Electa, art and Italy
The name “Electa” was registered in 1927, but the publisher only began issuing titles under this imprint in Florence in 1945. This coincided with the fervent atmosphere of Italy’s Liberation, with the reconstruction and renewed principles that shaped the nation’s cultural and editorial activities. The art historian Bernard Berenson (1865-1959) inspired its editorial lines, giving a form and coherence to the catalogue from the start, together with the influence of the environment of Villa I Tatti where he lived for most of his life. In 1952 Electa moved to Milan, where it became a leading publisher in the study and dissemination of art, as well as its protection through knowledge, photographic documentation and criticism. Over the decades it has built up a tradition unparalleled in the Italian and European panorama for precision and continuity of research in documenting the cultural heritage in all its expressions. From archaeology to contemporary art, design architecture, photography and literary criticism/author criticism, Electa has published magazines, essays, scholarly volumes, monographs, guides and resources for visiting the centres of art in Italy. Since the early 2000s, it has formed active partnerships with public museums, institutions and private foundations to organise the exhibitions that it documents through its catalogues. More recently, it has begun to present itself to the same organisations as a partner in the conception of festivals and cultural programs for the public, in particular through Fondamenta, a Foundation for Arts and Culture founded in 2024, drawing on Electa’s experience and history to design activities of cultural participation and experiment with new forms of communication. Electa manages and curates bookshops at the: Palazzo Ducale in Mantua, the Triennale di Milano in Milan, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli in Naples, the Parco archeologico del Colosseo in Rome, and the Biennale in Venice.
2025: Electa turns 80, like liberated Italy.
As Rosanna Cappelli, CEO at the helm of the publishing house since 2020, tells us, “As it approaches its 80th anniversary, Electa has embraced the need for an editorial shift, one that brings it closer to contemporary audiences. Inspired by 20th-century literature, the blurring of genres, and the hybridisation of knowledge, its current projects (including the new series A‑Z, Oilà, and Scritti, as well as programs such as Esistere Come Donna) are guided by a method that probes the intersections, fusions, and contradictions between image and text.”
2025 marks a year of new narratives to enrich and celebrate the history of the publishing house. A year of initiatives that explore knowledge beyond the boundaries of the visual arts, reflecting a more contemporary vision by suggesting new ways of reading and looking. Projects, encounters, readings, stories: from archaeology to contemporary art, design, architecture, photography and literary criticism, they aspire to question the political role of observing art, exploring every possible intersection, hybridisation and contradiction between image and word.
2025: Electa turns 80, like liberated Italy.
As Rosanna Cappelli, CEO at the helm of the publishing house since 2020, tells us, “As it approaches its 80th anniversary, Electa has embraced the need for an editorial shift, one that brings it closer to contemporary audiences. Inspired by 20th-century literature, the blurring of genres, and the hybridisation of knowledge, its current projects (including the new series A‑Z, Oilà, and Scritti, as well as programs such as Esistere Come Donna) are guided by a method that probes the intersections, fusions, and contradictions between image and text.”
2025 marks a year of new narratives to enrich and celebrate the history of the publishing house. A year of initiatives that explore knowledge beyond the boundaries of the visual arts, reflecting a more contemporary vision by suggesting new ways of reading and looking. Projects, encounters, readings, stories: from archaeology to contemporary art, design, architecture, photography and literary criticism, they aspire to question the political role of observing art, exploring every possible intersection, hybridisation and contradiction between image and word.
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