Giuseppe Panza papers, 1956-1990

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Summary

Creators:

Turrell, James, Tàpies, Antoni, 1923-2012, Vedova, Emilio, 1919-2006, Weiner, Lawrence, Kosuth, Joseph, Rothko, Mark, 1903-1970, Ryman, Robert, 1930-2019, Serra, Richard, 1938-2024, Long, Richard, 1945-, Tremlett, David, 1945-, Wheeler, Doug, 1939-, Wilson, Ian, 1940-, Morris, Robert, 1931-2018, Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, Calif.), Meloni, Gino, 1905-1989, Nauman, Bruce, 1941-, Lichtenstein, Roy, 1923-1997, Marden, Brice, 1938-, Mangold, Robert, 1937-, Rauschenberg, Robert, 1925-2008, Rosenquist, James, 1933-2017, Restany, Pierre, Nordman, Maria, Nonas, Richard, 1936-, Panza, Giuseppe, Oldenburg, Claes, 1929-, Darboven, Hanne, Davis, Douglas, 1933-2014, Celant, Germano, Charlton, Alan, 1948-, Fautrier, Jean, 1898-1964, Flavin, Dan, 1933-1996, De Maria, Walter, 1935-2013, Dibbets, Jan, 1941-, Joseph, Peter, 1929-, Judd, Donald, 1928-1994, Irwin, Robert, 1928-, Law, Bob, 1934-2004, LeWitt, Sol, 1928-2007, Kline, Franz, 1910-1962, Fulton, Hamish, Cane, Louis, 1943-, Bell, Larry, 1939-, Barry, Robert, 1936-, and Andre, Carl, 1935-

Abstract:

Collection documents the Italian businessman's activities in collecting works by some of the seminal American artists involved with abstract expressionist, pop, minimal, conceptual, environmental, and light and space art. The archive contains material dating from 1956, when Panza began collecting. up to the sale of the second part of his collection to the Guggenheim Museum in 1990. Panza's art collection is documented by correspondence with artists and galleries, photographs, small drawings, invoices, loan requests, announcements, and invitations. The archive also includes a substantial quantity of Panza's writings on art; papers and ephemera related to Panza's associations with museums, galleries, and cultural institutions; clippings and photocopies of articles about the collection; and an extensive group of architectural drawings of potential sites for the collection, many with Panza's installation designs.

Extent:

117 Linear Feet (311 boxes, 58 rolls, 3 flat file folders)

Language:

Collection material is in English and Italian.

Preferred citation:

Giuseppe Panza papers, 1956-1990, Getty Research Institute, Research Library, Accession no. 940004.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa940004

Background

Scope and content:

The Giuseppe Panza Papers document the Italian businessman's considerable activities in collecting contemporary art. Panza collected works by some of the seminal American artists involved with Abstract Expressionist, Pop, Minimal, Conceptual, Environmental, and Light and Space art. The archive contains material from the time when he began collecting in 1956 up to the sale of the second part of his collection to the Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 1990. The portion of the archive relating to his most recent acquisitions from 1987 onward, remains in Panza's possession.

The archive has letters and other materials pertaining to Panza's various art related activities and much about his museum programs. He contacted many museum directors and Italian officials to garner support for his proposals to create museums utilizing works from his collection. Panza's art collection is documented by correspondence with and about artists and galleries, photographs, small drawings, invoices, loan requests, announcements and invitations, that were accumulated by Panza during the acquisition process and throughout his entire ownership period. There is also much ephemera, photographs and some correspondence with artists that Panza did not collect. The archive also includes a substantial quantity of Panza's writings on art; papers and ephemera related to Panza's associations with museums, galleries and cultural institutions; clippings and photocopies of articles on the collection; and an extensive group of architectural drawings of potential sites for the collection, many with Panza's installation designs.

Indices exist for Series II, III, VIII and Panza's "drawings" collection.

