Dialoghi Guttusiani | Conversations about Renato Guttuso.

On 23 and 24 October 2025, the scientific conference “Dialoghi Guttusiani” (Conversations about Renato Guttuso) will be held in Palermo and Bagheria, Italy, designed as an opportunity for reflection and in-depth analysis of Renato Guttuso's legacy and relevance in the fields of art history and contemporary art. The initiative stems from a desire to return to a critical and interdisciplinary reflection on a central figure of 20th-century Italian and European art spectrum, also in light of the most recent developments in scientific research and artistic production. The contributions of Italian and European scholars offer new insights into Guttuso's work and figure, in dialogue with the arts, politics, literature and thought of his time and ours.

The event is divided into four parts and takes place in three locations that preserve Guttuso's works and memory. On 23 October, the first session, “Incroci e Tangenze” (Crossroads and Tangents), on the artistic and cultural relationships of Renato Guttuso, opens at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Palermo, followed by “Conversazione davanti alla Vucciria” (Conversation in front of the Vucciria) at Palazzo Chiaramonte (Steri), a masterpiece by the Bagheria-born artist in the university collections. On 24 October, the event moves to the Guttuso Museum in Villa Cattolica, Bagheria, for the last two sessions on the programme: “Testi e Contesti” (Texts and Contexts) on new perspectives in Guttuso studies, and “Dialoghi e persone” (Dialogues and People), which reflects on Guttuso's entanglement with his own contemporaneity.

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PROGRAM:

OCTOBER 23, 2025

Galleria d’Arte Moderna – Via Sant’Anna, 21 – Palermo

3.15 pm – Institutional Greetings
Pietro Cannella, Deputy Mayor and Councillor for Culture, Municipality of Palermo
Francesca Martinez Tagliavia, Director of the Gallery of Modern Art in Palermo
Michelangelo Gruttadauria, President of Unipa Heritage - University Museum System
Concetta Giliberto, Director of the Department of Humanities, University of Palermo
Marco Carapezza, University of Palermo – Archivi Guttuso

3.45 pm – Incroci e tangenze (Crossroads and Tangents),
Coordinator: Evelina de Castro, Director of RISO – Regional Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Palermo

Una triangolazione: Guttuso, Pasolini, Rosselli (A Triangulation: Guttuso, Pasolini, Rosselli)
Alessandro Del Puppo, University of Udine

Renato Guttuso e Giorgio de Chirico. Un’amicizia metafisica (Renato Guttuso and Giorgio de Chirico. A Metaphysical Friendship)
Lorenzo Canova, University of Molise

Guernica e il trionfo della morte. Una testimonianza guttusiana (Guernica and the Triumph of Death. A Testimony by Guttuso)
Maddalena De Luca, Regional Gallery of Sicily Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo

Guttuso e Vedova. Crocifissi modernisti e partigiani capovolti (Guttuso and Vedova. Modernist Crucifixes and Overturned Partisans)
Diego Mantoan, University of Palermo

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Palazzo Chiaramonte (Steri) – Piazza Marina, 60 – Palermo

6.15 pm – Conversazione davanti alla Vucciria (Conversation in front of the Vucciria) |
Open dialogue among all speakers and discussants
Introduction: Marco Carapezza, University of Palermo – Archivi Guttuso

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OCTOBER 24, 2025
Museo Guttuso in Villa Cattolica - Via Rammacca, 9 - Bagheria (PA)

9.30 am – Institutional Greetings
Filippo Maria Tripoli, Mayor, City of Bagheria
Dora Favatella Lo Cascio, former Director of the Guttuso Museum at Villa Cattolica
Roberto Magnisi, Director of the Duca di Salaparuta, Corvo and Florio wineries

9.45 am – Testi e contesti (Texts and Contexts),
Coordinator: Franco Lo Piparo, Professor Emeritus, University of Palermo

Quadrando il cerchio: Guttuso e la politica culturale del PCI nell’immediato dopoguerra, 1944-1952 (Squaring the Circle: Guttuso and the Cultural Policy of the Italian Communist Party in the Immediate Post-War Period, 1944-1952)
Juan José Gómez Gutiérrez, University of Seville

Guttuso nella Repubblica Democratica Tedesca (1951-68) (Guttuso in the German Democratic Republic (1951-68))
Alexander Auf der Heyde, University of Palermo

Tre momenti di Renato Guttuso in dialogo con il proprio tempo (Three Moments of Renato Guttuso in Dialogue with His Own Time)
Chiara Perin, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa

11.45 am – Dialoghi e persone (Dialogues and People),
Coordinator: Alessandro Del Puppo, University of Udine

L’edicola di Guttuso (Guttuso's newsstand)
Cristina Costanzo, University of Palermo

La foresta-radice-labirinto. Guttuso e il fiabesco (The forest-root-labyrinth. Guttuso and fairy tales)
Paola Nicita, Academy of Fine Arts of Palermo

Guttuso e il collezionismo. La fondazione Pellin ai Musei Civici di Varese (Guttuso and collecting. The Pellin Foundation at the Civic Museums of Varese)
Serena Contini, Civic Museums of Varese

1.15 pm – Visit of the Museo Guttuso