On Friday, the Center for Italian Modern Art (CIMA) announced its permanent closure on June 22. The art museum and research center is based in New York’s Soho neighborhood.
CIMA was founded by Italian art historian, curator, and collector Laura Mattioli in 2013. It promoted scholarly and public engagement with Modern and contemporary Italian art.
Many of CIMA’s 13 total exhibitions highlighted major Italian Modern artists who had scarcely been shown in North America, including Italian Futurist Fortunato Depero, Greek-Italian painter Alberto Savinio (and brother of Giorgio de Chirico), still life painter Giorgio Morandi, and sculptors Medardo Rosso and Marino Marini.
“This was not an easy decision,” Mattioli said in a statement to the Art Newspaper. “At present, we are holding conversations with various cultural institutions to find the place that will best preserve Cima’s archival documentation, including the video archive of public events, and the online academic journal. It is our goal that these resources will continue to remain accessible to scholars and to the general public, free of charge.”
CIMA also hosted 42 residential fellows and supported 10 travel fellows in their scholarly research. The institution helped to produce numerous articles, catalogues, and books that promoted the exchange of Italian-American scholarship.
“Meeting these fellows was a constant source of learning and inspiration for us, and we know that many of you enjoyed the opportunity to meet and converse with them during our tours, scholarly conferences and public events,” Mattioli added.
CIMA’s current exhibition Nanni Balestrini: Art as Political Action—One Thousand and One Voices is the first stateside retrospective for the experimental Italian visual artist and novelist and will mark the institution’s final show.
The Broome Street location was previously home to Health Ledger, before his untimely passing in 2008. It also housed the Leonard Gallery between 1984 to 2003.
