Winterthur Visits Italy – Masterpieces of Modern Art in Udine

When major works change museums, a new perspective often emerges. That is precisely what visitors can experience right now with part of the Kunst Museum Winterthur collection. With renovations underway, a large share of its world-famous holdings has been temporarily relocated — and can now be seen in a place many Swiss art lovers may not yet have on their radar: Udine, in northern Italy.

Under the title Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Kandinsky, Magritte, the exhibition presents a concentrated overview of roughly 150 years of art history. The selection surprises with its quality and density — and with the sense of closeness it creates to the works. On view are Claude Monet’s studies of light, the emotional force of Vincent van Gogh, Cubist works by Pablo Picasso, the spiritual abstraction of Wassily Kandinsky, and the enigmatic pictorial worlds of René Magritte. These are works that continue to shape the way we see modern art today — presented here in an unusually intimate setting.

A Museum with History

The host institution is Casa Cavazzini, located in the heart of Udine’s old town. The former residence and business premises of textile magnate and patron Dante Cavazzini were bequeathed to the city with the vision of creating a museum for modern art. The architectural transformation was led by the Italian architect Gae Aulenti, known, among other projects, for her work on the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Glass floors reveal ancient cisterns below; 14th-century frescoes meet avant-garde wall paintings by the brothers Afro and Mirko Basaldella. Here, history is not merely preserved — it is reinterpreted and carried forward, providing an ideal setting for an exhibition of this significance. It is precisely this spatial intimacy that makes the Winterthur works in Udine so compelling. Unlike the major museums of Paris or London, visitors can experience these paintings without crowds — calmly, with focus, almost personally.

Discovering Udine

Anyone travelling to Udine for the exhibition will discover a city that welcomes visitors with an unexpectedly relaxed ease. Piazza della Libertà, often described as the most beautiful Venetian square on the mainland, radiates Renaissance elegance, framed by the Loggia del Lionello. People stroll beneath arcades, enjoy an aperitivo, and watch the light play across pastel-coloured façades. Udine is also the city of Giambattista Tiepolo, whose Baroque frescoes remain a vivid presence to this day.

Info Box

• Exhibition: Masterpieces from the Kunst Museum Winterthur
• Location: Casa Cavazzini, Udine
• Duration: until 30 August 2026
• Tip: visit on a weekday — for calm, close viewing, and time to enjoy the city

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