The VAF Foundation (VAF Stiftung) is the name for a uniquely committed initiative in the field of contemporary visual arts, which is registered with the foundation supervisory authority in Frankfurt am Main. It is particularly noteworthy that this foundation is a German-based organisation whose programme concentrates solely on the interests and themes of Italian art. The VAF Foundation’s Board of Trustees sees its task as being to develop and collect the excellent achievements and works of Italian artists in all fields of modernism, including the most modern creative works, and to publicise them. In this context, the aspect of cultural exchange and artistic dialogue between Italy and Germany – and German-speaking countries – is an important element within the Foundation’s ambitious work.
The VAF Foundation supports museums in Germany and Italy with loans from extensive, high-quality, and constantly growing collection of Italian art of the 20th and 21st centuries. In addition, the Foundation designs and publishes scholarly art studies catalogues for special exhibitions of Italian modernism in bilingual, either Italian-German or Italian-English editions. Every two years it honours outstanding young Italian artists with a lavishly endowed prize, the Premio, the award of which is always accompanied by an exhibition that is always displayed to an interested public both in Germany and in Italy. The Foundation’s programme also includes collaborative projects with various partners for the staging of exhibitions with Italian themes, as well as offering funding that benefits Italian artists directly.