Francesco Somaini retrospective across three Milan venues

A major retrospective dedicated to Francesco Somaini (1926–2005) is on view across three venues in Milan: Palazzo Reale, Museo del Novecento, and Fondazione Somaini. At Palazzo Reale, the exhibition opens with a prologue on the Monumento ai marinai d'Italia (1967) and proceeds chronologically from figurative works through Informale to his most provocative phase of anthropomorphic abstraction described as 'erotic and macabre.' The Sala delle Cariatidi presents the core of the show, featuring large sculptures from the informal and anthropomorphic periods that emphasize instability, ambiguity, and material transformation over fixed form. At Museo del Novecento, archival materials reconstruct Somaini's collaborations with Lucio Fontana and Luigi Caccia Dominioni, while photographs by Ugo Mulas offer insight into the sculptural process. The Fondazione Somaini section focuses on urban projects—some realized, many unrealized—that envisioned sculpture as a transformative, liberating force in public space, often verging on utopian architecture. The exhibition includes a map for a self-guided tour of Somaini's public works in Milan.