Press

According to Franco Calarota, the owner of Galleria d'Arte Maggiore, first you have to love, then to buy.

Which contemporary art expressions does your gallery look at with more interest?

The gallery has always followed a very precise path. Not looking at this or that trend, but considering the high quality of the artworks and of the artists. A few decades ago Jean Cocteau made fun of thosepeople who chasing the "big names", settle for poor or honestly ugly works of art. To us, instead, it is essential that each artwork has to be a very important work of a very important artist: the art is exclusive because of its quality, not for its high price.

Which are the most representative artist or artists of the gallery?

The great Masters of Modern Art are a constant reference for the gallery: from Impressionism to Klee, from Mirò's Surrealism, Magritte, Matta, to Franz Kline and Louise Nevelson's American avant-garde, from De Chirico to Campigli, from Savinio to Severini. Our preference goes to Morandi, the Master who guides us with his silent genius.

How is the art market going today? Which are the future perspectives?

Finally the art market is changing. The paroxysm of the deal at any cost ends: selling and buying returns to be a matter of love and reflection. In this perspective the gallery's history, professionalism and reliability becomes an inestimable value. We have never believed in a short term speculation. The art gallery has to be a cultural venue which gives its own contribution, together with museums and art historians, to recognize authentic values and to make them known to the collectors, standing as a guarantor. Buying and selling are just one side of the coin: there are also the cataloguing, the study of the works, the cultural publications, the collaboration with Institutions in order to organize some exhibitions.

On which young artists would you recommend to bet today?

Davide Benati and Nino Longobardi are the artists we present. They exhibit in the same space where are displayed the greatest artists of the Century.

Which advice would you give to who'd want to became a collector today?

As the gallerist Kahnweiler taught at the beginning of the XX Century, first of all you must love, then you can buy. If you realize that the historical values could come with you for decades during life, that each time you look at them they could reflect your opinion of yourself, well, then you get the real pleasure of collecting. Thus, the gain is given by, not paying less a work of art, but enjoying the exclusive pleasure of its quality and beauty: and just happens, who followed this idea has always made good deals too.