VENICE, ITALY.- Palazzo Grassi presents “Where Are We Going?” Selections from the François Pinault Collection, on view through October 1, 2006. This exhibition marks the first public unveiling of one of the most significant art collections of our time. Curated by Alison M. Gingeras, Adjunct Curator for the Guggenheim Museums, “Where Are We Going?” focuses on the art of the postwar period, offering a selection from extensive holdings assembled over more than thirty years.

Re-posing the question famously asked by Paul Gauguin at the cusp of the last century—and ironically adapted by Damien Hirst at the start of this one (the artists’ Where are we going? Where do we come from? Is there a reason? (2004), appears in the exhibition’s forth and final section, This is Today) —“Where Are We Going?” presents some two hundred works by forty-nine artists, organized into thematic chapters that unfold on the three floors of the Palazzo. Eschewing a strict historical chronology, the exhibition includes highlights of some of the most influential art movements of the past sixty years (Art Informel, Arte Povera, Minimalism, Post-Minimalism, Pop Art) and takes us up to the present moment with significant offerings from today’s most challenging artists.

François Pinault, art collector - François Pinault has been collecting art for more than thirty years. What began as an interest has become for him a passion, a necessity, a way of life. Over time, with patience and persistence, in accordance with his tastes, preferences, and values, he has amassed a rich collection of modern and contemporary art numbering over two thousand works. While this extraordinary collection would be highly desirable for any museum, it is free of the institutional requirements to which museums typically adhere.

The first painting François Pinault acquired was by Paul Sérusier (1864–1927) of the Pont-Aven school. Developing an intimate knowledge of this one work stoked his passion for collecting. The story of his collection is one of successive bursts of expansion, as a closer acquaintance with a widening variety works led him to a deeper understanding of them.

First came the great masters of the twentieth century: The purchase of a canvas by Piet Mondrian, “Tableau II: Lozenge, “ painted in 1925, was a foundational moment. Pinault was first entranced by the history of modern art, and then became fascinated by the American painters of the post-war period and the interactions between Europe and America during that time. Next came works by Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and others. He especially admired the American Minimalists and acquired many significant pieces from the movement—by Robert Ryman and Donald Judd, for example, and Richard Serra, whom he came to know well. Pinault found that the works of Arte Povera also satisfied his taste for the spare and essential. But this did not stop him from exploring Pop Art and its subversive iconography. Collecting the works of Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol led Pinault toward Post-Pop and Neo-Pop, exemplified by the work of Takashi Murakami, Paul McCarthy, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, and others. François Pinault’s spheres of interest are manifold. They have led him to New Realism, for example, in the work of Martial Raysse, and to contemporary forms of Expressionism, as in the work of Paul Rebeyrolle, who expresses the tragic dimensions of existence. François Pinault personally knows many of the artists whose work he collects. He also explores newer art forms, such as video and photography, and keeps his eye on up-to-the-minute trends. His knowledge of art, patiently developed through direct contact with the works he collects, has endowed him with remarkable critical understanding. It is impossible to sum up this collection in a verbal description, or even in an exhibition. If Pinault is one of the major collectors in the world today, it is due first and foremost to his love for art. His collection represents a personal odyssey, an absolute commitment, and a profound realization that art enables an expanded perception of the world and of our being.

Today, François Pinault wants to share this realization —not merely to keep the works in his collection alive, but to enable them to offer the lived experience of art to others. In the coming years, the collection will be displayed to the public through a series of exhibitions. After “Where Are We Going?” in Venice, the next show drawn from the collection will present photographs and artist’s videos. This exhibition, to be curated by Caroline Bourgeois, director of the Plateau-FRAC Ile-de-France in Paris, will be held in France in early 2007.