The word “icon” has two meanings: its Greek etymology defines it as an “image” or “likeness”, while it is used to designate a religious painting. The idea of a model, an emblematic figure is more contemporary. The status of the image – its capacity to embody a presence, between appearance and disappearance, shadow and light, to represent a space, to spark emotion, and to become one with the viewers –is at the core of the exhibition Icônes, curated by Emma Lavigne, CEO of Pinault Collection, with Bruno Racine, CEO and Director, Palazzo Grassi – Punta della Dogana, conceived specifically for the Punta della Dogana and the Venetian context, with its rich, uninterrupted dialogue between East and West.

The icon – a vehicle of passage to another world, other states of consciousness (contemplation, meditation) – refers us to a transcendent reality, having the power to materialize the presence of the invisible, creating emotion or an aesthetic and spiritual bedazzlement. Between figuration and abstraction Icônes invokes all the dimensions of the image in the artistic context – paintings, videos, sounds, installations, performances – through a selection of emblematic works from the Pinault Collection, and new dialogues between artists who are particularly important for the Collection (David Hammons/Agnes Martin; Danh Vo/Rudolf Stingel; Sherrie Levine/On Kawara…). The exhibition considers both the fragility and the power of images, their polysemic character: all the works become apparitions, illuminations, revelations; they are transfigurations, in every respect.

Featured image: Lygia Pape, Ttéia 1, C, 2003-2017, Pinault Collection, © Projeto Lygia Pape. Installation view, Icônes, 2023, Punta della Dogana, Venezia. Ph. Marco Cappelletti e Filippo Rossi © Palazzo Grassi, Pinault Collection