Independent Collectors

Giuseppe Simone Modeo Collection

A private collection of works by women artists understood as an act of attention, responsibility, and participation in the expansion of the canon.

Candida Hofer, 'Zoologischer Garten Hannover V', 1992. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
Candida Hofer, 'Zoologischer Garten Hannover V', 1992. Photo: Youssef El Badoui

Giuseppe Simone Modeo collects works by women artists, gradually bringing together a constellation of voices, materials, bodies, memories, and forms of resistance. His focus does not stem from a separative idea of gender, but from the awareness that art history, the market, and institutional narratives have long been shaped by structures of exclusion. The question is not whether talent was present: it was. What was too often missing were the conditions that allowed women to study, produce, circulate, and be recognized.

Collecting, in this sense, becomes an act of attention and responsibility. It is not accumulation, nor speculation, but a long-term relationship with works that enter daily life and continue to transform perception. The collection brings together historically significant figures and contemporary voices, including artists such as Mona Hatoum, Sophie Calle, ORLAN, Pipilotti Rist, Marlene Dumas, Kiki Smith, Rosemarie Trockel, Atsuko Tanaka, Miriam Schapiro, Carol Rama, Annette Messager, Tacita Dean, Katharina Grosse, Cecily Brown and others. Across different media — painting, photography, installation, sculpture, textile-based practices, and conceptual research — the works enter into dialogue around recurring themes: identity, the body, care, vulnerability, transformation, memory, political form, and the fragile yet persistent construction of subjectivity.

Sylvie Fleury, 'Allure 01.09.92', 1992. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
Sylvie Fleury, 'Allure 01.09.92', 1992. Photo: Youssef El Badoui

The collection is private in its domestic setting, but not in its vocation. The works live with the collector, and yet they are understood as part of a broader public conversation, open to loans, exhibitions, publications, and institutional dialogue. A significant part of the collection has been presented in Art Gender Gap in Monte San Savino, Tuscany, an exhibition reflecting on the historical and contemporary position of women artists within art history and the market.

At the heart of the collection lies a conviction: contemporary art has made it impossible to define an artwork through the gender of the person who created it. Concepts have no sex. Forms have no prescribed destiny. And yet, naming the historical imbalance remains necessary until it is no longer necessary to do so. The collection therefore seeks not only to preserve works, but also to participate in the expansion of the canon, making visible practices that have too often been considered marginal, exceptional, or belated, while they are in fact central to understanding the art of our time.

Su-En Wong, 'Golden Fable', 2003. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
Su-En Wong, 'Golden Fable', 2003. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
Hannah Höch, 'untitled', c. 1940s–1950s. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
Hannah Höch, 'untitled', c. 1940s–1950s. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
Katharina Grosse, 'untitled', 2020. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
Katharina Grosse, 'untitled', 2020. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
Rebecca Purdum, 'Caanan One', 1992. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
Rebecca Purdum, 'Caanan One', 1992. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
Tacita Dean, 'Czech Photos', 1991-2002. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
Tacita Dean, 'Czech Photos', 1991-2002. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
ORLAN, 'Masque de danse Pwevo et visage de Femme Euro-Parisienne', 2000. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
ORLAN, 'Masque de danse Pwevo et visage de Femme Euro-Parisienne', 2000. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
Rosemarie Castoro, 'Mountain Wedge', 1980. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
Rosemarie Castoro, 'Mountain Wedge', 1980. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
Alina Perez, 'Salty as Fuck', 2019. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
Alina Perez, 'Salty as Fuck', 2019. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
Atsuko Tanaka, '2-9-1 A', 1964-72. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
Atsuko Tanaka, '2-9-1 A', 1964-72. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
Miriam Schapiro, 'Blue Angel', 1987. Photo: Youssef El Badoui
Miriam Schapiro, 'Blue Angel', 1987. Photo: Youssef El Badoui

More Information on Giuseppe Simone Modeo Collection

Arezzo (1)