Painting the Invisible
From March 22 to July 13, 2025, Doge’s Apartment and Chapel

Open from Tuesday to Sunday, from 11 AM to 7 PM

Contemporary art returns to Palazzo Ducale with a major exhibition of abstract painting by an artist who has written the history of Italian art through abstract, poetic painting and performative art, where gesture and sign transport the audience into a timeless suspended experience. With over 50 years of painting, Giorgio Griffa (Turin, March 29, 1936) has participated in three Venice Biennales (in 1978, 1980, and 2017) and more than 200 solo exhibitions in museums and institutions around the world, including those organized by Ida Giannelli in the 1970s and 1980s in Genoa at the Saman Gallery.

The works exhibited in the Doge’s Apartment interact with the history and architecture of the building, presenting large canvases, works on paper, and installations, including a tribute to Montale in the year that celebrates the 100th anniversary of “Ossi di seppia”.

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Giorgio Griffa was born in Turin in 1936 and began painting as a child. By the mid-1960s, his canvases displayed the first elements of abstraction and a deep reflection on the status of painting. From 1967/68, with the Segni primari cycle, his system of working on free, unprepared canvases, painted on the ground with strokes and lines that “could belong to the hand of anyone,” took shape.

Griffa was immediately a key figure in the debate that emerged from the Informal movement and carved a path between Pop Art, Minimalism, and Conceptual Art. He took the first steps of his personal artistic journey alongside the artists of Arte Povera, sharing a respect and interest for the intelligence of materials. After more than fifty years of career and thirteen cycles of painting, Griffa’s journey remains unique, outside of any specific movement.

In collections and museums around the world, from the Tate Modern to the Centre Pompidou, his signs and colors are highly recognizable: a style that consistently and coherently conveys vitality and poetry from one work to the next.

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Curated by Ilaria Bonacossa and Sébastien Delot
In collaboration with the Giorgio Griffa Foundation

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Tickets – click here to purchase online

Full price 13€

Reduced price 11€

Reduced price for youth (6-18 years) 6€

Special reduced price UNDER 27 (19-27 years) 8€ [valid every day, including holidays]

Special reduced price for Ducale+ Membership Card holders 9€*

Special reduced price for Ducale+ Young Membership Card holders (18-30 years) 8€*

Special reduced price for Ducale+ Young Membership Card holders under 18 5€*

*for those who have already used both admissions for selected exhibitions

Groups

Schools: 5€, minimum 15, maximum 25 people
Reservation required: prenotazioniscuole@palazzoducale.genova.it – 0108171604 (Tuesday and Thursday 11 AM–1 PM, Wednesday and Friday 2 PM–4 PM)

Groups: 12.50€, minimum 10, maximum 25 people
Reservation required: prenotazioni@palazzoducale.genova.it – 0108171604
From April 18 to May 4, with the exhibition ticket, you can also visit the Maggior and Minor Consiglio rooms.

Openings

Closed on Monday

Tuesday to Sunday 11 AM – 7 PM

The ticket office closes at 6 PM

Extraordinary openings

Monday, April 21 11 AM – 7 PM
Monday, June 2 11 AM – 7 PM

Public holidays

Friday, April 25: 11 AM – 7 PM
Thursday, May 1: 11 AM – 7 PM
Tuesday, June 24: 11 AM – 7 PM