Patrimonio culturale dell'Emilia-Romagna

Established in 1988 and dedicated to the Cento-born painter Aroldo Bonzagni (1887-1918), the gallery is housed in the Renaissance-era Palazzo del Governatore, built in 1502. It owes its existence to a donation by Bonzagni’s sister, Elva Poggi, and boasts a valuable art collection including a large number of pieces by Bonzagni himself, who was an expressionist painter well-versed in the European style of the early 20th century and influenced by early futurism, and many other paintings and sculptures by local and national 20th century artists. Most of the latter are from the figurative school, but also include some pieces representing abstract, informal, spatialist, and conceptual art.

The gallery displays works by Libero Andreotti, Aldo Carpi, Leonardo Dudreville, Luigi Russolo, Adolfo Wildt, Anselmo Bucci, Achille Funi, Guido Marussig, Marcello Dudovich, Umberto Lilloni, Raffaele De Grada, Leonardo Borgese, Enrico Mazzolani, Giannino Castiglioni, Francesco Wildt, Remo Taccani, Antonio Simionato, Felice Carena, Tullio Figini, Ugo Celada da Virgilio, Filippo De Pisis, Virginio Ciminaghi, Roberto Castagnino, Alberto Salietti, Guido Tallone, Renato Vernizzi, Virgilio Guidi, Mario Sironi, Cesare Monti, Michele Cascella, Guido Cinotti, Aldo Conti, Ocri da Feltre, Giuseppe Amisani, Antonio Alberghini, Timo Bortolotti, Cesara Mottironi, Giuseppe Montanari, Eugenio Polesello, Savinio Labò, Giuseppe Novello, Aldo Salvadori, Floriano Bodini, Jean Costanzo, Alessandro Nastasio, Sandro Parmeggiani, Adraino Spilimbergo, Luciano Minguzzi, Ferdinando Mandelli, Giuseppe Biasi da Teulada, Siro Penagini, Orfeo Tamburi, Pompeo Borra, Giuseppe Scalvini, Attilio Rossi, Emilio Greco, Pietro Annigoni, Mario Vellani Marchi, Domenico Cantatore, Renato Birolli, Fiorenzo Tomea, Lorenzo Pepe, Carlo Ramous, Ernesto Treccani, Aligi Sassu, Mario Molteni, Alik Cavaliere, Roberto Sambonet, Agenore Fabbri, Giuseppe Broggini, Lucio Fontana, Franco Cannilla, Giorgio Cigna, Antonio Cereda, Marcello Mascherini, Giulio Cassinari, Mario Lepore, Giuseppe Aimone, Roberto Crippa, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Giò Pomodoro, Mauro Reggiani, Ennio Morlotti, Luca Crippa, Carmelo Capello, Sergio Romiti, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Gianni Dova, Enrico Baj, Remo Brindisi, Sergio D’Angelo, Mario Rossello, Vincenzo Frunzo, Guido Mosca, Mario Nigro, Aldo Calò, Tom Pozzi, Elisabeth Sotilis, Lodovico Mosconi, Pio Semenghini, Ibrahim Kodra, Ernesto Tavernari, Gino Meloni, Carlo Nangeroni, Giovanni Omiccioli, Arnaldo Carpanetti, Emilio Scanavino, Remo Bianco, Giacomo Benevelli and Roberto Crippa. In collaboration with the Embassy of the Czech Republic, in June 2007 the gallery staged the collective exhibition The Legacy of Symbolism: Mythology, ethnography, esotericism, which chronicles the dream-like visions of numerous contemporary symbolist artists and includes several different thematic sections. That same year, it staged the exhibition Provocations among the clouds and the monographic exhibition Sojourn: narratives of Asia by the photographer Steve McCurry, who worked for National Geographic for many years. Events of note in 2009 included the retrospective "Trent'anni di Mario Capuzzo" and Franco Fontana’s personal exhibition "Paesaggi a confronto", which was an integral part of the photography biennial "ArtePhoto 2009". In 2010, the most noteworthy initiatives included two personal exhibitions: Franz Borghese’s "Cinque lustri di ironia graffiante" and Carlo Tassi’s "Il cammino dell'arte". In 2011 the Gallery hosted Franco Morelli’s "Illustratore" and the double exhibition "Il periodo informale" by Ilario Rossi alongside "Carte del pensiero" by Marco Castellucci and Piero Fonio's personal exhibition "La misura del colore".