A rare and historically significant group of original materials relating to Franco Albini’s iconic post-war redesign of the Palazzo Bianco museum in Genoa, Italy. This unique set includes:

• Original “Catalogo Provvisorio” (1950) – Second edition, published by the Comune di Genova under the direction of Caterina Marcenaro, with Albini credited for the radical new gallery design.

• Three (3) vintage gelatin silver photographs documenting the mid-century installation, taken by the noted studio Foto Villani (Bologna), whose name appears in the print margins.

• Photographs show artworks mounted on Albini’s innovative slender metal supports, with chairs for contemplation and a clean, modernist spatial arrangement – a radical departure from traditional museum hangings.

• Period-typed captions on the reverse of at least one photo (e.g., noting Antonio Canova’s La Maddalena in the “sala degli arazzi”) confirm their role as original installation documentation.

• Albini’s display has been called a “radical new visual modality” in museum design, featured in UNESCO’s Museum journal (1954), Kidder Smith’s Italy Builds, and the 2020–21 exhibition Art on Display 1949–69.

This material is directly tied to Albini’s celebrated “poetics of air” – a vision of artworks given space to “breathe” in a modern architectural context. The photographs and catalog provide first-hand evidence of this now-legendary experiment in museology.

Condition:

• Catalogue shows typical age-related wear: some creases to spine, slight marks on cover, clean interior pages.

• Photographs are in very good condition for age, with light edge wear and handling marks as expected. One photo shows small adhesive remnants verso (likely from original archival mounting).

A fantastic acquisition for collectors of modernist design, museum studies, Italian architecture, or Albini ephemera. Ideal for research, display, or institutional holdings.