reorganize and reassemble its collection. It remained closed for several years, ultimately reopening to the public in May 2012 with a newly rearranged display of its holdings.

The museum's collection is organized into three distinct sections: the 19th century, the 20th century, and a contemporary section. It encompasses a wide variety of media, including sculptures, drawings, pastels, oil paintings, and prints executed through techniques such as etching, lithography, and serigraphy, alongside other artist multiples like bronzes and silvers. A notable aspect of the collection's composition is that the majority of the exhibited works are on loan from private collectors for periods of at least one year, supplemented by works owned by the museum. The holdings focus predominantly on Italian painters from the 19th century onward.

The 19th-century section features works such as Gaetano Gigante's Assunzione della Vergine (1815), Vincenzo Volpe's Donna con chitarra (1895), and Achille D'Orsi's sculpture Scugnizzo: acquaiolo (1915). The 20th-century holdings include pieces by prominent figures like Giorgio de Chirico, represented by I fuochi sacri (1929), Gli archeologi (1969), and I mobili nella valle (1971), as well as Carlo Carra's Onde and Bagnate (both 1924), and Renato Guttuso's Natura Morta (1981). The contemporary section features 21st-century works such as Michelangelo Pistoletto's Frattale bianco 4155372973840013258495611017395261542 (1999-2000), Rabarama's sculpture Palpit-azione (2010), and Alfonso Fratteggiani Bianchi's Colore Blu 23050 (2014).

The museum is situated in the city of Avellino, Italy. The building that houses the MdAO was specifically designed for the institution, with the architectural plans finalized in September 1993. Construction on the site was completed in December 1994, just weeks before the museum's official inauguration at the start of 1995.

The MdAO is located in Avellino, Italy, and operates as a museum open to the public. Its official website is hosted at irpinia.info. In addition to its permanent exhibition, the institution engages in active research and public programming, publishing monographs and thematic studies, and organizing temporary exhibitions and conferences. The on-site library specializes in 19th- and 20th-century art history, focusing particularly on the authors featured in the permanent exhibition, while the documentary film library provides film footage concerning Italian art from the 13th century to the present.