Massimo Scolari: the architect of dreams between archetypes and mountains

Painter, architect, designer, theorist: Massimo Scolari (Novi Ligure, 1943) is one of those figures who defies definition.

A professor at the IUAV University of Venice from 1973 to 2000 and visiting professor at Harvard, Yale and the Cooper Union in New York, he has trained generations of architects, leaving a profound mark also as an essayist and curator.

He has exhibited in prestigious international venues – from the Pushkin Museum in Moscow to the MoMA in New York – and his works are held in permanent collections such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Deutsches Architektur Museum in Frankfurt and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran.

His career spans different disciplines, but with one unmistakable trait: that of the poetics of the archetype.

His suspended worlds are never mere exercises in style, but mental constructions, geographies of the imagination, forms that seem to have come out of an ancient dream.

Massimo Scolari, 2015 ALI DOLOMITICHE watercolor on paper

Scolari’s works: between archetypes and impossible architectures

In his paintings, towers, pyramids, wings, fortresses and mountains inhabit metaphysical and silent landscapes, where man is absent but not forgotten. His architectures are not functional, but evocative, and are places of the soul, spaces of waiting, forms that question reality.

Daniele Del Giudice wrote that “the object is there, but like a silent aftermath, the object as a myth, an exemplary image”. Indeed, Scolari’s paintings speak like visual myths: they do not explain, but evoke.

Alongside his famous oil paintings and watercolours, there are also pen drawings that reveal the artist’s other soul: that of the designer, the theorist, the thinker.

His sketches – often accompanied by notes – are true graphic architectures, where the line becomes thought and art meets theory.

Among his most iconic works are:

– Le Ali (The Wings) for the Venice Biennale (1991), now installed on the roof of the IUAV University;

– Turris Babel for the Venice Biennale (2004);

– L’Arca for the Milan Triennale (1986);

– Furniture created for Giorgetti and design objects for Alessi, such as the famous Segnalibro, which won the Compasso d’Oro award in 1998.

Massimo Scolari, 1994 ALLA FINE DELLA STORIA watercolor on card

Where to see Massimo Scolari’s works

After a 33-year absence, Massimo Scolari is exhibiting at the Galleria Antonia Jannone Disegni di Architettura in Milan with the exhibition Solca Mari Mossi, from 19 November to 24 December 2025.

This is an extraordinary opportunity to immerse yourself in his artistic production from the 1970s to 2020: oils, watercolours, engravings and drawings, many of which are unpublished, exploring his most cherished themes – archetypes and mountain architecture – in an evocative setting.

Admiring Massimo Scolari’s works is like taking a journey into an artistic universe where drawing becomes narrative, architecture becomes myth, and landscape becomes thought.

If you love dreamlike visions, the poetry of drawing and the critical intelligence of art that thinks, don’t miss the opportunity to admire his works in person.