The Bank Contemporary Art Collection is a project born from the passion of what would once have been called a “collector”. In light of the journey that painting has taken, this definition appears almost trivial. The Bank is the response to a necessity, it is itself a portrait of the current state of the art in Italy, it is the instantaneous speed of a movement that, after years of uncertainties, becomes once again the true key to understanding this glimpse of the third millennium.
Those who are lucky enough to have been acquainted with the pictorial movements that characterized the twentieth century would find themselves floored in front of the countless forms that art has taken at the turn of the temporal divide between the two millennia.
Attempting a defence of the figurative tradition is not about being “old”; it's about being aware of the fact that there is no future without a deep awareness of one's roots.
That is where The Bank stems from. From the roots.
More than an observatory: The Bank is the party concerned. A space-time capsule that only boards those deemed functional to the project of reviving Italian painting. With special consideration for figurative art, but not just that. Because the discerning factor is still the emotional quality that a work of art can transmit, as well as the amount of truth that each called-upon artist can project.
The Bank is perhaps the first national collection developed around the question of what Italian figuration can become in the future. In a way, it is almost a bet on the return of painting as a protagonist in the art scene.
For this reason, participation has been across the board, from painters who are only now approaching the opinions of the public and the market, to the established experiences of renowned artists.
Along with its purely artistic side, this project has been able to catalyze the attention and collaboration of critics and experts. To say that they are the best would be self-referential, but it wouldn’t be far from the truth to claim that this is the case: it has quickly attracted interest from several institutional museums, and contemporary art fairs in Italy have promptly turned to The Bank as one of the main national players in the sector.
All united in the common attempt to defend against the relativism that has swept the art world in the last decade.