Biographical / historical:

Chronology
Date	Event
1923	Born March 23rd in Milan.
1931	Panza's father, Ernesto, purchases Villa Litta, Varese.
1943	Fled to Switzerland with his older brother to avoid being drafted into the German army.
1948	Bachelors in Law at University of Milan (never practiced, self-taught in art history). Started working in the family businesses of real estate development and the manufacture of industrial alcohol.
1955	Married Rosa Giovanna Magnifico (5 children: Giuseppina, Alessandro, Federico, Giovanni, Giulio).
1956	Inherited family businesses with his brother. Began collecting.
1957	Acquires first Franz Kline work.
1959	Begins collecting Robert Rauschenberg's work.
1962	Purchases works from Claes Oldenburg's "The Store" and by James Rosenquist.
1966	Acquires works by Robert Morris and Donald Judd.
1974	Forms Modern Painting Trust (disbanded by 1978) and consummates Mönchengladbach long-term loan agreement for art works of the 1950s and early 1960s. Exported works now owned by Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) to Switzerland.
1975	Düsseldorf long-term loan agreement.
1976	Because of a new Italian law regarding estates abroad, Panza must decide to either sell that portion of his collection and bring the money home, or bring the paintings back to Italy. Basel long-term loan agreement. Stopped collecting because of the Italian economic downturn. Museum programs begin in earnest with his collection that contains ca. 600 works.
1978	Negotiations begin with Regione Piemonte about Castello di Rivoli housing the collection. Offers his villa to Regione Lombardia.
1980	Düsseldorf and Basel exhibitions.
1982	Goes to court over re-importing works from Düsseldorf exhibition that were not specified (to export) in the contract.
1983	Comune di Varese discusses foundation for potential museum.
1984	MOCA purchases 50's and 60's works after the Italian government forces Panza to sell the collection and his other programs fail.
1987	Begins collecting works by new artists (numbers close to 1,500 pieces by 1995).
1988	Musée Rath, Geneva and Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid exhibitions.
1989	Musée Saint Etienne and Saint Pierre, Lyon exhibitions.
1990	Guggenheim purchases and receives through long-term loan and gifts Minimal and Conceptual works collected prior to 1976.
1992	Exhibition and donation of ca. 200 works to the Lugano museum in Switzerland from Panza's recent acquisitions. Moves to Lugano to be free of Italian governmental restrictions on the collection and archive.
1994	Donates 70 new works to MOCA.
2010	Died April 24th in Milan.

Acquisition information:

Acquired from Panza in 1994.

Processing information:

The archive was extensively organized by members of Panza's family. Giovanni Panza, Panza's son, from 1987-1989 divided all the material according to artist and subject. Giuseppina Caccia Dominioni Panza, Panza's daughter, began in 1989 to check Giovanni's previous work, made files, matched photographs to each work and put all the papers into folders and boxes. In 1990 Cristiana Caccia Dominioni as well as Francesca Guicciardi Panza, daughter in-law of Panza, began helping Giuseppina. Francesca checked all of the physical descriptions of the works of the collection. As of 1995, all three women worked three mornings a week in Lugano on the archive supporting the art Panza currently collects. Lynda Bunting at the Getty Center began physical processing and description of the archive March 1994 and finished May 1995.

The leather boxes were handmade by the Rilegatoria Conti Borbone di Marchesifirm in Milan. Four empty boxes and some folders have been placed at the end of the collection for replacements.

Arrangement:

The collection is organized in nine series: Series I. General files, 1956-1990; Series II. Works in the collection, 1959-1990; Series III. Writings, 1956-1990; Series IV. Miscellaneous artists, 1969-1990; Series V. Museums, 1959-1990, bulk 1970s-1980s; Series VI. Galleries, 1959-1990; Series VII. Photographs, ca. 1959-1990; Series VIII. Clippings, ca. 1960-1990; Series IX. Architectural drawings, ca. 1974-1990.

Physical location:

Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy.

Rules or conventions:

archives, personal papers, and manuscripts

Indexed terms

Subjects:: Art -- Collectors and collecting
Art -- Private collections -- Italy
Art, Modern -- 20th century
Pop art
Minimal art
Abstract expressionism
Conceptual Art
Art patrons -- Italy
Light in art
Earthworks (Art)
Photographs, Original
Photographic prints
Diaries
Architectural drawings (visual works)
Ephemera
Names:: Panza, Giuseppe

Access and use

Restrictions:: Open for use by qualified researchers.
Terms of access:: Contact Library Rights and Reproductions.