Mario Conte
Mayor of Treviso

In these months leading up to the exhibition From Picasso to Van Gogh: Stories of Painting from Abstraction to Impressionism, we have had the opportunity to emphasize how this event of extraordinary cultural significance marks a new and important chapter in the relationship between our city and one of its most illustrious sons: Marco Goldin.

Goldin’s presence in Treviso represents a return full of meaning, a meeting between his curatorial vision and the cultural vocation of our city. The bond linking our community to him is profound, rooted in the city’s recent history and nurtured by a path that combines memorable exhibitions—such as those realized over the years at the Casa dei Carraresi and at Santa Caterina—with a new and exciting shared journey, driven by the common desire to make art a tool for growth, beauty, and reflection.

This new exhibition—bringing to Treviso extraordinary masterpieces from the prestigious American institution, the Toledo Museum of Art, by artists such as Monet, Modigliani, Picasso, Manet, and Van Gogh—fits within this tradition and reinvigorates it with renewed strength and ambition. It offers a fully immersive cultural experience, capable of traversing languages, eras, and geographies, placing the viewer at the center of a grand pictorial narrative that stretches from mid-to-late 20th-century American abstraction to French Impressionism.

A journey backward through art history, deliberately and cleverly outlined by Goldin: a narrative that opens with the vast and luminous expanses of Richard Diebenkorn’s Ocean Parks and concludes with Vincent van Gogh’s farewell to life in Wheat Fields with Reaper. Two extraordinary, iconic, and highly acclaimed works.

Treviso thus confirms itself as the guardian of its artistic heritage, while also playing an active role in the national and international cultural scene. The decision to host an exhibition of such significance, made possible also thanks to collaboration with prestigious institutions and partners, clearly expresses the vision that our Administration promotes: a city that invests in culture as a driver of development, as a lever for the productive sector and tourism, and, above all, as a language.

In this historical moment, we rediscover the importance of beauty and the need to give meaning back to collective experiences. Art has always offered a response to these questions: in an increasingly fast-paced and often fragmented world, it invites us to slow down, reflect, and dream.

In this context, From Picasso to Van Gogh is a gift to the City. Schools, families, tourists, and art enthusiasts are expected at the Museo Santa Caterina, which represents a remarkable opportunity for us to showcase Treviso as a vibrant center of high-quality cultural offerings, just months ahead of an event that further projects us onto the international stage, with Treviso as a strategic hub: the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.

I would like to thank Marco Goldin for the passion and expertise with which he has built this exhibition: his contribution is vision, emotion, and the ability to engage and tell a story. I also sincerely thank the President of the Veneto Region, Luca Zaia, who believed in this project with us, and the Councillor for Culture, Maria Teresa De Gregorio, the staff of the Civic Museums, all those who have worked with dedication behind the scenes, and of course the public and private partners who have shared this ambitious vision with us.

We want Treviso to continue being a place where beauty, art, and the power of a culture capable of reaching everyone triumph every day. A place, but also an opportunity: for encounter, education, and above all, community.

I invite all enthusiasts to visit the exhibition at Santa Caterina and to grasp the profound meaning of this journey, which begins from our present and carries us into the emotions, stories, and peculiarities of each artist and each painting.

All of this in the name of beauty and in the name of Treviso.

Mario Conte
Mayor of Treviso